Which mildly futuristic devices got omitted in SF settings?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the exploration of simple, practical devices or systems that do not currently appear in science fiction settings but could feasibly exist in the near future. Participants consider various technologies, including software applications, drones, and medical tools, while reflecting on their absence in contemporary speculative fiction.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that drones, while already in use, are underrepresented in military science fiction, with expectations for mass deployment of exoskeletons and power armor within the next 15 years.
  • There is a proposal for a medical app that could diagnose common ailments using a smartphone, which some participants find practical and timely.
  • Concerns are raised about the lack of contemporary technology, such as smartphones and the internet, in speculative fiction, questioning why future settings do not reflect current technological realities.
  • One participant mentions the potential impact of electronic surveillance on stealth-based narratives, suggesting that such technology could undermine traditional hero tropes.
  • Discussion includes the idea of advanced medical technology and genetic enhancements being overlooked in future settings, as well as the implications of automation on societal structures.
  • Some participants humorously discuss the practicality of fictional devices, such as gravity field-generating swords, while others critique their feasibility.
  • There is mention of the potential for smart pet collars to prevent accidents, reflecting on practical applications of technology in everyday life.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the practicality and representation of various technologies in science fiction. No consensus is reached regarding which devices should be included or the implications of their absence in speculative narratives.

Contextual Notes

Participants acknowledge the limitations of current speculative fiction in reflecting contemporary technological advancements and societal changes, but do not resolve the implications of these observations.

Czcibor
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I'm curious which simple devices in your opinion:
- do not violate any law of physics; ;)
- seem easy and inexpensive to fabricate;
- would be quite practical;
- would not shock you if were being produced in next few decades;
- but unfortunately are neglected in SF movies/stories/films/games.

By "devices" I mean here also software, vehicles or whole systems (like self driving cars brininging pizza. ;) A medical app that would give a questionnaire for symptoms, ask you to use cell phone microphone as stethoscope, make a photo of your throat and at the and in most cases give a correct answer concerning treatment of common cold or in case of any serious problem or unclear diagnosis contact a doctor. Moreover it would notify your boss how long you are unable to work)
 
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Drones, they are used already and yet they occur quite rarely in military SF. Some military SF also show soldiers with equipment very similar to what they'd have today, though it takes place in a world with spaceships, counter-gravity and what not. Mass deployment exoskeletons/power armor are at most 15 years away, prototypes are already being tested. Not so for spaceships...
 
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(this time it seems I got the picture)

Very good point. By occasion - which size of drones would you expect (like small flying drone or maybe a tankette?)
 
Hmm..gravity field generating swords such as the one dragging Gandalf to it in his fall from the bridge in Moria?

Or is that a fail? :smile:

Or, are wizards characterized by the ability to make their inertial mass less than their gravitational mass??:confused:
 
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Most contemporary fiction is missing known technology, let alone science fiction. How many plots in films/TV/literature rely on the character not having a phone? Or internet access? Or a social media account? More often than not a protagonist is always seen physically going to see people or calling on landlines. Sherlock is the only modern TV show I know of that properly integrated modern life into a plot. Most other fiction seems to ignore what's going on now.

That might seem like an off topic comment but I mention it to highlight that if contemporary fiction doesn't exist to reflect the present why do you think speculative fiction should reflect the future? And of course we don't know what the future is really going to be like.

But in the spirit of things I will say one thing: widespread smartphone adoption. Already it seems to be the majority in the UK but the ramifications of having characters that carry devices that do more than call is often lost on near-future sci-fi.
 
arildno said:
Hmm..gravity field generating swords such as the one dragging Gandalf to it in his fall from the bridge in Moria?

Or is that a fail? :smile:

Pretty sure it was a flail...
:-p
 
Enigman said:
Pretty sure it was a flail...
:-p

Presumably, it fails on this criterion: "would be quite practical"

Who would ever want to fall into an abyss anyways, sword or not?
 
arildno said:
Who would ever want to fall into an abyss anyways, sword or not?

Him?
:devil:
 
That might seem like an off topic comment but I mention it to highlight that if contemporary fiction doesn't exist to reflect the present why do you think speculative fiction should reflect the future? And of course we don't know what the future is really going to be like.
Depends on exact gender - space opera or hard SF? Or SF that tries to be hard, except that it allows a few miraculous technologies like FTL space ships.

But in the spirit of things I will say one thing: widespread smartphone adoption. Already it seems to be the majority in the UK but the ramifications of having characters that carry devices that do more than call is often lost on near-future sci-fi.
Such consequences? ;)
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  • #10
Electronic surveillance would screw up many a setting where the hero moves stealthily to accomplish his/her objective. A life-signs monitor in one of those guards, or a motion detector in that corridor and it is all over!
 
  • #11
Czcibor said:
A medical app that would give a questionnaire for symptoms, ask you to use cell phone microphone as stethoscope, make a photo of your throat and at the and in most cases give a correct answer concerning treatment of common cold or in case of any serious problem or unclear diagnosis contact a doctor. Moreover it would notify your boss how long you are unable to work)

Ask and ye shall receive*.
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-pocket-diagnosis.html
http://phys.org/news/2014-02-google-glass-emerging-health-threats.html#nRlv

*Or be deceived (much more probable).[/color]
 
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  • #12
How about simply- calculators? I remember several Asimov (and perhaps Heinlein) stories in which the hero (in say AD 4000) whipped out his slide rule to do a calculation! (In fairness to Heinlein, I'm pretty sure the one time he mentions a "slide rule", it is an "electronic slide rule".)

And, of course, we've all heard about computers that cover entire continents, if not planets.
 
  • #13
To be fair, if calculating/simulating something requires a ridiculous amount of iterations, then a very, very large computer could make sense.

If anything else in contemporary fiction will be considered zeerust in the future, it is the common lack of advanced medical technology as well as a lack of genetic enhancement and bionic implants.

Oh, I almost forgot - people being enslaved or being the toiling underclass in a futuristic setting. What is the point of that when there's automation?

Also mildly futuristic (in technological capability, though not in real world engineering) is space stations big enough to host a permanent human population. Forget looking for oxygen-atmospheres across the light years and futilely hoping Einstein to be wrong, also forget running out of food.
 
  • #14
vemvare said:
Oh, I almost forgot - people being enslaved or being the toiling underclass in a futuristic setting. What is the point of that when there's automation?

In some stories the existence of an underclass is maintained by automation. The poor being unable to work are kept alive, docile and downtrodden by automated industry owned by the higher classes. A good example is Manna by Marshall Brain (available free here http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm)
 
  • #15
"Electronic surveillance would screw up many a setting where the hero moves stealthily to accomplish his/her objective. A life-signs monitor in one of those guards, or a motion detector in that corridor and it is all over! "

Such things arent impossible today, but commandos can get around. Getting in a really high security building requires hacking, inner help anyway.

"Also mildly futuristic (in technological capability, though not in real world engineering) is space stations big enough to host a permanent human population. Forget looking for oxygen-atmospheres across the light years and futilely hoping Einstein to be wrong, also forget running out of food. "

One guy i know was rather optimistic about orbitallers, that maybe the majority of mankind will live on such things. I'm rather skeptical about that. IMHO just because something don't have ftl, it isn't necessary scales more plausible. (Mohs scale 4 vs 5 according to TV troupe)

But ontopic, i could come up with one thing, recently our dog ate something that she really shouldn't have.
Maybe they could develop smart pet collars that warn them by a little shock or some flash, that they shouldn't run across the street in the traffic, and do other kinds of stupid things.
 
  • #16
vemvare said:
If anything else in contemporary fiction will be considered zeerust in the future, it is the common lack of advanced medical technology as well as a lack of genetic enhancement and bionic implants.
Piccard should at least have his hair intact? ;)

Oh, I almost forgot - people being enslaved or being the toiling underclass in a futuristic setting. What is the point of that when there's automation?
Makes good story. Higher classes providing bottom of the society with highest quality bread, circuses and safety net generous by standards of first world society from early XXIst century does not provide expected good vs. evil conflict.

Sending underclasses to mines looks villainous enough, while sending them to do mcjobs does not sound so malicious.
 
  • #18
Whats that, "how not to title a popular-science article"?
 
  • #19
I can't remember any SF with electric cigars.
I wonder about new "smart" things, but i fail to see the meaning of smart clothes, smart tables.
I read a book where the gang leader had the idea of making cups that keep coffee on pleasant temp level. Suitcases follow their owner would be also good.
 
  • #20
One more idea - self driving car to sleep. With not so bad beds, flat thus aerodynamic. So one go to sleep in one place and the car drives him to another. No money spent on hotel, no time wasted on travel and the car could even usually drive quite slow.
 
  • #21
Czcibor said:
One more idea - self driving car to sleep. With not so bad beds, flat thus aerodynamic. So one go to sleep in one place and the car drives him to another. No money spent on hotel, no time wasted on travel and the car could even usually drive quite slow.

(In one of my setting, i'll write, that a big taxi with untransparent windows isn't that special. They tend to use such things for sex.)
 
  • #22
GTOM said:
(In one of my setting, i'll write, that a big taxi with untransparent windows isn't that special. They tend to use such things for sex.)
Seat belts? ;)
 
  • #23
Czcibor said:
Seat belts? ;)

I think robo traffic is safe enough, that seat belts arent obligatory.
 
  • #24
GTOM said:
I think robo traffic is safe enough, that seat belts arent obligatory.
Just in case for this purpose seat belts can be in BDSM style :D

Hmm... in my setting it wouldn't work to well... Social norms would be tolerant enough for that purpose... just this air friction would make most of cars flat at elongated, thus not allowing two people next to each other...
 
  • #25
While i like my smartphone for reading, but typing on it is rather unpleasant. Maybe that could be helped with expendable, paper like keypad, or holo-keypad?
 
  • #26
Something like that?

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  • #27
Yes, something like that, just without a solid table, so i could type this message conveniently during travel.
 
  • #28
Sometimes technology ends up in places we don't expect it. For example in the Star Trek cartoon, the communicator was just for communication, but on every mission they had something called a tricorder which could record and play things back in 3D.
 
  • #29
GTOM said:
Maybe they could develop smart pet collars that warn them by a little shock or some flash, that they shouldn't run across the street in the traffic, and do other kinds of stupid things.
Oh, that's good...
 
  • #30
After wasting / spending half day for planning 2 day trip:

A website that finds you:
-main tourist attraction
-transport routes
-sleeping accommodation

Is really up to date and takes into account open hours and prices, and based on preselected choices knows your rough preferences.

And at the end you just choose between advised ideas, click OK and pay for all.