http://us.imdb.com/Title?0060390
Very good movie. 1966.
Oh, so was I. I just don’t see it.
Though I admit I’m gun she about magic and such in science fiction.
I think you are using a vary narrow definition of the word “technology”. Science is a process by which the nature of reality is defined. Technology is the application of scientific discoveries. It doesn’t just mean machines. Pretty much all Science Fiction is about technology of one kind or another (not just hardware) and I challenge you to cite an exception.
I agree. I didn’t say it was a GOOD Martial Arts movie. Neither is it a good SF movie. Indeed, in my opinion, it’s not even a good middle-part-of-a-trilogy movie.
I just didn’t like it at all.
I enjoyed the matrix when put into the context of ‘a continuation of the first film’. As a standalone film? A bit crap really.
Compare it to ‘The Two Towers’!
OK…from my bookshelves:
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Dune, by Frank Herbert. Yes, it’s set in the future, but there’s hardly any technology key to the plot.
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Inconstant Moon, by Larry Niven. Has science at it’s heart (the understanding of what makes a sun go nova) but no technology beyond an automobile).
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Citizen of the Galaxy, by Robert Heinlein. Again, character-driven, not technology. Also set in the future but more a story of a boys growth.
There’s a start for you.
If science fiction suffers from any one, overarching flaw it’s that often the characters and plot take a back seat to the gear. That leads to thin event-driven plots that don’t truly engage the reader.
YMMV, of course.
I’ve always considered Dune to be science fiction in the same way Star Wars is science fiction: in other words, it’s actually fantasy. Sorry, but there’s a limit to how many ancient prophecies and mystical visions a book can have before it stops being science fiction, and that limit is “one.”
Not that I don’t love Dune. Great, great book. But not science fiction.
Also, isn’t technology key to the plot of Dune? The whole reason Arrakis is worth something is because mankind has developed a way to fold space to create faster than light travel, and Arrakis is the only place in the galaxy a raw material neccesary for the process can be found.
No, the spice allows prescience. It doesn’t directly lead to star travel (otherwise how would they have gotten there?) it simply makes it safer through the navigator’s ability to see the future.
In other word, no true Scotsman…
What i mean is, tell meagain how we’re defining science fiction?
In my bookstore (and in most of the world) Phillip K. Dick is classiffied as science fiction although most of his books are about paranoia and the slippery nature of reality.
Good question. Not entirely sure how to answer, but as a baseline, any story that relies on magic to drive the plot is more or less the opposite of science fiction, in my view.
How do you define it?
I suppose a good way to define science fiction would be to take the plotline of a story and see if it could be told without the use of science-fictional devices. If the story falls apart, then you’ve got real science fiction.
For example: Larry Niven wrote a number of short stories in a near-fuiture where long-distance teleportation was cheap and easily available. The basic detective-story plot, but now there is** no such thing as an alibi!** Those stories can not be told without the new tech. Perhaps they should be fantasy, but he does a good job explaining the “tunnel-diode effect” and all other laws of physics are respected. (Conservation of energy can make teleporting to a lower altitude quite unpleasant!)
My $0.02…
**MelC[/b, you sound exactly like the kabbess, right down to the comments you make on the films you make them on and the scenes you choose to make those comments about.
It’s uncanny.
Doesn’t stop me from working my way gradually through the world’s back catalogue of SF though. 
pan
I don’t get it, what was, and was there a “money shot”? 
Bzzzzzz… wrong answer , John.
Seriously, the technology of sheilds made lasguns and projectile weapons obsolete or useless. Thus, hand-to-hand sword-fighting men were the dominant power bloc, thus the Emporer’s Saudarkar kept him in power. Key to the plot
Plus, the technology of spac-travel without computors meant that the Spacing Guild had to use ‘spice’ to calculate for the journey, thus, they controlled space-travel. Also key to the plot.
Just a freindly disagreement.