Really Dumb Ideas in Otherwise Decent Sci-Fi

In My Humble Opinion
1

There was a thread a while back about the “slidewalks” used by both Isaac Asimov and Heinlein. That got me thinking about that Asimov series (which I haven’t read since junior high school) and some of the other dumb ideas that popped up. I can remember two clearly:

There was a bed that was hard until you lay down on it. Then the parts directly underneath you would gradually soften so you sunk down into a cavity that outlined your body. So far so good. However, if you moved, it would instantly snap back to flatness and then slowly soften again to adapt to your new position. I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that could be comfortable. Every time you move during the night, the bed snaps back, presumably launching your body a few feet straight up. Sorry, Isaac. Try again.

The other one was worse. The spice dispenser. They had this large rod that could dispense any spice known to mankind. However, you chose between them by flipping it and hitting it in various patterns. You had to be a bloody baton twirler to get a little pile of salt. This was explained as an evolved social grace. If you were truly cultured, you knew all the patterns required to get the very best spices and could perform them beautifully. Again, uh, no. This is not going to happen.

Any other examples out there?

2

In The Soft Weapon, by Larry Niven, the weapon had an atom-bomb setting. That might have been just in the animated Star Trek version, but still…

3

Smeghead:
I’m pretty sure the spice-dispenser was from one of the later Lije Bailey novels by Asimov, either “The Naked Sun” or “The Robots of Dawn”. It was certainly Asimov in any case. Anyway I remember the scene, and the guy who demonstrates it to our hero implies that it was an silly affectation that people had done generations ago and he happened to know it. Kind of like someone who still wax-embosses their letters.

Ethilrist:
The Soft Weapon had a matter-to-energy conversion beam setting (Great for wiping out that city on the horizon) and a self-destruct setting. Since it was supposed to be carried by a spy, the (nuclear?) self-destruct setting wasn’t all that bad of an idea.

Fenris