There are some technologies that are often used in fiction, to the point that some will be quite attached to using them in reality and bend over backwards to find ways in which they will be used in the future. In some cases, those technologies are possible but not worthwhile or of limited utility yet, because they’re cool, it is felt that we must have them.
For example, lasers*, plasma weapons, hover cars and jet packs. Why do those technologies keep coming back in fiction? Why do some people become attached to the idea that they will become widespread?
Also, there are technologies which, though they are certainly common in some instances, are much overused in fiction. For example, revolvers and pump action shotguns are used more often than is typical in circumstances where one would expect a semiauto pistol to be used instead of a revolver and where one would expect a submachinegun or rifle to be used instead of a shotgun.
What other technologies have such attraction on people?
*Or more generally, the non-realistic clones of the Star Wars.
I like the 3D maneuver gear from Attack on Titan, which is basically a limited steam punk jet pack that also turns you into Spider Man via pneumatic fired cables. All the whirring and clicking and compressed gas sound effects give it a satisfying tactile presence. In real life it’d be difficult to find purchase with the hooks, the gas would run out faster than portrayed, and you’d break every bone in your body within five seconds, but damn if it isn’t awesome.
Rocket boots. Really impractical, but really cool.
Nukes. Or rather, using nukes when doing so makes no sense, or portraying them as far more powerful than they are, or treating them as top tier weapons in settings where there are other weapons that realistically would be more powerful.
Oversized personal gatling weapons, like the miniguns in Predator and Terminator II. Realistically too heavy, with too high a recoil, and with too high an ammo consumption to use. But coolness trumps such minor considerations.
Giant war robots, and their cousins “mecha”; giant piloted robots. Tanks are just better; but not cooler.
Piloted space fighters. It’s more likely that missiles and drones would be used - but no one wants to read a story about the adventures of Drone #AB6-R67.
Weaponized chainsaws, and related fictional weapons like “chainswords”. Chainsaws are useful enough tools in their niche, but not very practical as military weapons.
Tractor Beams – around since Michel Verne rewrote his father Jules’ The Meteor Hunt, adding an unnecessary character and both a tractor and a pressor beam. Used ever since in science fiction, probably because it’s incredibly cool, more suited to the genre (Captain Kirk seems more likely to tow the Botany Bay with a Tractor Beam than with a rope, no matter how high tech the rope), and because it lets you do thjings that you otherwise can’t (If there’s no tractor beam, how else does the Death Star snag in Millenium Falcon? It’s also de rigeur for towing planets. which don’t have many good tow points).
We now have a tractor beam, sorta. It’s really weak and slow, and it’s not going to be good at pulling a deck of cards, let alone a planet. But it’s a start.
TV crime shows seem to love to use computers to enhance photos, or video from security cameras, almost without limit. “Zero in…closer…look, her engagement ring only has two diamonds…”
SF loves intelligent computers. Heinlein did it wonderfully with “Mike” in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” Copied many times, but never beaten. HAL was also a joy.
Der Trihs mentioned manned space fighter craft, and it’s worth noting how often they bank when making turns, just as if reacting to an atmosphere. But, again, this is cool, because it evokes real-life fighter combat, which has been really cool for about a hundred years.
Fantasy weapons with lots of curlicues. Orcs with big savage axes that have backspikes and points and little additional blades or bladelets, and notched, jaggedy blades. All so wicked looking…and completely stupid for real fighting. Just give 'em a simple cutlass, and they’ll be more dangerous to the enemy, less dangerous to their own allies and themselves, and you’ll save a shit-ton of labor and material in the forging.
This. For some reason “nuclear” is so much more morally reprehensible than “anti-matter bomb” or “planet annihilating existence nullification ray”.
Aww…you just made Marcus Fenix sad.
**How about any time a sword is used in a sci fi setting? ** Swords haven’t been used by Earth armies (not counting ceremonial purposes) for over a hundred years. Why would a society that’s advanced our by a millennium use them? Regardless if they glow with hot plasma, have a chain saw edge, microfilament blade or are forged in some weird ergonomically impractical shape. They still have the range of…you know… a sword.
**Microfilament **- Usually portrayed as an extremely (perhaps microscopically) thin (possibly glowing) string that is nearly unbreakable that can cleanly slice through anything it touches (typically someone’s head). Think about why that wouldn’t be practical for anything, at least as portrayed in film. (Hint…what are you holding it with?) Although long, thin, super strong cables that don’t slice whatever they touch certainly do have practical applications.
Avatars / Surrogates - I can imagine a lot of interesting uses for climbing into a remote control duplicate body. Particularly if you don’t have to worry about it getting damaged. Of course, nothing is stopping me from sneaking into your apartment and punching you in the face while you’re driving your extra body around.
**Artificial humans with free will **- If you’re going to build super-strong and intelligent androids, Cylons, replicants, bioroids, mandroids, fembots, and other forms of self-aware autonomous humanoid robots (which as you know is derived from a Czech word meaning “slave”), maybe you actually want to go the extra mile and program them to actually LIKE their job of being a trilithium miner on Titan, soldier in your off-world militaries or prostitute.
In all fairness, the laser as a continue beam of energy traveling at the speed of light to vaporize targets at great distances is something being pursued by modern militaries. It’s invisible, isn’t affected by gravity and travels great distances instantaneously.
But more often than not, the “advanced weapon of the future” in most sci fi seems to be a glowing bolt of energy with a velocity to (or slower) than a conventional bullet, a lower rate of fire and a glowing bolt of light that points back to the person who fired it.
Although I do recall an episode of Stargate: SG1 where this was lampshaded. A human character demonstrated how the alien’s standard sci-fi weapons sucked by shooting up a target at twice the distance with an FN P90 submachinegun on full auto.
Which now reminds me:
Laser targeting - For some reason, it’s important in sci fi for a target to know it’s being targeted by painting it with a visible laser for ten minutes. Which doubly makes sense if you are planning on shooting it with another laser anyway.
He holds up a staff weapon and says "This is a weapon of terror; it’s designed to scare people. And he blasts a single hole in the target with a staff weapon. Then he holds up the submachine gun; “This is a weapon of war; it’s designed to kill people.” And then fills the target full of holes with the submachine gun.
There is a very good practical reason for banking in a turn even in space. The turn will generate G forces, which are much easier to cope with when they push down on your body, rather than laterally (or even worse, up on your body). This assumes of course that the person is strapped to an immovable seat.
Well, yeah, but at that point, you’re limited to very low levels of acceleration, and at that point, the original objection comes in: why have a pilot at all? Meanwhile, if the craft can make those glorious 1000 G turns, there would have to be inertial compensators…and banking is dumb again.
(Or maybe, to save weight, the craft only has unidirectional maneuvering thrusters, in the nose, pointing downward. They can’t make any kind of turn other than banking.)
Anyway, did Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo craft ever bank in space? Did the Space Shuttle bank in space?
(Do the Feringhi bank in space? Yes, and they charge 50% interest, too.)
Real spaceships didn’t bank in space. Have a look at old NASA footage, especially in films like For All Mankind that told the story of Apollo 11 using only NASA film. The ships obey Newton’s laws, pivoting around centers of mass and not banking.
About the only movie I know that adhered to this was 2001, which shows the Space Pods behaving in this fashion (even if they didn’t actually show the reaction jets. A good decision, in my estimation). 2010 was pretty accurate, too, but Peter Hyams insisted on having us hear sounds in space, and his big showpiece – the braking maneuver going around Jupiter – was technically accurate (I think), but showed “banking”, albeit with a technological justification – they actually were in an atmosphere.
Well, yeah, the Kaminoan clones in star wars are an unrealistically cool technology, but how are they a generalization of lasers??
OHH, you mean blasters, resonators and other energy beam weapons that aren’t called “lasers” in Star Wars, Foundation/Empire, and such similar franchises?
