# Things I Have Learnt From Science Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2006, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542 "2006-01-25T13:07:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/61 "2006-01-25T22:09:54Z")
- Any vessel, no matter how minor or limited in space-travel capabilities (a shuttle or an experimental one-man prototype ship from late 20th century Earth) can navigate the immense crushing gravitational forces and ambiant radiation present in a wormhole long enough to be spit out the other side of it. - There are no openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender folk in the (supposedly liberal) “ideal, utopian future” of Star Trek. - Also in the “ideal Starfleet future”, historians will have failed to retain the knowledge that Fermat’s Theorem was solved in the late 1990s. By the time Jean-Luc Picard is in command of the Enterprise-D, it will once again be considered a mystery for the ages. (Data, despite his superadvanced positronic brain, will be unable to solve it.) - I forget where, but I recall reading an article once that posited that the existence of transmat beams is proof that in the Star Trek universe, human beings don’t have souls. (The logic being that Star Trek characters can be disassembled & reassembled on a molecular level without any loss of their cognitive functions; which suggests that there is no guiding spiritual force animating the body.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/62 "2006-01-25T22:14:06Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > …snip… > > - There are no openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender folk in the (supposedly liberal) “ideal, utopian future” of Star Trek. …snip… Well, you know, they found the cure. ::Ducks and runs:: Try reading John Varley’s Sci Fi if you want actually content as mentioned. Or much of Heinlein’s Later Novels. Star Trek got Kudos for an Interacial kiss. The First on TV. Jim ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/63 "2006-01-25T22:22:23Z")
Never wear red in the future. Humans will become so lazy they can’t stand having to open their own doors anymore. The educational system of the future may neglect certain basic principles of physics or biology, but students **will have their 20th century history down pat, dammit!** This specialization nonsense is a crock. No longer will people focus on becoming very good at one thing, they’ll simply become very good at everything to the point where security officers are also excellent pilots, and the Captain of a ship with a crew of thousands will immediately be able to take over for any individual in the crew without refresher training. Why didn’t we think of this? No one will ever need to bother checking the atmosphere of a planet: apparently our solar system is unique in that it contains planets that do not have oxygen/nitrogen atmospheres. No one will be sick in the future: unless it’s a life-threatening rare disease, and even then transmission of said disease will not be of concern to anyone. Either all aliens of a species are warlike or they’re all pacifist. Never will there be even close to an even split of philosophies within a species. If you can choose between two alternate universes, in one of which you were held back in fourth grade and the other you were not, always choose to be held back. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/64 "2006-01-25T22:59:40Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > In the future, no one wears hats. [Yes they do.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342890) ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/65 "2006-01-25T23:10:31Z")
> [@D.E.S.K.Top668](#): > > Very few people have any philosophical concerns about being vaporized and then being duplicated as a means of transport. I read a story somewhere which involved the scientist who had invented the matter transmitter but who had never used it themselves. In the end it is revealed that the “transmitter” was really a duplicator. A duplicate was created at the far end and the original was then killed (and their atoms used to create the next duplicate arriving there). This had all been kept secret because they felt (probably quite correctly) that no one would use the transmitter if they knew how it worked. (The duplicates of course had all of the memories of the original up to the time they stepped into the transmitter, so never knew anything had happened.) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/66 "2006-01-25T23:19:29Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > [Yes they do.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342890) Just because you can put it on your head don’t make it a hat. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/67 "2006-01-26T00:18:21Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Finding a cure for the alien disease means that you’ll be healed in minutes, with no aftereffects. Scars disappear, arms grow back, sight returns to the blind. And there are never any side-effects in the future either. No “some users report itching, swelling or diarrhea” sort of thing. For that matter, diarrhea itself will not exist in the future. Neither will most embarrassing (as opposed to tragic) illnesses. Also: [ul] [li]All asteroid belts in other star systems will be so full of asteroids that you can hardly spit without hitting one.[/li][li]Naturally, giant space worms will have evolved to take advantage of this.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/68 "2006-01-26T03:13:44Z")
There’s not a lot of pop culture in the future—just a lot of nostalgia for past periods. No matter how many people the creature has deliberately hunted down and/or killed, the scientist always wants to hold off on using force against it—“if we could only communicate, think of how much they could teach us!” Primitive aliens and their ways = good, noble. “Primitive” (in relation to more advanced aliens) humans and our ways = bad, stupid. Energy weapons rarely fire energy “projectiles” (bolts, blasts, whatever you call 'em) that travel more than about 2000 feet/second. Apparently, you can have a society made up entirely of warrior/hunters—no need for engineers, doctors, cooks, tailors, farmers, physicists… Nuclear weapons are bad. No matter if you’re using weapons potentially even _more_ destructive than a nuke, even if your enemy is a collective of Islamist-Commie-Nazi von Neumann machines who’re going to use the History Eraser Button to obliterate spacetime…using A-Bombs against them? Nuh-uh, that’s _way_ out of line. [Anime, mostly] All 1950s spaceships look exactly like captured V2s (complete with the “checkered” paint scheme), and the first exploratory crews will be equipped with M1s, grenades, and at least one tactical nuclear weapon. Also, it’s REALLY easy for the above type of spaceship to end up going to a completely different part of the solar system then planned, just because of a minor accident. And it doesn’t take much longer to get to, say, Mars, in a busted ship, than it takes to get to the moon on a planned mission. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/69 "2006-01-26T04:22:06Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > Why _did_ the Death Star need those holes in areas where the crew would be, anyway? Their workers’ comp insurance rates must be astronomical. The semi-serious story goes that they were originally supposed to be horizontal tunnels. But when construction costs spiraled out of control, the Empire was forced to accept a design compromise where the Death Star’s gravity grid has a single up/down for the entire station. Causing said tunnels to become vertical shafts. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/70 "2006-01-26T04:34:17Z")
Astronauts even in the hear future wil carry firearms – ordinary guns. I don’t know why, but this has bothered me. Not only in awful clunkers from the 1950s mde on shoestring bidgets, but ven in some of the good SF classics peopl go into space _armed_. They’ve got guns and grenades on board in **It! The Terror Beyond Space** , and they waste precious oxygen by smoking. I would have thought grenaes were strongly contraindicated aboard a fragile thing like a spaceship Wht the hell do you need them for? Events certainly proved that they were dsirable, but nobody had a right to expect redatory martians. They even used the grenades on board! That took guts (and the ship survived. They built \*good \* spaceships in the fifties) Then they had guns going to Mars in **Robinson Crusoe on Mars**! I guess they thought Mars was gonn be a tough planet. Again, events proved this was right. Again, the gun didn’t do any good – by the time threats showed up the gun had been lost or cannibalized or something. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/71 "2006-01-26T04:35:26Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I would have said “Niven-lover” myself. 😃 Speaking of Niven, is he right that an Earth-sized world needs a Moon-sized moon to skim off atmosphere to stop from turning into Venus, or is he just full of tang? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/72 "2006-01-26T04:42:00Z")
Good question. Larry is pretty good about checking stuff like that, so I’d say that at the time he wrote it, it was the prevailing theory. Either that, or he overheard someone say it at JPL some afternoon. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/73 "2006-01-26T05:53:52Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Speaking of Niven, is he right that an Earth-sized world needs a Moon-sized moon to skim off atmosphere to stop from turning into Venus, or is he just full of tang? It was current theory at the time (I’m assuming you are referring to the story “Wrong Way Street”) but has since been discounted. Prevailing theory is that the formation of life caused the organic components of the atmosphere to be bound up and lead to a diatomic nitrogen (and later, diatomic oxygen) environment. Without life, the highly reactive oxygen would chemically bind and not be readily available. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/74 "2006-01-26T06:11:14Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > For that matter, diarrhea itself will not exist in the future. Neither will most embarrassing (as opposed to tragic) illnesses. More than that - there are no toilets in the future. (Well, have you ever seen one? Outside of 2001, and that’s the past.) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/75 "2006-01-26T06:25:27Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > More than that - there are no toilets in the future. > > (Well, have you ever seen one? Outside of 2001, and that’s the past.) Didn’t _Firefly_ show a toliet in passing? It would make a great counter-cliche episode of some sci-fi show; a plot that centers around unplugging the toliet on a high tech interstellar spacecraft. First you’d have to get out the Sirius Cybernetics Extract-O-Plunger, then read the instructions which are, of course, written in Alpha-Delphian then translated into Betelgeuse by some particularly lyrical, if not especially coherent Vogons, then find out that the only comprehensible version of the document was taking by its original author on board Golgafrinchem “B” Ark which just inconvenintly crashed upon an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet orbiting an unregarded yellow sun in the uncharted backwaters of unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy that just got demolished in order to make way for a hyperspace bypass route (which is never going to be built), but was rescued at nearly incalculable odds at the last instant by an ape-descended lifeform so amazingly primative that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea… Hey, it’d be better than the film. POV gun, my ass. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/76 "2006-01-26T07:06:36Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Didn’t _Firefly_ show a toliet in passing? According to William Shatner, when Kirk says “I need to think.” he sits down on a toilet which pops out of the wall. This was included because they realized that they had never seen a toilet on the Enterprise. That said, Star Trek V didn’t really happen, so yeah, no toilets in Star Trek. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/77 "2006-01-26T07:24:02Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Firefly fans, I’m looking at you Watching an episode or two would actually explain this completely, particularly since it’s actually part of the story arc. Another common “fact” from sci-fi: alien cultures (and even many human ones) are monolithic blocks that all exhibit the same traits and motivations. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/78 "2006-01-26T07:36:31Z")
Despite having sensors that can see for light years and count the number of people inside a ship, and computers that can keep track of it all, combat will take place at low relative speeds within easy visual range. Any large object in space that explodes immediately loses all momentum and stops. Genetically engineered people are always evil oppressors; they are never oppressed, no matter how outnumbered they are. > [@Lumpy](#): > > The semi-serious story goes that they were originally supposed to be horizontal tunnels. But when construction costs spiraled out of control, the Empire was forced to accept a design compromise where the Death Star’s gravity grid has a single up/down for the entire station. Causing said tunnels to become vertical shafts. My favorite explanation for the lack of railings : “But it would add 20 % to the cost !” > [@Voyager](#): > > More than that - there are no toilets in the future. I recall a funny scene in a Star Trek novel; _The Last Stand_ IIRC. Two diplomats on board from a more primitive culture are having a conversation : Diplomat 1 : "I couldn’t get the thing to work, until I screamed ‘_Flush_, damn you !’ And it _did_ ! " “What’s wrong ?” Diplotmat 2 ( muttering ) : “I need to get back to my cabin.” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/79 "2006-01-26T10:15:31Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > More than that - there are no toilets in the future. > > (Well, have you ever seen one? Outside of 2001, and that’s the past.) Firefly has them (nifty fold-away ones), and Babylon 5 has them (but steer clear of the Pakmara stall!) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542/80 "2006-01-26T10:52:15Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > My point was that when and if the human race develops FTL spaceships that are cheap and efficient enough to make interstellar colonization possible, they just MIGHT have developed a few other technologies to make life more comfortable as well. I imagine a dirt-poor colonist of the future will live a life that a current millionaire would envy, in some respects. I’m not buying this rags-and-mud-huts stuff at all. It’s all people with little or not imagination looking at the future, unable to imagine what a really wealthy interstellar society might be like, so fallilng back on primitive shit. Specifically in defense of firefly, this wasn’t unexplained at all. They didn’t have FTL, and they didn’t have, as a whole, technology that was _hugely_ ahead of us. The core worlds have a strong technological base, because the bulk of the people have lived there the longest. The people who choose to colonize the outer worlds do so because they’re poor or adventurous or whatever. And if you’ve got a “blank” world, with no technological infrastructure - do you bring your hovercar that needs a complex base to fuel, repair, operate, or do you bring along some horses (or possibly horse embyros and some sort of incubator) and some hand tools? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learnt-from-science-fiction/341542.md?page=5)