An entire meal in a pill!
ST(O) : If all stories were written like science fiction stories
"Trains are too slow, and the trip by steamship around South America would take months," replied Roger. "We'll take a plane."
He logged onto the central network using his personal computer, and waited while the system verified his identity. With a few keystrokes he entered an electronic ticketing system, and entered the codes for his point of departure and his destination. In moments the computer displayed a list of possible flights, and he picked the earliest one. Dollars were automatically deducted from his personal account to pay for the transaction.
I wrote a story just like this in 8th grade. And the article captures perfectly why I really just don't like science fiction. I tried reading some of Boing Boing amanuensis Cory Doctorow's stuff recently, and it grated on me badly. It was some horrible combination of coolfucking and product placement from the future. This post sounds like Cory Doctorow 20 years ago. Wired gets off on this same sort of thing. It just seems like more superficial bullshit to me.
Comments
Only the clunky SciFi is like that... and yes, I've seen works from "the masters" (Bradbury, Clarke) that goes like that from time to time, but those were also early speculative fiction pieces. The best SF is really just like any other good story, just with a fantastical setting.
That said, I don't see anything invalid about your opinion in and of itself. =)
Posted by: GreyDuck | September 27, 2004 9:01 PM