Cats in Science Fiction

[psikeyhackr]

They were considered areodynamically unable to fly, but everyone knew that there must be something wrong with our modeling. The mystery has been solved about a decade ago.

The aerodynamics of bumblebee flight were solved in the early 2000s, and modern computational fluid dynamics can accurately model insect flapping flight (Young et al., 2009, Science). The key is unsteady aerodynamics and leading edge vortices.

Yeah, that was hilarious.

I think I first heard about that in the 70s.

Don't tell the bees that they can't fly! The neurotic response would drive them crazy.

 

[pogopossum]

I'm a cat and dog person. My cat, Honey Bee, loves to model. Here she is in her Halloween Costume:

View attachment 86120

Given how The Door Into Summer is my favorite Heinlein it only makes sense for Pete to be my favorite fictional feline. The ?chiral? cat in Doorways In the Sand doesn't ring a bell. The story needs a re-read.

As mentioned elsewhere, there is a fairly well reviewed film of The Door Into Summer that was recently released. It's streaming on Netflix.
It's Japanese and subtitled, but follows the plot of the book with some additions, explaining the bite their own tails time contradictions.
Pete the cat is a star, but the actor who plays the part is a little blase about everything that is going on.

 

[BAYLOR]

Apparently the same is true of bumble bees.

I couldn't even begin to imagine the chaos caused by flying cats...

If people started seeing flying cats . It would be bonanza for Psychiatrists.

 

[psikeyhackr]

As mentioned elsewhere, there is a fairly well reviewed film of The Door Into Summer that was recently released. It's streaming on Netflix.
It's Japanese and subtitled, but follows the plot of the book with some additions, explaining the bite their own tails time contradictions.
Pete the cat is a star, but the actor who plays the part is a little blase about everything that is going on.
View attachment 86151

A pioneering roboticist awakens in 2025 after decades of cryosleep. To change the past and reunite with his adopted sister, he seeks a way back to 1995.

They kept the time difference the same, it was 30 years, 1970 to 2000 in Heinlein's story.

 

[Bick]

I think you can classify SF authors as dog authors and cat authors.

Heinlein is the archetypal cat author.
Simak leads the dog lovers.

I liked Ripley's cat.

 

[farntfar]

Heinlein is the archetypal cat author.
Simak leads the dog lovers.

And Schrödinger wasn't quite sure.

 

[psikeyhackr]

And Schrödinger wasn't quite sure.

He put the cat in a box and didn't care if it lived or died.

That is leaning toward the hate side of indifference. Truly Evil!

 

[farntfar]

He only thought about it. (Possibly because he didn't have the right sized box.)

Holding back from actually carrying out you evil plans has to be considered quite virtuous really.
But it still casts doubt on him being a cat lover.

 

[psikeyhackr]

But it still casts doubt on him being a cat lover.

Maybe it was marketing.

Who would care about Shrodinger's Frog?

The cat in Robert J Sawyer's Wake, Watch, Wonder is named Shrodinger. Maybe the physicist was just using psychology.

Sneaky bastards!

 

[Elckerlyc]

He only thought about it. (Possibly because he didn't have the right sized box.)

Holding back from actually carrying out you evil plans has to be considered quite virtuous really.
But it still casts doubt on him being a cat lover.

Now, now, not so hasty.
Schrödinger came up with this idea in a discussion with Einstein to illustrate the paradox of quantum superposition. Cats happen to be a lot easier to detect than your everyday subatomic particles are. Anyway, you cannot dismiss the possibility that Einstein was the cat hater and Schrödinger merely metaphorically put the cat in the box to please Einstein.

*wonders if this was even remotely plausible*

 

[alexvss]

My favorite cat would be a halfling, actually. Schrödinger from Hellsing. He's dressed like a Hitler Junge and has the power to be everywhere (actually, his power is "to exist as long as he is aware of himself). He's probably the most powerful villain in the series, despite his looks.

Here's a clip of his first appearance in the OVA (PS: didn't know they voice him with a German accent in the English dub. Makes me wanna watch it again).

Also, I remember Dex-Starr, a red lantern from DC Comics. He's a playable character in Injustice 2. I just came across a video showing his (devastating) backstory:

Oh, and A Dream of a thousand cats is my favorite Sandman story,

 

[Toby Frost]

There were sinister half-human leopard and panther hybrids in The Island of Doctor Moreau. Which reminds me that I ought to read it again, because it's excellent.

 

[Serendipity]

Thank you all for your comments - such a wide variety of cats and cattiness... Me being me, I've tried to group the science fiction cats into categories on a powerpoint slide. Are there any categories I've missed that would do where the question marks are on the picture below?

 

[Toby Frost]

You might want magical cats, if you're going for fantasy (including familiars*), and perhaps talking cats. Tad Williams wrote a book about talking cats called Tailchaser's Song and I'm sure there are many others (The Jungle Book springs to mind). The wizard Gargomel in The Smurfs had a villainous cat called Azrael.

The creature in AE Van Gogt's story "Black Destroyer" from Voyage of the Space Beagle seemed to be something like a panther with tentacles on its back.


*I'm surprised there aren't more of these, given that it's one of the standard elements of witch trials. I can only think of the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The creature in AE Van Gogt's story "Black Destroyer" from Voyage of the Space Beagle seemed to be something like a panther with tentacles on its back.

I must have read that at least twice over the decades but it didn't occur to me in relations to this thread.

 

[Bick]

The Charles V. De Vet 1958 short story Special Feature is about a very cat-like alien that disguises itself as a human woman to hunt in New York. It's great.

 

[Lostinspace]

Although cats are not in fact the my focus of the stories, we might consider Naomi Kritzer’s "Cat Pictures Please", “Catfishing on CatNet” and “Chaos on CatNet”.

 

[Raincloud Man]

You might want magical cats, if you're going for fantasy (including familiars*), and perhaps talking cats. Tad Williams wrote a book about talking cats called Tailchaser's Song and I'm sure there are many others (The Jungle Book springs to mind). The wizard Gargomel in The Smurfs had a villainous cat called Azrael.

The creature in AE Van Gogt's story "Black Destroyer" from Voyage of the Space Beagle seemed to be something like a panther with tentacles on its back.


*I'm surprised there aren't more of these, given that it's one of the standard elements of witch trials. I can only think of the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The creature looking like a panther with tentacles immediately makes me think of Displacer Beasts from DnD.
Furthermore they also have Tressym, which are winged housecats with human level intellects.
Also this list needs Spot, Data's cat from Star Trek TNG.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm pretty sure that's where the Displacer Beast comes from - it's the Black Destroyer with a couple of extra legs.

I think there were some evil talking cats in Watership Down.

 

[BAYLOR]

Doesn't that violate the Nine Lives rule of catness. Oh right, it's science fiction. Rules do not apply.

The cat in the book didn't seem to care about that or much else including that fact that he caused a train to derail.