SF Stuff that Really Annoys You!

[Wayne Mack]

stupid bipedal Terminators.

This always amuses me more than annoys me, but why create these killing machines that rely on legs to move? In Robocop, there is a robot with extensive weapons that is defeated by a simple set of stairs. In Star Wars, there are these various long legged and unstable robots despite them also having some mysterious floaty technology.

 

[JunkMonkey]

It is the reason an idiot like Musk can make ridiculous claims (eg for self driving taxi cabs or manned Mars missions in a few short years) and be taken seriously by huge chunks of the population.

um? Big chunks of the press desperate to fill pages maybe. And investors looking to make a quick buck while knowing full well their money will be somewhere else when the bubble bursts. I think most of the real world population takes most of that sort of thing with more than a pinch of salt.

 

[Astro Pen]

That space is regarded as a military arena to wear spandex uniforms and fight everything that moves .
Ships must be blown up after ours 'takes hits on the port side,' (miraculously repaired perfectly for the next episode. )

Let space be populated with the full cultural richness of any society, ( and see how interesting your stories can get! )

The military industrial complex has no more right to space that a lone monastic sojourner on a spiritual quest or a colony of farmers and artists.

 

[Bramandin]

Ok so this annoys me.

In the Terminator franchise, efficient killing machines like to throw humans about instead of, you know, actually killing them.

I heard that actually killing them wasn't the point. Granted, the rules might mean that they can't change the past and they're compelled to close the loop, but all that violence was somehow to make John Connor.

The biggest annoyance with SF is the overestimation of progress. Too many movies set in the 'near future' with incredible technology; atrificial intelligences, androids and interplanetary travel. In fact we are nowhere near achieving the advances that would be required.

How will we know it's the future if everything isn't made of chrome and holograms? What, someone's going to notice that the PS6 controller isn't an off-brand PS4 controller?

Really a lot of technology is subtle improvements to stuff that was available before, excepting that we've had some incredible leaps. The future isn't going to be unrecognizable unless something extraordinary happens, and I think we're headed for a stagnation were there will be a few cool new toys but nothing major. We might even backslide.

Upload had food-printers much like we have microwaves, but I think that there's going to be food factories for centuries unless society collapses.

 

[JunkMonkey]

And setting films not TOO far into the future also saves a lot of money building futuristic sets and outlandish 'futuristic' costuming. Throw a few shiny things and holo-whatsits into the mix and normal everyday locations become "The Future!!!!"

 

[Astro Pen]

The actual future, as being planned for us, is a long way from the modernist utopia.
In fact the foil hatters were closer predictors than the Asimovs
Sharpen your dystopia pens.

Edible insects in focus part II: Scale and automation… Aspire Food Group gears up to open world’s largest edible cricket processing facility

Aspire Food Group - which is on a mission to automate and professionalize edible insect farming – aims to start production at a CAD $90m 100,000sqft automated cricket processing facility near London, Ontario, in Q1/Q2 of next year that will produce 10,000 tons of crickets/year in phase one...

www.foodnavigator-usa.com

 

[Vladd67]

The actual future, as being planned for us, is a long way from the modernist utopia.
In fact the foil hatters were closer predictors than the Asimovs
Sharpen your dystopia pens.

Edible insects in focus part II: Scale and automation… Aspire Food Group gears up to open world’s largest edible cricket processing facility

Aspire Food Group - which is on a mission to automate and professionalize edible insect farming – aims to start production at a CAD $90m 100,000sqft automated cricket processing facility near London, Ontario, in Q1/Q2 of next year that will produce 10,000 tons of crickets/year in phase one...

www.foodnavigator-usa.com

Minced up and covered in breadcrumbs insects could be the next fishfingers.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Minced up and covered in breadcrumbs insects could be the next fishfingers.

 

[Bramandin]

I'm not sure that I could eat a bug that looks like a bug. Cricket flour is okay because I don't mind grain that's been infested with things too small to pick out. I've accidentally drank an ant that was in my drink and they taste horrible, or maybe I was freaked out because it bit my tongue.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Minced up and covered in breadcrumbs insects could be the next fishfingers.

Or you could just get a side order of French Flies.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Or you could just get a side order of French Flies.

I am going to try REALLY hard to pretend I didn't read that.

 

[Elckerlyc]

I am going to try REALLY hard to pretend I didn't read that.

You prefer a Spanish fly?

 

[JunkMonkey]

Here's another movie one: VTOL spaceships that have to do a 180 degree rotation just above the pad every time they land or take off. A trend started, I think, in the Star Wars films which were, after the first, huge long toy commercials with a story bolted on. Each time a new craft appeared on the screen it had to have a motorshow revolve to display its ooooh! coool! selling points so everyone knew what they were to look out for when the next slew of Kenner toys hit the shops.

 

[Bick]

Here's another movie one: VTOL spaceships that have to do a 180 degree rotation just above the pad every time they land or take off. A trend started, I think, in the Star Wars films which were, after the first, huge long toy commercials with a story bolted on. Each time a new craft appeared on the screen it had to have a motorshow revolve to display its ooooh! coool! selling points so everyone knew what they were to look out for when the next slew of Kenner toys his the shops.

It's funny when they do a 180 upon landing, and then again upon take-off. Now you're facing the same way, guys!

 

[JunkMonkey]

It's funny when they do a 180 upon landing, and then again upon take-off. Now you're facing the same way, guys!

I know and they do it EVERY time. I had this theory for a while there was some sort of electromagnetic dohicky in the landing field and by doing this manoeuvrer they were winding up the elastic band that made the ship go.

 

[msstice]

I had an idea for a novella about humans discovering a Wormhole Gateway on Jupiter, but when they Activate it it seals Jupiter away behind a black body. Around the same time (from the PoV of Earth) a star just disappears. As humans keep moving through the Gateway more stars keep disappearing.

Some clever scientist figures out that the tech "seals" the target location as a way to protect the timeline and as we "see" the stars get sealed then we know the Gateway is FTL'ing people into the past.

That's a cool idea and I would read your story. Reminds me - somewhat - of Greg Egan's Quarantine, which I find to be a very creative book.

 

[JunkMonkey]

There was, in ST-DS9, that alien prison where the prisoners were kept for a very short period (a few hours) but felt that they had experienced a 20-year sentence (or something like that). Chief O'Brien was one of the prisoners.

The episode was called Hard Time.

I suspect they may have got that idea from a Judge Dredd comic but in the comic the prisoner really aged. Bit difficult to do with a recurring character on a TV show.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

One thing that has bugged me since I was about 12 is the sheer number of spaceship designs that are supposed to manoeuver in 3 dimensions using 2 engines, both pointed directly aft. I remember doing lots of crude sketches of craft that had 3 main engines and visible Vernier thrusters.

 

[Bramandin]

One thing that has bugged me since I was about 12 is the sheer number of spaceship designs that are supposed to manoeuver in 3 dimensions using 2 engines, both pointed directly aft. I remember doing lots of crude sketches of craft that had 3 main engines and visible Vernier thrusters.

I guess it depends on how maneuverable you want to be? The Enterprise had it's main warp nacelles, but it also had maneuvering thrusters and I have no clue how their impulse drive worked. I suppose it's like having a mainsail for speed in open waters, smaller sails for passages, and then they bring out the oars. Modern ships are helped into the docks by tugs.

 

[JunkMonkey]

One thing that has bugged me since I was about 12 is the sheer number of spaceship designs that are supposed to manoeuver in 3 dimensions using 2 engines, both pointed directly aft.

Both of which shown firing ALL THE TIME while in transit and always propelling the ship in the direction of travel.