What would happen if we could see into the future?

Here's a link to an article by Andrew Abela who states, The one question that has probably bothered mankind the most is "What would happen if we could see into the future?".

Actually, I don't think that's the single-most bothersome question encountered, to date, by humankind.

If we're going to keep our selection of candidates confined to the time-travel-thingy, I think more people, scifi writers included, tend to speculate as to what would happen if a past event had occurred differently.

Or, more to the point, what would happen if we could produce this effect by altering the past. Routinely, of course, the mechanism involved for this line of thought concerns either a time travel device or the accidental or intentional opening of some sort of fissure or rift in the fabic of space-time.

(Now, if we don't confine our candidates to the time-travel-thingy, the hands down winner for the most bothersome question is probably, "what would happen if you could get your hands on a pair of xray glasses?")

Here's the link to the article below. I'll be honest, I didn't read the whole thing because it started to get pretty boring (sorry Andrew, if you happen to backtrack and read this. I'm not saying all your writing is boring. For all I know, most of your writing is wonderfully enthralling and this was just you on a bad day).

But, sometimes there's a silver lining in even the most boring of articles. And here it is: Many years back, I read Philip Dick's Do androids dream of electric sheep, which formed the basis for BladeRunner. Well, I didn't know that Minority Report and A scanner darkly were also adaptations of his work.

Bladerunner, by the way, stands out as the one of the finest achievements of science fiction film-making of the last century (its pretty cool that we can say that now since we're actually in the 21st century, albeit minus a moonbase named alpha and a fleet of eagles that we were supposed to have by the mid-90's).

Here it is: The general story, lacking any evident motivation for the Russian nuclear weapon obsessed antagonists, was tiresome at best.

Best Science Fiction Shows and Movies of the Last 25 Years

Ds9 was fantastic. Galaxy Quest was brilliant and when you think about it, as parody, is a wonderful compliment to the genre. The new Battlestar is a remarkable show. But I don't know that Voyager could EVER have been that. Different mindset entirely. However, I do think that Voyager is too often underrated by even Trek fans. To me, it did quite well in capturing the original spirit of trek, with some good story arcs, interesting character development, standout episodes, and finally finally being free of klingons/romulans/ferengi 24/7. That's what I loved most about Voyager. The episodes were at least a little liberated from the standard formula. Firefly: there's no accounting for taste and this is why we have 55 different brands of cereal. But for me firefly struck an emotional cord. I never saw it when it was broadcast so I was one of those who kept walking by it in the dvd section at Best buy till one day I decided to give it a hot. And, boy, it blew me away. By the twelfth episode, I felt enriched by it and very very sad to see it go.

What you just read above are my comments that I posted on someone else's blog. Yellojkt at Live by the Foma has given his feedback of Entertainment Weekly's list of the top 25 sci-fi movies or series of the last quarter century. I didn't see or read (which I guess would kinda go together) that issue, but that's what great about blog-connectivity: finding, at least virtually, people who have similar interests.

As I was snuffling around on Yellowjkt's blog, I kept wondering what Foma is. Here's his page on Foma. Interestingly enough, I read Cat's Cradle years ago and didn't remember Bokononism. But I do remember being impressed with some of the quotes, if that makes any sense (we're talking a lot of years here).

Similar to the aphorisms expressed by characters in David Gerrold's (David Gerrold also wrote the ST:TOS episode "The trouble with Tribbles") Chtorr series (will he ever finish the next book---good lord I've been waiting 15 years for him to finish "A method for madness"---no wait, I just looked it up. "A season for slaugher came out in 1993. So, I've been waiting 14 years. 14 years!!!!

To anyone who's not familiar with the Chtorr War series, I will post about it at some point, but, suffice it to say, it is the most incredible sci-fi story every written. On a par with the fantasy epic, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the unbeliever and on the same lofty level as the Dragon Riders of Pern series.

Now, if he would only finish the damn thing.

By Definition, Hot Sci-fi Chicks Must be Brainy

Is this true? The thought occurred to me while I was writing the last post. Its not a written rule, of course, but have you ever noticed that, regarding sci-fi women, there seems to be a direct correlation between hotness and braininess? With the women pictured above, to illustrate(Samantha Carter - Stargate, T'Pol - Enterprise, and Seven of Nine - Star Trek Voyager), it would seem there's something to this. In fact, one might even be tempted to say that the bustier they are, the smarter and more scientific -minded they must be.

Perhaps this represents, on a subconscious level, the geek ideal: rational, logical, and searingly intelligent women who just happen to have substantial ta-tas. There's definitely something to this.

Seven of Nine, then, would surely represent the epitome of geek-idealized feminine beauty as she is, without question, the most scientific-minded and the one with the biggest boobs.

The next question, of course, would be "to the mind of a geek, do big boobs signify intelligence, or are they simply a bonus?"