Sci-Fi Moments

[Planish]

I think it was also author Douglas Coupland who said something to the effect of "I used to wish that I could go to sleep one night and wake up 100 years in the future. Nowadays I feel like that every morning."

[Chodon]

I just had another sci-fi moment this morning.  I know, this is my third post in this topic, but as soon as this happened I thought of posting here.

I work right next to an airport, and when I get to work it's still dark outside.  It was kind of foggy/hazy this morning and I saw an airplane taking off through the crappy visibility.  All I could really see was the red/green lights on the wingtips, the strobes on the tail and wings, and the landing lights (big headlights for airplanes) were making these really cool beams through the fog.  It was probably about 150 feet over my head.  I have seen the same thing a hundred times before, but for some reason this time I thought to myself "what would someone from the middle ages think if they were in my shoes right now?"  I can't even imagine.  Dragon?  Monster?  I doubt they would think it was an aluminum tube full of sleepy business travelers.  It had become so mundane to me that I usually just ignored it, but this time I really thought about it and it made me feel very sci-fi.  Hell, I even work on airplanes and I thought that way.

[Russell Nash]

I just had another sci-fi moment this morning.  I know, this is my third post in this topic, but as soon as this happened I thought of posting here.

I work right next to an airport, and when I get to work it's still dark outside.  It was kind of foggy/hazy this morning and I saw an airplane taking off through the crappy visibility.  All I could really see was the red/green lights on the wingtips, the strobes on the tail and wings, and the landing lights (big headlights for airplanes) were making these really cool beams through the fog.  It was probably about 150 feet over my head.  I have seen the same thing a hundred times before, but for some reason this time I thought to myself "what would someone from the middle ages think if they were in my shoes right now?"  I can't even imagine.  Dragon?  Monster?  I doubt they would think it was an aluminum tube full of sleepy business travelers.  It had become so mundane to me that I usually just ignored it, but this time I really thought about it and it made me feel very sci-fi.  Hell, I even work on airplanes and I thought that way.

It's cool to think that this thread might have made you look at life in a different way.

[Alasdair5000]

In the intro for "Other People's Money" Steve describes a feeling most of us have had, of suddenly realizing that while we were going about our daily lives, the future caught up with us and surrounded us.  When this happens to me I call it a Sci-Fi moment.  Like the other day when my wife called me on my pocket video phone just so my daughter could see my face before she went to bed.  The Jetsons couldn't even do that.  Or the times I would work from home and keep in contact with the office through phone, email, and IM.  Several coworkers didn't realize I wasn't at my desk.

What Sci-Fi moments have you guys had?


This topic seems familiar to me, but I couldn't find a duplicate one on a search.  I apologize if I'm being redundant.

-About five years ago, sitting in the foyer of the local arthouse cinema, being paid to review a series of short films for a local magazine, writing the review on my Palm Pilot.  Living the dream.

-The first time I talked to someone on Skype on the other side of the fricking planet.

-Mobile phones.  Just the idea that in the space of my, relatively short, life they could go from absolutely high end status items to completely ubiquitous is fascinating.  Especially, as my wife pointed out, when you see cab drivers in this pretty small, pretty provincial city with Bluetooth headsets:)

[Chodon]

It's cool to think that this thread might have made you look at life in a different way.

I didn't think about it at the time, but I think this thread probably did have something to do with something mundane becoming something really, really cool to me.

[Heradel]

I had another one yesterday when I was going to meet my mother for dinner.

Here in NYC they have this chinese Holiday Wonders show every December which I've never seen but they flog it relentlessly — people in costume outside major subway stops, people coming up to you on the street with flyers, and yesterday they had a pickup truck driving around midtown with 3 HDTV's (one back and the others on both sides and a very large speaker set saying the basic come to the show bit. However, the van came up from behind me, and the voice from the loudspeaker boomed through the canyon walls which made me think it was the "Offworld Colonies" bit from Blade Runner.

One other thing is that on the way to NYC via the NJ Turnpike there's an electrical plant on the left side of the road (myself being oriented northish) that has several large (~10-15 m) flares erupting from towers, I assume to burn off volatiles. I'm fairly certain it only happens at night, but it's always made me flash to the flares in Blade Runner.

[Planish]

I had a sci-fi moment last night, now that I think about it.
I was listening to a scene from J.C. Hutchins' 7th Son: Book One - Descent and was following the route that the characters were taking on Google Maps, in satellite photo and "Street View". It was a bit creepy.
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I always wonder what it would be like to go back to the early '60s with a set of DVDs (and a player) with few hours of prime time network TV.
Think of all the advances in special effects and makeup prosthetics, rapid-fire editing and scene shifts, hand-held Steadicam POVs, commercials that are not in quantum units of 60 seconds each, impossible CGI characters and graphic elements, synthesized music, casting of minorities, the language, you name it.
They would be hard put to distinguish the "reality" from fabrications (Segways, cell phones, night-vision goggles, talking cars, the internet - real. Light sabres, hoverboards, artificial eyes, cure for the common cold - not so real) and have little clue as to what many of the advertised items were even for. Except Coca-Cola, of course.

[Heradel]

They would be hard put to distinguish the "reality" from fabrications (Segways, cell phones, night-vision goggles, talking cars, the internet - real. Light sabres, hoverboards, artificial eyes, cure for the common cold - not so real) and have little clue as to what many of the advertised items were even for. Except Coca-Cola, of course.

Only two things tend to survive an apocalypse — roaches and Coke. While this did lead to a highly interesting branch of bomb-shelter design incorporating a Coca-Cola filled barrier on all four sides of the shelter, testing proved it to be highly permeable to all but temporal effects (even that protection negated by the "flattening" effect), rendering it mostly harmless. That said, it did provide an antidote to the blandness of bomb-shelter food for those that installed them during the craze.

[Russell Nash]

One other thing is that on the way to NYC via the NJ Turnpike there's an electrical plant on the left side of the road (myself being oriented northish) that has several large (~10-15 m) flares erupting from towers, I assume to burn off volatiles. I'm fairly certain it only happens at night, but it's always made me flash to the flares in Blade Runner.

I know the exact place and always had the same exact thought.

Is it a power plant or a refinery.  I always thought they were cracking towers and they were burning off the lightest (most useless) gas.

[Darwinist]

One other thing is that on the way to NYC via the NJ Turnpike there's an electrical plant on the left side of the road (myself being oriented northish) that has several large (~10-15 m) flares erupting from towers, I assume to burn off volatiles. I'm fairly certain it only happens at night, but it's always made me flash to the flares in Blade Runner.

I know the exact place and always had the same exact thought.

Is it a power plant or a refinery.  I always thought they were cracking towers and they were burning off the lightest (most useless) gas.

Cool.  There is a similar place south of St. Paul, MN: the Koch Refinery.   A massive installation with the burning flames like you described.  At night it is all lit up an looks like the land of Oz.  You can see it for miles.

http://cheweb.tamu.edu/orgs/groups/anthony/Website/Images/oil%20refinery%202.jpg

[Heradel]

I know the exact place and always had the same exact thought.

Is it a power plant or a refinery.  I always thought they were cracking towers and they were burning off the lightest (most useless) gas.

I seem to remember reading the words 'cogeneration plant' on a sign there, which seems to be for electricity + steam, though it's far too far for the steam to be used in Manhattan's steam infrastructure, so maybe it's for Trenton.

[Russell Nash]

I know the exact place and always had the same exact thought.

Is it a power plant or a refinery.  I always thought they were cracking towers and they were burning off the lightest (most useless) gas.

I seem to remember reading the words 'cogeneration plant' on a sign there, which seems to be for electricity + steam, though it's far too far for the steam to be used in Manhattan's steam infrastructure, so maybe it's for Trenton.

There's a junk load of malls and office buildings there.  Plus it's next to Newark.

[Heradel]

There's a junk load of malls and office buildings there.  Plus it's next to Newark.

Right, sorry, finals week and my brain's trying to absorb Recursive Lear, er, King Loops. Drat.