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Space elevator. But those damn lazy scientists just mentioned can't be bothered making the carbon nanotubes a decent length so we can't make one.
Although at least classical rockets ain't as stupid as the Orion idea. Not as cool either, though. -
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CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
- CommentTimeJan 23rd 2008
The Orion wasn't so much stupid as it just SOUNDED stupid. The actual math seems to add up. George Dyson, Freeman's son, wrote a book about it, and after reading it I'm pretty convinced it was, and still might be, a good idea. -
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I was joking, really. Ever since I first heard of the Orion system, I've thought it sounded brilliant, even if it would be hard to make it get mainstream acceptance. Because it's a bit insane-sounding. But I read David Weber's The Stars At War series where they use an Orion system to move an asteroid into position to be a kinetic weapon against a planet. It was good. It's a good system for deep-space where nukes /fallout are not really an issue.
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Hold on a minute everyone, the future might be closer than you think:
Branson is chomping at the bit to send anyone with $200,000 to spare into space. He is planning on bringing the price down after a few years, which is nice of him.
Handily, it also provides us with a theoretical watershed for when we can officially declare the the future becomes yesterday's news: the moment Easyjet start offering cattle-class trips into orbit for £5 with seven coupons from The Daily Mirror. -
Why the hell aren't we fighting wars with Battlemechs via remote control yet? With two entire generations so far being so adept at console gaming, why haven't we had Robo-World War III?
Given I'd rather drive a giant metallic behemoth down to do the weekly shopping than risk scratching it in combat, but the question remains. If AIBO and ASIMO are the top of the circuitry food chain, I'm not impressed. At least get going on the ED-209s, people. -
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CommentAuthoralwayscrashing
- CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
Why the hell aren't we fighting wars with Battlemechs via remote control yet?
I think that sort of requires a level of trust and a sense of fair play not usually found between two countries who are at war... -
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@DONAR: there's actually an army recruitment ad that's been doing the rounds on British telly that show some kind of light surveillance craft being controlled remotely by some spotty oik with an Xbox 360 controller. (tried looking for it on youtube, got bored, sorry)
But again, my natural pessimism kicks in. Take a moment to look through any comments thread at www.kotaku.com and then try to imagine entire armies made up of console gamers. And then tremble in fear at the thought of the last war for the future of humanity being fought over which platform is better: Playstation or Xbox. -
I always liked this shirt over at threadless, but the last line just doesnt work for me :/
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You can keep your jetpack, I just want to know that in ten years or so when my poor, mistreated organs began giving out there will be fresh vat-grown, new organs for scientists to install me so that I can keep abusing all the various drugs and chemicals I want.
Self-determined lifespan would be a treat, too. -
Branson's space-tourism is one of the best things to happen for space research in recent times. The best way to get any technology moving in the modern world is to connect it (however tenuously) to the private sector, and with a long list or rich people lines up that's happening already.
And Unsub, your better batteries are on the way - a nanoengineered silicon arrangement that's looking at multiplying capacity and lifespan by about ten. This is the kind or real advance nanotech will make for us in every field - people might be waiting for their gray goo and their replicators, but the extension of existing fields to great extremes with molecular-level control is much more interesting to me. Perfect conductors are hoped for, vast memories are on the cards, improved batteries are on the way and they've already created nano-explosives for use against cancer tumours - and those are just the ones I read in the last couple of days. It's the ones we're not expecting that'll be particularly awesome. -
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CommentAuthorsynthsapien
- CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
Malsain - you should really read the earlier posts mate... heh heh. I wore it for a while and wasn't expecting the number of people who went into a tirade after reading it. -
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I'm still waiting for flying cars and hoverboards from Back to the Future.
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I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.Oh my gosh! I jokingly said sexbots and look what I found on the net.
<img src="http://<a href="http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7570605" target="_blank"><img src="http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/1/2702072727.jpg" " alt="" />
They are these life size quite realistic sexdolls from Japan(of course). They were so realistic that they fooled my girl radar and I did quite the double take when I realized they
were not models. At first I was not the least bit interested but now that give it some thought maybe when the price comes down? I would need one that laughed at my jokes
and said "tee hee hee unsub your so funny". when i press the remote though. I can honestly say i have dated girls dumber than a top of the line modern PC.
Luke i hope your right about the batteries. There are a lot of great stuff just waiting for the right power source. -
Unsub, those things are creepy. A few years ago, I was at a Chiller-con with some buddies, one of our friends is an editor at Fango. So we hung out with him in his room, where they had left one of the sex dolls some indy studio had used to film a horror movie about the sex dolls. That one wasn't Asian though and her facial features were slightly less realistic then those dolls.
Yes, she was fully equipped for fake lovemaking. Yes, one of my friends used his finger. No, there was no orgy with the fake girl. -
@MaC
What was the movie? The only films I'm aware of that center on sex dolls are pornos.
A few years ago, I was at a Chiller-con with some buddies, one of our friends is an editor at Fango. So we hung out with him in his room, where they had left one of the sex dolls some indy studio had used to film a horror movie about the sex dolls.
edit: not counting 'Lars and the Real Doll' of course. -
A really early MAD comic (Kurtzman era, late 50s) had a Sci-Fi story illustrated by Wally Wood. It was set in a futuristic metropolis and featured characters -- all men I recall -- who were so wimpy that they traveled around in hover chairs. They were energetic enough for sex, though, and were frequented vending machines that sold disposable sex robots.
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I think we don't have jetpacks for the same reason we don't have flying cars: we shouldn't. We can still, generally speaking, barely handle piloting vehicles through 2 dimensions. Do we really need a 3rd to smash each other around in?
Though I'd expected at least one lunar colony by now. I mean, come on. Good job on the internet, but we could do with a little more future than that.
That said, maybe it's best we're not getting a sci-fi future. Given the current state of things, we'd just end up with one of the dystopian ones.