MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Does alcohol still make sense in futuristic fiction? A question from an eBook author.

kacir · 05-21-2010, 03:06 AM

A long time ago the only way to get nice soft spreadable cheese was to let it "spoil" in a very specific way - for example by white mould. See Camembert.
Today we have technology to make luxurious, tasty, creamy spreadable cheese in factory by melting it and adding various Exxxx substances to it. Yet, "good old", smelly, mouldy original Camembert still sells for outrageous prices.

I think that a good wine, or a distillate of an the actual fermented fruit/honey/[insert organic product grown on distant planet here] will still be considered very appealing. And do not get me started on beer ;-)

Today we can make great photographs, we can make screens flat enough to hang on the wall, and yet people are still buying oil paintings.

A cheap gin - industrially manufactured alcohol imbibed with the aim of altering your state of perception - will be probably replaced by something else. A bioengineered drug, direct stimulation of brain, or even perhaps music (remember Dune?)

Also, consider that alcohol can be manufactured by anybody, using a few plastic bags, leftover juice, a bit of sugar, rice, grain (almost ANY food) and teeeeny bit of smuggled yeast. So if there are a dozen bored guys on a interplanetary vessel that have nothing better to do for weeks and months ... Combine that with lack of any drugs or other "forbidden", mind altering stuff on board and production of alcohol doesn't seem that far-fetched.

Just my 0.02Eur

[edit]
In my corner of the world some people [mostly prisoners, sometimes enlisted men in army] also drink extremely strong tea to get intoxicated. You would be very surprised how effective that could be.
Look up Chifir.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chifir%27

05-21-2010, 03:06 AM	#5
kacir Wizard Posts: 3,463 Karma: 10684861 Join Date: May 2006 Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20	A long time ago the only way to get nice soft spreadable cheese was to let it "spoil" in a very specific way - for example by white mould. See Camembert. Today we have technology to make luxurious, tasty, creamy spreadable cheese in factory by melting it and adding various Exxxx substances to it. Yet, "good old", smelly, mouldy original Camembert still sells for outrageous prices. I think that a good wine, or a distillate of an the actual fermented fruit/honey/[insert organic product grown on distant planet here] will still be considered very appealing. And do not get me started on beer ;-) Today we can make great photographs, we can make screens flat enough to hang on the wall, and yet people are still buying oil paintings. A cheap gin - industrially manufactured alcohol imbibed with the aim of altering your state of perception - will be probably replaced by something else. A bioengineered drug, direct stimulation of brain, or even perhaps music (remember Dune?) Also, consider that alcohol can be manufactured by anybody, using a few plastic bags, leftover juice, a bit of sugar, rice, grain (almost ANY food) and teeeeny bit of smuggled yeast. So if there are a dozen bored guys on a interplanetary vessel that have nothing better to do for weeks and months ... Combine that with lack of any drugs or other "forbidden", mind altering stuff on board and production of alcohol doesn't seem that far-fetched. Just my 0.02Eur [edit] In my corner of the world some people [mostly prisoners, sometimes enlisted men in army] also drink extremely strong tea to get intoxicated. You would be very surprised how effective that could be. Look up Chifir. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chifir%27 Last edited by kacir; 05-21-2010 at 03:12 AM.