SciFi history?

[mike_bike_kite]

we're definitely getting close to thread hijacking here Of course, if we were discussing what types of languages SciFi authors thought the world would be using in the year 2000 then that would be an entirely different matter ...

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

we're definitely getting close to thread hijacking here Of course, if we were discussing what types of languages SciFi authors thought the world would be using in the year 2000 then that would be an entirely different matter ...

In a couple of his books, Robert Heinlein suggested that in the future, computers would be programmed in Loglan. Which is a synthetic human language that just might be precise enough to use as a programming language.

Nowadays, there is more energy focused on the spin-off language Lojban.

[pholy]

Maybe now it's time to go read Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney. It's been on my shelve for long enough to be part of SciFi history by now, and it's about languages, too.

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by pholy

Maybe now it's time to go read Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney. It's been on my shelve for long enough to be part of SciFi history by now, and it's about languages, too.

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3ao.html#sapir
Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
Gulf by Robert Heinlein
The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance

[mike_bike_kite]

Just came across another lovely example of SciFi history in The Test Colony by W. Marks (1954): My 20-hour wristwatch, geared to the shorter rotations of Sirius XXII, said nine o'clock.

I usually wear mechanical watches but at the time I was wearing a Suunto X-Lander which has all sorts of computer readouts including altimeter and compass. Again one of those neat situations where reality has overtaken the science fiction and made it look quaint.

[sabredog]

Another soon to be realised technology I first read about in books by H Beam Piper.

He described starships and domed/new colonies using "carniculture vats" to grow meat products in order to feed crew or colonists.

I read on a local news site that scientists have developed means to grow meat in vats to feed the words starving millions within 50 years.

Interesting...

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Another soon to be realised technology I first read about in books by H Beam Piper.

He described starships and domed/new colonies using "carniculture vats" to grow meat products in order to feed crew or colonists.

I read on a local news site that scientists have developed means to grow meat in vats to feed the words starving millions within 50 years.

A great website to read about SF ideas that have become reality is Technovelgy.
http://www.technovelgy.com/

Carniculture is here:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1155
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=850

[BenG]

I once read a story about robots programmed to replace real actors. I can't remember the name or the author, but they programmed the robots with magnetic tape.

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Well, for my part, I was taught WATFIV FORTRAN.
Oh those fussy Hollerith cards.

Sissy. WATFIV had logical IFs, and text error messages.

Fortran IV had error messages that looked like:


"C0983 error at 210 +0033"

[dpayment]

Originally Posted by nomesque

I think I can understand how you feel regarding ghosts, WW - must be hard to walk around seeing the spaces.



Do we have to let those who sneer steal a term from one of our own and use it as an insult? Bugger that!!

Quite honestly, I couldn't care less about those idiots who use the term SciFi in a derogatory manner. I know what it means to me, and that really is the only important issue. Letting other people control our lives by feeling insulted by the terminology they use is counter-productive. If you know you're a SciFi fan, you're the only one whose opinion you have to worry about. As for hard science fiction, soft science fiction, or fantasy, they're all part of the same thing, the "what would happen if" school of thought, otherwise known as "speculative fiction". Realistically, any fiction is speculative fiction, since every novel out there deals with a "what would happen if" situation.

I've been a SciFi fan since I was about 8 years old, I'm now 62, and I have never cared about what people have thought about my reading habits. It seems to me in watching the years go by that we've become too thin-skinned, we worry too much about what other people think of us. Political correctness should have limits, unfortunately we passed any kind of limit years and years ago. I mean, really, is "visually challenged" really necessary when blind says it so much better?

As long as one obeys the rules of rules of a rational society, and he treats others as he (and I just know someone's going to object that I didn't do the "he/she" thing, that thin skin is everywhere) would be treated, then everybody else can go hang.

My opinions, don't much care if you don't like them, you're welcome to your own.

Dan

[nyrath]

Oh, I've seen some prolonged heated flame-wars over the terms "SF", "SciFi", and "Skiffy" that went on for months. Some of these I saw on usenet newsgroups in the late 1990's.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Oh, I've seen some prolonged heated flame-wars over the terms "SF", "SciFi", and "Skiffy" that went on for months. Some of these I saw on usenet newsgroups in the late 1990's.

I haven't seen them lately, but there are still knee jerk reflexes.

The term SciFi was coined by the late Forrest J. Ackerman (a/k/a "4SJ"), as a contraction of Scientifiction, the term coined by Hugo Gernsbach to describe what he was publishing in his pulp magazines Amazing Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories in the 20's. SF had been around before, but Hugo was the first to devote publications to it and give the genre a name. Despite his status as a member of First Fandom, author, editor, agent, and owner of the world's largest SF/Fantasy collection, a lot of folks never quite forgave Forry for coining the appellation.

Unfortunately, SF took a long time to gain acceptance in the mass market. It was the sort of thing you wrapped in a disguising cover, to fend of the "You read that SciFi crap?" comments. To the rest of the world, the term connoted lurid pulp trash and nonsensical Buck Rogers movie serials.

Serious fans of literary SF vastly preferred SF to SciFi as the descriptor, and there was a strong movement in the 60's and 70's to call the genre Speculative Fiction instead of Science Fiction. The late Judith Merrill once proposed in one of her Best SF anthologies that SF might stand for "Space Fish".

But fighting against SciFi was always a rear guard action. At this point, pretty much everyone has grudgingly accepted that SciFi is the term people will use, and console themselves that at least the genre now has mass market acceptance, with SF/Fantasy being regular fare in movies and TV, and SF and Fantasy titles hitting best seller lists.

I just tell people "I watch SciFi. I read SF."
______
Dennis

[GeoffC]

SciFi is easier to say ....

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Oh, I've seen some prolonged heated flame-wars over the terms "SF", "SciFi", and "Skiffy" that went on for months. Some of these I saw on usenet newsgroups in the late 1990's.

skiffy? was someone attempting to be really droll?

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

skiffy? was someone attempting to be really droll?

Yes, it was coined by a man I really respect, the late David Potter.

I miss him.