Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 6, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 6, 2019 Came across this earlier today... Some scans from a book making predictions about 21st century living, from 1979 - Usborne’s The World of the Future series: Future Cities. Pretty fascinating to see how they imagined future at the time! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted January 6, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 6, 2019 6 minutes ago, nudge said: Came across this earlier today... Some scans from a book making predictions about 21st century living, from 1979 - Usborne’s The World of the Future series: Future Cities. Pretty fascinating to see how they imagined future at the time! 2 Lol, you must have read my brain, earlier on I was looking for this Sci-Fi tread by @Bluewolf and seen it sitting in page 2 and was trying to think of something to 'Bump' it up, one of the pictures that was in the photos reminded me of Arnie Schwarzene in 'Total Recall' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 17 minutes ago, nudge said: Came across this earlier today... Some scans from a book making predictions about 21st century living, from 1979 - Usborne’s The World of the Future series: Future Cities. Pretty fascinating to see how they imagined future at the time! I will take a closer look at that tomorrow when my eyes are a little more focused.. looks really good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted January 7, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 7, 2019 R.I.P. William Quote British actor and voice actor William Morgan Sheppard has died aged 86. He is best-known for his work on Star Trek across the years, playing the Rura Penth commandant in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the chief Vulcan Science Council minister in 2009’s Star Trek, Data’s “grandfather” Ira Graves in The Next Generation episode “The Schizoid Man,” and as Quatai in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Bliss.” https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/celebrity/william-morgan-sheppard-death-star-trek-and-doctor-who-actor-dies-aged-86/ar-BBRUMvh?ocid=chromentp 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) On 27/12/2018 at 12:59, nudge said: In memory of Carrie Fisher who passed away two years ago today... some behind the scenes pictures from the filming of the original Star Wars trilogy... Some nice pictures there Nudge... This one amused me when I saw it... Edited January 8, 2019 by Bluewolf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 8, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 8, 2019 5 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: Some nice pictures there Nudge... This one amused me when I saw it... Never seen that before Perfection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Looking forward to seeing what they do with this series when it finally airs... Rumor is knocking about that Karl Urban was interested in continuing the role of Dredd as long as they gave him some good story lines and expanded on his character a bit.. One can only hope! If they are going to cover the story 'Democracy' then that would be a quality one if they get the mood right... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 8, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 8, 2019 22 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: Looking forward to seeing what they do with this series when it finally airs... Rumor is knocking about that Karl Urban was interested in continuing the role of Dredd as long as they gave him some good story lines and expanded on his character a bit.. One can only hope! If they are going to cover the story 'Democracy' then that would be a quality one if they get the mood right... I really need to watch the reboot... I've only ever seen the Stallone one and never read the comics so it's been pretty much off my radar. On a somewhat related note, have you read Frank Herbert's Dune or seen the movie (pretty bad)/mini-series (pretty decent)? Well the news are that Dennis Villeneuve, the director of Arrival and the new Blade Runner, has acquired rights a few years ago and is now working a new film adaptation of the novel; in fact he's hoping to make two or more Dune movies I'm sooooo looking forward to someone getting it right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) 31 minutes ago, nudge said: I really need to watch the reboot... I've only ever seen the Stallone one and never read the comics so it's been pretty much off my radar. On a somewhat related note, have you read Frank Herbert's Dune or seen the movie (pretty bad)/mini-series (pretty decent)? Well the news are that Dennis Villeneuve, the director of Arrival and the new Blade Runner, has acquired rights a few years ago and is now working a new film adaptation of the novel; in fact he's hoping to make two or more Dune movies I'm sooooo looking forward to someone getting it right... I did a big write up on the differences in the two movies back on the old forum after watching the second one but that's probably lost now.. Both had positives and negatives for me.. Stallone was a terrible over acted version of Dredd who never ever said "I knew you'd say that" and kept taking his helmet off but what I liked about it was that it tried to cram a lot in to it.. The City was colourful and crazy full of the strange and weird just like the City is.. They had Rico his clone brother, The Angel Gang and even managed to fit Hammerstein the war robot from the ABC Warriors in it.. ( different storyline and time altogether ) The Lawmaster Bikes were a good replica as well.. They are big heavy duty Harley type bikes.. The second one Karl Urban played Dredd just as he should be.. a grizzled veteran of many years of street service, no fun or joy to be had just a bloke applying the full letter of the law who never takes his helmet off.. Credit also has to go for the selection of Olivia Thirlby who was an superb version of Anderson, bit of a rule breaker with a better outlook on life as a PSI Judge and often the lighter more upbeat partner to Dredd on some of his more serious cases.. Lena Heady was also a great move and loved her hard unforgiving character.. The City and the Bikes were not like the first movie but budget restrictions probably didn't allow for more so it was forgivable. What it did do quite well was show the city as it is.. crime ridden and largely a joyless concrete jungle.. I have seen Dune the movie but never saw the series... If they make a couple more then we can expect good things from that Edited January 8, 2019 by Bluewolf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 Inspired by @CaaC - John's post in the Space thread yesterday about the discovery of repeated fast radio bursts and the subsequent discussion with @Bluewolf, I thought it'd be a good time to recommend a very fascinating sci-fi book (or rather a trilogy) that deals with the subject and which is a part of the best sci-fi literature in recent years for sure. But before that, it's important to be familiar with a few concepts as the books deal with all these great theories about physics and the universe and threads them together into a fantastically epic story that determines the course of all humanity. So first of all, the Drake equation. As you're probably aware the equation is a science based thought experiment that is used to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the cosmos, or more simply put, the odds of finding intelligent life in the universe. Here's it is illustrated: I won't go into detailed discussion about each variable in the equation but one way or another, even if you were to plug in the lowest possible values for each component of the equation, it still indicates that alien life is statistically inevitable (even if not in our galaxy, but rather the universe as a whole.) So given that, we come to another interesting concept called the Fermi Paradox which refers to the contradiction between the absence of evidence and the high probability estimations for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. There are a growing number of hypothesis trying to solve the paradox by looking for potential reasons why there has been no contact or at least signs of intelligent life out there; I posted a few videos about it earlier in this thread, but I would like to leave this video here as it's a very nice overview of the topic on hand: And finally we come to the last thing to be familiar with before I move to the actual book recommendation (bear with me! ); and that's one of the hypothesis for the Fermi Paradox which is known as the Dark Forest theory, and it is, well, dark... The main postulates of this hypothesis claim that: All life desires to stay alive. There is no way to know if other lifeforms can or will destroy you if given a chance. Lacking assurances, the safest option for any species is to annihilate other life forms before they have a chance to do the same. So basically the hypothesis claims that all intelligent life forms are expected to be risk-averse, contact of any kind is dangerous, as it almost assuredly would lead to the contacted race wiping out whoever was foolish enough to give away their location. Therefore civilizations are so fearful of being detected that they purposely avoid sending out any radio evidence of their existence and choose to hide in radio silence instead. And thus the proponents of this hypothesis raise the question whether we should stop broadcasting our existence to the universe too then as being found would inevitably end in our demise and destruction? And so I finally move to the actual book trilogy recommendation starting with an excerpt from one of the novels: "The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds another life—another hunter, angel, or a demon, a delicate infant to tottering old man, a fairy or demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them." And at last, I present you Cixin Liu’s highly acclaimed trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past. It consists of three novels: #1 The Three-Body Problem #2 The Dark Forest #3 Death's End Highly recommended. Do yourself a favour and read it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 30 minutes ago, nudge said: So basically the hypothesis claims that all intelligent life forms are expected to be risk-averse, contact of any kind is dangerous, as it almost assuredly would lead to the contacted race wiping out whoever was foolish enough to give away their location. Therefore civilizations are so fearful of being detected that they purposely avoid sending out any radio evidence of their existence and choose to hide in radio silence instead. And thus the proponents of this hypothesis raise the question whether we should stop broadcasting our existence to the universe too then as being found would inevitably end in our demise and destruction? 1 Makes you shiver a wee bit if you believe what some movies show or might even happen like Close Encounters of the 3rd kind or even worse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 39 minutes ago, nudge said: So first of all, the Drake equation. As you're probably aware the equation is a science based thought experiment that is used to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the cosmos, or more simply put, the odds of finding intelligent life in the universe. Here's it is illustrated: You know when you are standing in a group around someone who is explaining something and even though you don't understand a word of it you keep your mouth shut and try to look serious the whole time and nod your head periodically to indicate that you are fully on board to give the impression you know exactly what they are talking about... That's me right there... I have never heard of the Drake equation but thanks to you I have now... It's great how you don't just assume that we are all a bunch of pitchfork wielding farmers with straw hanging out their mouths.. gotta love you for that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 4 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: You know when you are standing in a group around someone who is explaining something and even though you don't understand a word of it you keep your mouth shut and try to look serious the whole time and nod your head periodically to indicate that you are fully on board to give the impression you know exactly what they are talking about... That's me right there... I have never heard of the Drake equation but thanks to you I have now... It's great how you don't just assume that we are all a bunch of pitchfork wielding farmers with straw hanging out their mouths.. gotta love you for that! I used to teach applied statistics to a bunch of 19 year olds who used to put on exactly the same face most of the time; I know well how to keep fragile egos in tact At any case, the Drake equation shouldn't be taken too seriously as it's just a conceptual framework; it's essentially impossible to assign values for most of the variables in the equation with certainty in order to apply it practically. Here's a good infographic for more info... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 @nudge I am just looking around to see if I can find an online version of those books and I came across this with my first search and didn't know if you were aware of it? https://gbtimes.com/amazon-to-produce-chinese-sci-fi-the-three-body-problem-for-us1bn That was last reported in March of last year so don't know if they have made any progress with it or not since then?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 2 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: @nudge I am just looking around to see if I can find an online version of those books and I came across this with my first search and didn't know if you were aware of it? https://gbtimes.com/amazon-to-produce-chinese-sci-fi-the-three-body-problem-for-us1bn That was last reported in March of last year so don't know if they have made any progress with it or not since then?? That would be great... The Chinese apparently tried to make a film adaptation but the first cut was apparently so awful they ended up canceling it altogether haha... now reading this it actually looks like it's going to be released in China but no word on Amazon https://gbtimes.com/film-based-on-three-body-problem-writers-sci-fi-story-set-for-february-release-in-china Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 32 minutes ago, nudge said: That would be great... The Chinese apparently tried to make a film adaptation but the first cut was apparently so awful they ended up canceling it altogether haha... now reading this it actually looks like it's going to be released in China but no word on Amazon https://gbtimes.com/film-based-on-three-body-problem-writers-sci-fi-story-set-for-february-release-in-china I would be better off reading the books prior to seeing any film/tv adaption... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 4 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: I would be better off reading the books prior to seeing any film/tv adaption... Absolutely...Let me know what you think if you do read them! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 42 minutes ago, nudge said: I used to teach applied statistics to a bunch of 19 year olds who used to put on exactly the same face most of the time; I know well how to keep fragile egos in tact At any case, the Drake equation shouldn't be taken too seriously as it's just a conceptual framework; it's essentially impossible to assign values for most of the variables in the equation with certainty in order to apply it practically. Here's a good infographic for more info... You have put 2 very good and informative posts up now with tons to read through and as I am back to work tomorrow I now feel like I am under pressure to cram it in before going back on shift... I feel like if I don't get it all in today I am going to end up with B- on my course work and have to explain to someone why I never paid more attention.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 10, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 10, 2019 1 minute ago, Bluewolf said: You have put 2 very good and informative posts up now with tons to read through and as I am back to work tomorrow I now feel like I am under pressure to cram it in before going back on shift... I feel like if I don't get it all in today I am going to end up with B- on my course work and have to explain to someone why I never paid more attention.... No pressure... You can always binge-watch the Expanse instead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 6 hours ago, nudge said: No pressure... You can always binge-watch the Expanse instead Looks like I am heading for a B- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 (edited) With Judge Dredd/Mega City One - Already under way here are a couple of the other 2000ad characters I would enjoy seeing converted into a series.... Bounty Hunter Johnny Alpha and his sidekick Wulf Sternhammer a Norseman who Alpha brought back with him from a time jump... His mutant ability is he has vision like an x-ray machine that can see through anything which gives him a serious edge when it comes to hunting down criminals.. such a range of characters and stories to explore it has plenty to work with... The premise of the series is that the Great Nuclear War of 2150 wiped out 70% of Britain's population and led to a huge increase of mutant births due to exposure to nuclear fallout (strontium-90). The mutants faced a high degree of racism, similar to that faced by the Jewish population of Nazi Germany. Laws were passed forbidding mutants from owning businesses and segregating them into ghettos such as a giant mutant settlement at Milton Keynes. Following the end of this storyline, in 2180, one of the few jobs left for mutants is that of bounty hunter, a job considered too dangerous for normal humans. The strongest of mutants hunt down criminals throughout the galaxy for the Search/Destroy agency, whose distinctive SD badges give them the nickname Strontium Dogs. The SD agents operate from an orbiting space station known as The Doghouse. The ABC Warriors ( Atomic Bacterial Chemical ) The A.B.C. Warriors are a team of war robots designed to withstand 'Atomic', 'Bacterial' and 'Chemical' warfare. They were built to take part in the long-running Volgan War, which Mills had described in several previous 2000 AD strips, including Invasion! and Ro-Busters. Each robot has a distinctive personality – often one programmed by its human creators – but each is more or less able to act with free will. When wars were fought using Robots instead of people this makeshift group of Robots are led by Hammerstein on various missions. Hammerstein you will have already had a glimpse of if you have seen the first Stallone version of Dredd. Don't hold out much hope for this one given the popularity of Transformers as they would seem on paper at least to be too similar... Edited January 15, 2019 by Bluewolf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 15, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 15, 2019 Never took you for a comic book fan @Bluewolf! I haven't read any of it since my early teens and now am slowly getting back into it. Won't bore you with all the titles in the Star Wars universe that I've read or am currently reading (Darth Vader one is absolutely amazing though ), but there are also a few others that I hold in high regard... Just started reading Saga a while ago. It's a weird sci-fi-fantasy-romance-war-adventure epic that has it all - there is magic, profanity, television-headed robots, intergalactic bounty hunters, nudity, endless warfare, complex villains, empathetic heroes, ghostly baby-sitters and spaceship trees, all beautifully realised in a distinctive digitally painted style. Love it. Another one - Valérian. A classic French sci-fi series first published in the late 60s and was arguably a Star Wars inspiration to a certain degree... It is a true space opera that takes the reader off into the universe of the distant future, where two agents, Valérian and Laureline, travel through time-space in a vessel chartered by Galaxity, the capital of the Earth Empire. Their travels are jam-packed with adventure, humor and fantasy. East of West - a science fiction Western set in a dystopian version of the United States whose fate rests with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Descender- my new favourite. One young robot's struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. A rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey that pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling space opera in the aftermath of the collapse of a great and shining human civilization. And then of course there's Heavy Metal... Recently found the whole archive online so slowly working through it... I'm still amazed with the art in it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewolf Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 8 minutes ago, nudge said: Never took you for a comic book fan @Bluewolf! I started reading comics when I was a lot younger well before my teens but 2000ad stayed with me on and off, I remember buying the very first issue and at the time it was refreshing and unlike any other titles out there but I drifted in and out over the years and one day I came across a copy of Heavy Metal Magazine that was on sale so I gave it a quick read.. Loved it, The Art, the storylines the articles.. In the early days 2000ad appealed to the younger generation obviously but it grew with its fanbase and the stories became more adult and complicated as well as the art that went with it now they appeal to an older generation that grew up with it.. I have a whole load of them up in the loft somewhere and maybe I could sort through them at some point.. I would be interested in that link for Heavy Metal if possible.. I will send you a link to a place I found as well 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted January 15, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted January 15, 2019 22 minutes ago, Bluewolf said: I started reading comics when I was a lot younger well before my teens but 2000ad stayed with me on and off, I remember buying the very first issue and at the time it was refreshing and unlike any other titles out there but I drifted in and out over the years and one day I came across a copy of Heavy Metal Magazine that was on sale so I gave it a quick read.. Loved it, The Art, the storylines the articles.. In the early days 2000ad appealed to the younger generation obviously but it grew with its fanbase and the stories became more adult and complicated as well as the art that went with it now they appeal to an older generation that grew up with it.. I have a whole load of them up in the loft somewhere and maybe I could sort through them at some point.. I would be interested in that link for Heavy Metal if possible.. I will send you a link to a place I found as well I have never read 2000ad... Should give it a go. Given that it's got over 2000 issues it's probably going to keep me busy for a while 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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