Science Fiction


Touch Me, Feel Me

It won’t be a surpise to the average scifi reader that someone has developed a networked “hug suit.” Tim Worstall is, though, amazed by what is unsaid :

They manage to get all the way through the report without mentioning what it’ll actually be used for. How long before the first spam email asking whether you have such a suit? And would you like to be squeezed by that 18 year old Ukrainian girl you can watch on the webcam?

Perhaps Oprah will take an in depth look at how this might impact pron addiction on tomorrow’s show. (I’ll update the link on Thursday after the show runs)
And, yes, it does seem like a good investment opportunity…the mind simply boggles at the possible variations and add-ons. Of course, there is no reason that this has to be a one way thing either.


Those Sci-Fi Movies

Jaquandor did the heavy lifting and kicked off this list’m and mark’m meme pulled from John Scalzi’s new book The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies wherein Scalzi provides

The Canon: Reviews and commentary on the 50 science fiction films you have to see before you die (more on this in a minute)

You know the routine: the one’s in bold are ones I’ve seen (it’s possible that I’ve seen a few of the unmarked ones and just don’t remember’m):
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
The Damned
Destination Moon
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Delicatessen
Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
The Fly (1985 version)
Forbidden Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix (I like it a little bit less each time I watch it.)
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop

Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The Stepford Wives
Superman
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Thing From Another World

Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey

La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)
Oh yea, where the hell is Serenity? Well, I guess we have to read the book:

No, Serenity didn’t make the list. Deal with it (it is in the book, though. Page 24. Big shout-out to Joss Whedon there, too, although I don’t have very nice things to say about his Alien Resurrection script when I review that movie on page 59. Please don’t hurt me, Whedon fans).

I won’t argue specifics without reading what Scalzi says. Suffice it to say, for now, that as a movie Serenity runs circles around quite a few of the flicks on this list. On the other hand we may not have Serenity if not for all those that came before.