Why I Sci-Fi!

Sometimes science fiction authors come up with technology that we WISH we could have. When I read or watch Sci-fi, I always keep track of all of the inventions that I hope to see invented within my lifetime.  Here are my 4 favorites! Replicators! This is a current 3D Printer that is printing a hamburger. Image Source One of the most awesome inventions in Sci-Fi is the replicator. Replicators are used to create food or other simple objects seemingly from thin air. It's a little similar to the 3-D printers that we have now, but much more advanced. In Star Trek  the replicators use some sort of organic material to create food, supplies, etc at the molecular level. But that's not all-- the food that they replicate is always nutritional!  Want ice-cream or cake without any calories? Done! A greasy pizza without the heartburn? Done! Additionally, you don't have to cook it! You're a 5-Star chef at the press of a button! Holodecks/Holographic Rooms ...

Nearly two-thirds of American adults own a smartphone. We’re tied to our technology-- imagine if it had never been invented. Luckily, science fiction authors were there to help inspire new ideas and inventions with their writing. Science Fiction is beneficial to society because it has helped to inspire new inventions, and it allows people to think about our future. Goddard and his rocket in early stages. Image Source  Firstly, science fiction has helped society by inspiring new inventions. According to Smithsonian.com, inventor Robert H. Goddard “became fascinated with spaceflight after reading an 1898 newspaper serialization of H.G. Wells’ classic novel... War of the Worlds. ” He later went on to build the first rocket.  Without this inspiration, Goddard may never have been inspired to create the rocket-- which means much of the space exploration that scientists have done wouldn't exist. Science fiction was also the inspiration behind the cell phone, which is based...

Sometimes new inventions pop up in the news, and you have to wonder if they're even real! The older I get, the more "space-age" type technology starts showing up in real life. A lot of these cool new inventions were inspired by science fiction from year's past. I'll talk about a few of these in this blog post. 1: The Submarine I wrote about Jules Verne in a previous post linked here. His story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea  inspired the invention of the Submarine. Verne's story was published in 1870 and featured the Nautilus -- a huge submarine that helped Captain Nemo battle a giant squid. The first submarine was finished in 1898 by American inventor Simon Lake. Lake said that he was directly influence by Verne's story. Here's the late Leonard Nemoy with one of the "communicators." 2: The Cell Phone When Motorola began developing plans for a communications device that you could take anywhere, they looked to Star Trek  for inspi...

This is Jules Verne ( Image Source ) Science Fiction is a genre that's often taken for granted. Nowadays, we're constantly confronted by images of aliens, rocket ships, and far off planets to be discovered. In fiction, we've colonized Mars-- made first encounters with both gracious and evil aliens. This wasn't always the case, however. There was an age where these kinds of ideas were very much alien-- but Jules Verne changed all of that! Ever heard of the Nautilus? Around the World in 80 Days?  All of these stories sprung from the mind of French author Jules Verne. Born in a port city in France, Verne watched the ships and travelers of his home town in constant wonder. Though he wouldn't get to sail the seas and explore until much later in life, the idea of exploration enticed his imagination through his childhood and young adulthood. This is an original illustration from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. ( Image Source ) Verne's writing didn't take ...

So Star Wars came out, and it was amazing. I won't spoil anything for you, but you should I'm all for Frylo Ren here, but I'd also like a Ms. Po-Rey-To Head. Image Source definitely see it. Unfortunately, this post is about something I haven't seen. It's missing from toy departments all over the country. It's Rey. You know-- Rey! The main character. The awesome girl who kicks some real butt and stands up to the Dark Side baddies? The girl who can repair space ships? As I wondered through the toy section of Kohl's the other day, the trending discussion of missing Rey toys was confirmed. The aisle was filled Star Wars  merchandise, but no Rey. There was even a Kylo Ren Mr. Potatohead... and no Rey. Let's have a little flashback to my childhood to share why this issue causes me so much rage. It's 1998. The  Star Wars  trilogy is playing for a second time in theaters, and I'm out-of-my-mind excited. I've seen the movies before, b...

With the new Star Wars movie lingering just around the edge of next month, my anticipation is seriously building. As someone who lived through the release of the "new" Star Wars movies (Episodes 1, 2, and 3), I have many concerns. The most recent Star Wars flicks were the things of legends... bad, horrible, extremely disappointing legends. Jar-Jar Binks. Enough said. While I have high hopes for Star Wars: The Force Awakens , I have some serious concerns, too. Here are a few! There are few characters that I hate more than Jar-Jar. ( Image Source ) 1: Please-- no ridiculous, comic-relief only aliens. No Jar-Jar repeats. If your character is only there to get a laugh, the character is not a well-developed character. Weave the comedy into what you have-- don't jab in a character whose sole purpose is to make people laugh. Generally, it doesn't make people laugh. Intelligent and witty humor is what makes the difference between an entertaining movie and a g...

Children's movies are some of the most under-appreciated genres in film. There are some amazing This is Wall-E, looking especially  adorable. ( Image Source )  movies out there that were made for children, and adults can absolutely appreciate them, too. One of my favorites is Wall-E, a Pixar film from 2008. Wall-E has some of my favorite themes and ideas from science fiction. It's set in a future where humanity is forced to live aboard giant cruise-ship like space crafts because they have left Earth wasted and in ruins. Wall-E-- a tiny trash compactor robot-- is still on Earth trying to clean up all of the trash left behind when humans abandoned Earth. When Wall-E finds a sapling, another robot shows up to collect the very valuable baby tree-- and it's robot love-at-first sight! The two robots, and the human captain of one of the ships, work together to help the Earth that they left in ruins years before. This is the captain. He seems bad at first, but he is one of the ...