Sci-Fi chit-chat

[Rof L Mao Esq]

As sci-fi goes, I don't think to this day that "2001: A Space Odyssey" has been outdone. It was produced in 1968 with plastic models and unknown actors, and presents challenges to the viewer about the human future and that of technology that still await an answer.

In a similar vein but of less public significance in that period is "Silent Running" with Bruce Dern. Again, the questions it poses are still valid, and still in need of serious examination.

[FloatyBoaty]

As sci-fi goes, I don't think to this day that "2001: A Space Odyssey" has been outdone. It was produced in 1968 with plastic models and unknown actors, and presents challenges to the viewer about the human future and that of technology that still await an answer.

Maybe, but it is rreeallyy dry.

[Marx]

Superb film. Just amazing.

[Rof L Mao Esq]

It's a pre-internet thing about "2001" that makes it work for older audiences, called an "attention span". Once upon a time that was longer than eighteen seconds in average human interaction...

(just giving our younger bro's a hard time, no offense...)

Curiously, before Windows and the advent of cheaper computers, the consistent vision of sci-fi authors was of supercomputers like HAL 9000 who became smarter than us and got bored with our imperfections. Now, it seems the opposite has happened, the units themselves are getting smaller and their interfaces made simpler to deal with a population that seems to get dumber the more we use them. I still wonder, though, if the internet itself as a whole will not begin to take on a virtual personality that begins to lose patience with its human friends. That already seems to be happening in a way with widening security protocols and phenomena such as needing a credit score and a criminal background check to apply for a job washing dishes...

[felixblue]

Red Dwarf was a good concept while it lasted and many memorable quotes from that series have served me well over the years..

Our first contact with intelligent life in three million and two years and it's the android version of Norman Bates.-Rimmer

Well, Mister Arnold is my master now.-Kryten
"Mister Arnold" isn't his name. His name's "Rimmer." Or "Smeghead." Or "Dinosaur Breath" or "Molecule Mind." And on a really special occasion when you want to be really mega-polite to him, Kryten, we're talking MEGA-polite, in those exceptional circumstances, you can call him "Arse-hole."-Lister

[Rof L Mao Esq]

Fixin' to watch one of my ATF's (AllTimeFaves) tonight from Netflix DVD:

(don't laugh)

"Robinson Crusoe on Mars"

For its day, this (despite the preposterous title) was a fairly searching film about loneliness, survival and liberty. I first saw it on late-night Los Angeles TV in the 70s with Cal Worthington and His Dog Spot coming on selling used cars every ten minutes, and tonight I get to see it for the first time ever in its unadulterated, uninterrupted, original form. Can't wait...

[FloatyBoaty]

Fixin' to watch one of my ATF's (AllTimeFaves) tonight from Netflix DVD: (don't laugh)"Robinson Crusoe on Mars"For its day, this (despite the preposterous title) was a fairly searching film about loneliness, survival and liberty. I first saw it on late-night Los Angeles TV in the 70s with Cal Worthington and His Dog Spot coming on selling used cars every ten minutes, and tonight I get to see it for the first time ever in its unadulterated, uninterrupted, original form. Can't wait...

Sounds like something to checkout.