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A small detail I found interesting while watching Minority Report recently: among all the futuristic innovations displayed and mentioned in this article, when it began to rain, people still opened up traditional black umbrellas.
That's from the top of my head.
A small detail I found interesting while watching Minority Report recently: among all the futuristic innovations displayed and mentioned in this article, when it began to rain, people still opened up traditional black umbrellas.
Umbrellas have been in use for thousands of years. Until we get head-mounted lasers that vapourise every incoming raindrop (probably not a great idea in itself) we're pretty much stuck with 'em.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
senz http://www.senzumbrellas.com/shop/home.php
As a Senz owner, was the grandparent a comment on company innovation or user adoption? As great as the Senz is, it lacks one of a regular umbrella's most compelling features; its handle is inconvenient to use, and, combined with the lack of a pointy end, you can't use it as a walking stick of sorts. This also makes umbrellas feel less cumbersome, because they still serve a purpose, when it is not raining. (And it als…
Was anyone else seriously pissed that the Spielberg version missed the entire point of the Dick story?
The story was fundamentally predicated on the assumption that the precognitive telepaths worked as advertised, but that the director's knowledge of their data combined with a data error causing them to take each others' output as input created an artifical scenario that could only really affect that one person. The film, on the other hand, turned them into a fundamentally flawed system that didn't and couldn't actually work; the minority report was removed, the concept of them feeding off each others' data was removed and we were left with nothing more than a motiveless, random crime being incorrectly predicted. Which, to me, completely undermined the point of the exercise.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's mostly because science fiction molds are view of the future and many inventors are influenced by that. I'm pretty sure that Star Trek influenced some of the inventors of the cell phone even if it wasn't consciously. Now we have things that are looking closer and closer to holodecks (all we need is photonic matter), the kinect is pretty proto-holodeck in my view. The touchscreen interfaces and iPads were…
There's actually some truth to this. Cool sci-fi can influence scientists and technologists to pursue ideas they see on screen or read about in books. Alternatively, it can inspire kids to want to become scientists or technologists. While I have no data to back this up, I imagine the genre has done a lot more good for the world than we'll ever know.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Umbrellas have been in use for thousands of years. Until we get head-mounted lasers that vapourise every incoming raindrop (probably not a great idea in itself) we're pretty much stuck with 'em.
Or you could wear waterproof clothing. Where I am in Europe I don't see too many umbrellas. They have a saying here: "There is no bad weather, just bad clothing".
- Your face and hands don't get wet, even when the rain is blowing sideways. (Coat-only waterproofing also leaves you with wet jeans and shoes.)
- You don't get basically just as wet anyhow on account of sweat being trapped inside the clothes. (Even "breathable" stuff traps sweat when its outside is slick with water.)
Hm, interesting. I only saw the movie about a month ago (and didn't even like it much) but it never occurred to me that the movie predicted anything correctly. I suppose because I took it out of context (in 2011, I took the things mentioned the article mostly for granted). Actually, the future predicted by the movie is pretty scary, in particular: - Automated cars that can be remotely controlled by the government - E…
I'm renting a Ford Edge right now. After a few minutes, the radio will mute itself until you buckle your seatbelt. The car is configured to limit your speed to 80 MPH or under. Even though I drive with my seatbelt on under 80 MPH anyways, it's really annoying for my car to tell me what to do.
In 2011, we have precrime. See video of those arrested for planning on staging street theatre to protest royal wedding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOli98fgBP0 [01:15] "This is minority report! Pre-crime! We're being arrested for street theater." It's amazing how well the British do fascism, complete with a bit of descent into absurdist comedy. Life imitates Terry Pratchett.