fannish5: Useful sci fi gadgets

[selenak]

Name 5 things from science fiction's vision of the future that you wish you had now.

1) Sonic screwdriver. (Doctor Who) Never mind breaking out of prison situations, this would come in handy with the computer problems and radiator problems that plague my existence now and then. And broken car locks. (Happened to father & self ten days ago when we went skiing. V. v. inconvenient.)

2) Universal translator. (Star Trek) I could pick the Farscape nanoprobe variation as well, I suppose, but my original fannish loyalty makes me go for the original UT. The quintessential travelling tool, and it doesn't require the other party to have one, too.

3) Spaceship capable of interstellar travel. (ST, B5, B7, FS - take your pick.) Because I would love to see alien planets ("new life and new civilisations...") and am a hopeless romantic about the idea of travelling among the stars. Which, btw, is why I do NOT want to be either in the Firefly or in the BSG verse. As opposed to certain actors, I want my aliens. Down with speciesism! Also handy in case we keep ruining our planet.

4) Psychic paper. (Doctor Who.) Never mind that fee for parking wrong, I totally have a permit!

5) Jedi cloak. (Star Wars, specifically the prequels.) Why? Simple. Because the Jedi shed those cloaks whenever they engage in duels, and yet said cloaks ALWAYS seem to come back instead of lying on the ground of various star ships, palaces and exotic planets. Also, they survive all sorts of weather conditions without showing signs of tearing. As someone prone to forget umbrellas, I want one of these.

You'll notice the glaring absence of a time travel machine. This is because the TARDIS isn't a thing and something like the Skynet method of time travel will just catapult me back naked into the 80s. Seriously, who wants that?

Comments

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Because the Jedi shed those cloaks whenever they engage in duels, and yet said cloaks ALWAYS seem to come back instead of lying on the ground of various star ships, palaces and exotic planets. Also, they survive all sorts of weather conditions without showing signs of tearing.

You know, the explanation that immediately comes to mind for that is one that some people would find a bit creepy :-)

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

That would be an amusing crack crossover. Venom is a Jedi cloak gone Dark Side (where do you think the Sith get theirs from?)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

When you wrote that, I was thinking "a Founder!" (from DS9), but seriousfic's Venom idea is of course far better in the creepy department!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Someone I worked with many years ago showed me how to switch off an electricity meter with just an insulated screwdriver - none of the hassle of breaking into the wiring etc., you just turned one screw - the snag was that you had to break the seals of the meter and take off a cover to do it, which meant that if the electricity people spotted it you had no defence, so despite being very skint at the time I never had the nerve to try it. I remember thinking that a sonic screwdriver would have been VERY useful for that!

Re psychic paper - what would be REALLY useful is large sheets that you can use to record e.g. the book you always wanted to read - then copy it into your word processor to create a best seller.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I would like a starship too. Oh yes

But the cloak -- now I'm visualizing them picking themselves off the floor and following after their Jedi, sort of ghosting along. penknife needs one of these! Or perhaps she needs its related purse and gloves, as we keep having to backtrack and run in places asking if anyone has please seen a black purse on a long strap? It would be very handy if they would just follow after, like homing creatures.

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

I once had a scene in a fic where the microwave oven followed Magneto out of the kitchen like an obedient puppy. :-)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm having Harry Potter visions re: cloaks as well!

[kiaforrest.livejournal.com]

5) Jedi cloak. (Star Wars, specifically the prequels.)
Also the hair that is (obviously?) the results (or is that a requirement - ohgodno!) of possessing one of these cloaks. Even after battling with true love gone dark, childbirth, racing away from really incompetent storm troopers, swimming to underwater mysterious places and yes, fighting for your life in the desert - even those tendrils out of place are perfectly curled, slightly damp, shimmering with health and vitality.

Oh yes, my desire from the nifties of sci-fi: a truly excellent hair day.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You do have a point about the perfect hair, oh yes you do.

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

No teleport? That's what I'd go for. But then, not everyone is as notoriously lazy as I am... *g*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm like Bones, paranoid about teleport. See, I remember that short story - not by Asimov, but it was by an golden age writer - where there was only one human being who never teleported and he figured out after a while everyone else was a copy of a copy of a copy, with progressive degradation of pattern (lessening of health, intelligence etc.) while the originals were dead the first time they used the teleport. No transporter for me!

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

Eek! That's a thought. Maybe I'll stick to wanting teleportation as my innate superpower.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

something like the Skynet method of time travel will just catapult me back naked into the 80s.

Honestly? There have been moments where that sounded like a brilliant idea. Granted, I was probably not sober at those times.

I'm still holding out hope for a holodeck. And a transporter, of course, because the whole airport situation sucks ass.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's only a matter of time until the holodeck tried to kill you. Holo!Scarlett Johannson is... just barely worth it.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

I can think of quite a few scenarios I would run the risk of grievous bodily harm for. Plus, what fun is entertainment without danger?!

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

You'll notice the glaring absence of a time travel machine. This is because the TARDIS isn't a thing and something like the Skynet method of time travel will just catapult me back naked into the 80s.

Two words: De. Lorean.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

But what if that damned flux compensator fails me and leaves me stranded? I do insist on a return option with my time travel, whereever I go.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Come up with a plan to take over the world and sooner or later the Doctor will show up to foil you. Then just take him up on his offer to help you out instead of bloodshed.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You are brilliant.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I would ask for A TARDIS and not THE TARDIS because I don't know if all TARDISes are people. (Although I guess that's species-ist of me.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

All TARDISes are, I think; some of them even come human-shaped (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_(Doctor_Who))... but you could always try for a Sidrat (the cheap edition TARDISes which the warlords in War Games use thanks to the War Chief handing over Time Lord technology to them - they didn't give the impression of being sentient...

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Fair. The idea of having a sentient ship bothers me when the ship isn't as independently spirited as The TARDIS. (The best I've seen are the ships on Farscape.)

[leviathan0999.livejournal.com]

If it would catapult you naked to Seestrasse 79, Ketsch-am-Rhein, between 1981 and 1986, my early-twenties self would dig that entirely.

I'm just saying.

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

I've never seen Who and so I was totally unaware that the Tardis isn't a thing. Huh, now that's interesting.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And she predates Moya by decades. *is smug* Which, btw, is why I'm not really joking when saying Doctor/Tardis is the DW OTP, never mind the companions - he loves her as much as Pilot loves Moya, and in more recent canon once restored her from near-death by giving ten years of his life to her, while she has also saved him numerous times, one of which involved her possessing a companion and calling him "my doctor".

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I'm working on my "Social Network" project of the Whoverse and am currently at the sonic screwdriver. I am putting together every use of the screwdriver and how many times each Doctor used it in that manner (yeah, no life - so sue me).

But the matrices are coming together beautifully. Hope to put them up soon.

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

Aww, no Babel fish?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Nope. Sorry, Douglas Adams. Star Trek loyalties come first!