How many remember seeing old movies and tv shows or reading books where things in them have come true or almost true today.

EX: Soylent Green, where you had Edward G. going to a death clinic,shades of Dr. Jack Kervocian. And how far are we from a actual soylent green product?

The Prisoner tv show in early 70's, with big screen tv that you could talk to and it monitor you moves, big brother watching your evermove,etc.

Most of H.G. Wells and what about 1984 book or Ayn Rands books?

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), March 20, 2002

Answers

My folks really limited our television, so I haven't seen a lot of old movies. I'm thinking more of "Wag the Dog". Fight Club, The Matrix, Twelve Monkeys. I can see all of these. And the Twilight Zone!

Every day that passes it becomes more like Atlas Shrugged.

I disagree with Joel, I really think the Mad Max clothes and riding a bike are much more asthetically pleasing than Roller Ball. Besides, Mel at least had a dog.:}

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

ROLLERBALL ! When war becomes just a media event. Corporations pick the teams and your told when to win or lose. Ironically--it was the first movie to play on sattelite tv (HBO).

Now it is corparate owned teams--football,basketball,soccer, and Nascar. How far a stretch is it to Gladiators ? Ever heard of Ultimate Fighting ?

I would rather fight on a roller rink with spiked wheels on the cycles and spiked gloves !!!

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), March 21, 2002.

How about "Star Trek". Didn't their little communication devices look about like the cell phones we use now. Also, wasn't there a voice activated computer? I've never been a big TV fan so I may be off on this one.

-- John in S. IN (Jdoofus@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

Forgot to add.......ROLLERBALL was tooooooooo cool. And I'd like to see it or the "Thunderdome" utilized as Joel or Doreen suggested. Could have made the last election easier than a recount of "Chads". Who could argue about who's the winner then? A hell of a lot more fun too!

I'm seeing some potential here for this, The "celebraty death match", "political death match" idea. Oh yeah. Tom Dashle and Trent Lott deciding whose gonna get to be Senate majority leader........"into the Dome"!!! We may not always like the outcome, but at least we'd be left w/ one less politition. WHO CAN ARGUE WITH THAT OUTCOME!!!!!!!!!! Hell Yes. Everyones a Winner.

-- John in S. IN (jdoofus@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

I believe star trek also had close to something where spock and captain kirk fought each other to save a country or something.

I forgot also to add the movie "The day the Earth Stood Still" There was one part in it that I do believe will come to be someday and that was where he was explaining the outer world he came from and that they had robots as police and protectors.

Joel, "your told when to win and lose" don't we have that now with pro wrestling? And instead of rollerball maybe the move will be towards "BATTLEBOTS".

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), March 21, 2002.

I'd love to see "Lucifer's Hammer", by Jerry Pournelle ? Nivens brought to the big screen. The damage illustrated by asteroids hitting earth would be incredible, given todays computer enhanced effects.

Earth Abides by ? would be another interesting story, nearly like 'Castaway', just with more people.

TomK; did you see the post in today's CS about fish meat soaked in a liquid to expand its bulk, thus feeding more people? Soylent green is just around the corner, just trying to figure out the packaging B^).

I never saw "The Fountainhead"; I wonder if it was as good as the book by Ayn Rand?

-- j.r. guerra in s. tx. (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), March 22, 2002.

j. r. guerra, the fish post must have been deleted because i couldn't find it.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), March 22, 2002.

Tomk the fish story is still on cs dated 3/21 title: A step towards lab grown meats. Here's a story in todays news, Just immagine the experiments that are being kept secrete.

Scientists test first human cyborg

A British university professor has been fitted with cyborg technology enabling his nervous system to be linked to a computer.

The ground-breaking surgery on Professor Kevin Warwick effectively makes him the world's first cyborg -- part human, part machine.

Although a long way from fictional characters The Terminator or the Six Million Dollar Man, it is hoped that readings will be taken from the implant in his arm of electrical impulses coursing through his nerves.

These signals, encoding movements like wiggling fingers and feelings like shock and pain, will be transmitted to a computer and recorded for the first time.

Similar experiments have previously only ever been carried out on cats and monkeys in the United States.

Surgeons implanted a silicon square about 3mm wide into an incision in Warwick's left wrist and attached its 100 electrodes, each as thin as a hair, into the median nerve.

Connecting wires were fed under the skin of the forearm and out from a skin puncture and the wounds were sewn up.

The wires will be linked to a transmitter/receiver device to relay nerve messages to a computer by radio signal.

It is possible that the procedure could lead to a medical breakthrough for people paralysed by spinal cord damage, such as Superman actor Christopher Reeve.

On Friday, Warwick, 48, denied claims that the surgery, which was carried out at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England, was just a publicity stunt.

"To go through a two-hour operation I would say is a little bit extreme for a publicity stunt," he told the BBC.

"To say no you can't do this or this is publicity is absolutely crazy at this stage when we haven't even looked at it."

He said the ıı500,000 ($715,000) experiment was about "seriously helping people" with spinal injuries.

He added: "This has not been done on a human before so for someone to say this is not going to tell us much ... we don't know.

"We really don't know but we want to find out what sort of signals we are going to get and what sort of signals we can put in."

Researchers at the university's department of cybernetics will carry out experiments on Warwick for about a month.

He said: "What we're doing is historic and momentous. It is going to change the world.

"Science fiction has predicted this for quite some time. As a scientist, I'm excited about taking a step into the future.

"But as a human I do share the ethical concerns about what it will mean for humanity."

Warwick also hopes to wire himself up to a ultrasonic sensor, used by robots to navigate around objects, to give himself a bat-like sixth sense.

He believes the technique could be developed within a decade to restore movement to a tetraplegic's hand or feeling to a prosthetic leg used by an amputee.

"For someone like Christopher Reeve, it might not bring back complex movement. But if it could allow him to control a bit of technology to pick up a cup, it would be enormously useful," he said.

Warwick has already been a guinea pig for his own experiments.

In 1998 a silicon chip, which turned on lights and opened doors when he walked into his office, was implanted in his arm.

-- SM Steve (unreal@msn.com), March 23, 2002.