Conversation

Kinda interesting that jetpacks and flying cars have never been more than cosmetic elements of sf. They don’t generate much narrative potential. Background greebles. Nonplayable design fictions. They’re not that interesting either as sci-fi or tech.
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I think they represent social determinists idea of tech determinism. Pure wishful thinking extrapolating family sedans and motorcycles naively. That’s why they work better for parody (Jetsons) or camp (James Bond) than serious tech, either fictional or real.
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That gets to the real point, doesn't it? Most authors (SF or otherwise) do not have very interesting imaginations, and write only naive extrapolations (of tech, of social trends, of the past 50 yrs history). 1/
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Yeah, just hardshell flighting carpets. Escape gravity/orbit and everyone becomes a flying carpet. Transporters, energy-sheilds, and invisibility tech are bread and butter scifi.
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Car shaped helicopters, or truck shaped what about train shaped helicopters, electric trains that fly I guess that's like an orbital elevator ultimately. I guess what I really want is an electric Mitsubishi zero fighter
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One exception I know of: the flying burclave in Diamond Age, which included the material sciences it took to make it viable: a strong material impregnated with microscopic vacuum cavities, dropping its total density below that of air. That shit would be cool, if it worked.
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yes! real freedom in this age is informational. funnily when thiel said “we wanted flying cars but we got 140 chars”… free instantaneous universal comms is absolutely better than amateur helicopter pilots crashing everywhere
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Replying to @visakanv
A fixation on personal mobility devices (jetpacks, hoverboards) is an extrapolation of motorbikes + open road = freedom (just add gadgetry)
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