If you could have one piece of future tech from any science fiction franchise what would it be?
Constraints:
1. R2D2 size or smaller.
2. Not R2D2, but other are ok.
3. While offensive weaponry and replicators are obvious, try to find a more creative solution.
GO.
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I am tempted to say: sonic screwdriver.
ReplyDeleteMedical tricorder.
ReplyDeleteIf we're limited to SMALLER than R2D2... [grumbles] I mean, what I really want is a transporter.
ReplyDeleteThen I'd have to say a replicator. Hands down.
There’s any number of tiny flying assistant robots, from Overwatch, the recent Voltron, the remade Nutty Professor with Robin Williams, the Jetsons, ...yeah.
ReplyDeleteI want a tireless, loyal, semi-autonomous servant who can fly and carry more than my weight.
Super scary bonus points if they’re also a Von Newman machine.
Nanites, but ones that don't go out of control and do something crazy. Because that's the answer that encompasses basically all the other answers.
ReplyDeleteA fully-stocked Star Trek: TNG medical kit.
ReplyDeleteYou get a medical tricorder, a dermal regenerator, a bone-knitting device, a hypospray with a huge variety of medications, a laser scalpel, and all kinds of futuristic bandage and splint materials. Basically an entire ER in a box the size of a messenger bag.
Michael Moceri
ReplyDeleteOoh. Can I change my answer to the micro bots from Big Hero Six?
I changed my mind. John W. Sheldon has a better one.
ReplyDeleteKimberley Lam I've a feeling you inspired him.
ReplyDeleteMarkus Wagner That is tempting. Have we ever seen anyone besides the doctor successfully use one?
ReplyDeleteAnna Kreider Oh, it coudl also BE R2D2 size, don't forget. A transporter, at least from Trek, is most def bigger.
ReplyDeleteTARDIS - with that all others are possible.... and you'd have a place to keep it all.
ReplyDeleteThe portal gun from Portal.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Teller Pretty sure that is bigger than R2D2.
ReplyDeleteDianne Harris That helps solve the teleportation problem, don't it?
ReplyDeleteExocomps all the way (and yes, I would treat them as intelligent beings)
ReplyDeletePan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
ReplyDeleteTeleport pads, though while each individually is about R2-D2 in mass, need a network to shine, so may be discounted by their quantity.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a BEE then. (Robot personal assistant.)
Nanit.... oh, that's taken. Hmm. Maybe a functional BrainPal from Old Man's War. But that might be cheating as it probably requires access to the future data net to be really useful.
ReplyDeleteShrink Ray from Honey, I shrunk the Kids. Solves all the logistic problems.
ReplyDeleteThe lens, from Lensmen.
ReplyDelete(I'll grant that it is sufficiently advanced to not be tech, so much as a macguffin, though)
Lifespan extension from Red Mars.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols It not only solves the teleportation problem, but you can use it to make infinite energy. Put one portal at the bottom of a the hoover dam and the other back at the top. infinite hydro power.
ReplyDeleteSeeking additional information from:
ReplyDeleteDavid Rothfeder, Larry Lade, Gretchen S., Levi Kornelsen, Marshall Miller. You've all stated stuff I either don't know of or, in the case of Larry Lade, that I don't see the reason for.
So, please expand.
[ Everyone else should feel free to expand, but those are ones I wanted to single out. ]
ReplyDeleteExocomps were from an episode of st:ng. They were little hovering boxes that could replicate tools needed for whatever job they were performing, basically a moving toolbox that could do the work itself and fit in tight access tunnels. The creator thought they were just useful tools but Data determined they were emerging intelligence and they malfunctions in their programming was actually self preservation.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols - The Lens in Lensmen is basically a post-singularity level of tech psi-amplifier.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun/Drinking Sapphire Wine posits a dystopic utopia where everything is run by robots and the fuel is emotional energy. It's all pretty silly tech but I liked the flying BEEs, which were little robots that could carry your stuff and run your comms and A/V for you. Handy! The protagonist's BEE was faulty and kept falling on her* head, though.
ReplyDeleteThe Star Trek medical package is much more directly life altering, but flying robot assistants would be quite nice.
I highly recommend the books for an early SF read on utopia, post-scarcity economies, ramifications of service AI, gender choice, longevity, and body modification. They're very Extropian, though written well before the Extropian movement got started. They also presage social media.
*She rounds to female.
I read a short story once in which somebody created and mass-produced a limited AI. The package was (for some reason, probably because of the quirky pulp era in which it was written) a mechanical donkey head, and you could tell the device something you wanted to achieve (a rocket to the moon, for instance), and it would instruct you how to build that. It might well be that you would need to construct an entire technological infrastructure before you could achieve your goal, but the notion was that many useful devices could, in fact, be built with relatively little in the way of materials ... it was expertise and design that was missing.
ReplyDeleteI remember it fondly as an exploration of the social consequences of giving everybody access to the transformative power of technological innovation, and I can certainly think of worse devices to have on hand. As with many other things on this list, it's not so neat to have one of them ... but then, the first thing I would ask is how to create a factory to turn them out in sufficient volume to get them into the hands of poor people around the world.
Anyone know which story I'm thinking of? I thought it was Heinlein or Asimov, but I can't find it in their listings of shorts.
NOTE: If I'm being even mildly less altruistic, I would point out that, like the Lensman Lens, Green Lantern's ring is technically a piece of technology.
William Nichols Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy covers the future history of the colonization and terraforming of mars. The books are very multidisciplinary and cover a lot of aspects of the effort throughout the lengthy process, necessitating the inclusion of lifespan extension to maintain at least some characters throughout.
ReplyDeleteBb8 is smaller than r2d2 :p
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted by the portable holodeck emitter that the doctor from Voyager has.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols Sarah Jane had a Sonic Lipstick. Same technology.
ReplyDeleteRiver, Amelia Pond, Rory, and Clara all used the Doctor's sonic appliance
ReplyDeleteOh, the quantum tesseract chalk to go to froopy land would be great. I mean, the portal gun would be obvious, but then I might end up like Rick.
ReplyDeleteOooh, Harold’s purple crayon.
ReplyDeleteHow about George Jetson's briefcase transportation? When in use it is probably bigger than R2, but it does fold up to be smaller.
ReplyDeleteNo need to worry about parking spaces.
K9.
ReplyDeleteFollowup: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116087077877793003074/posts/Js4XzUTv7n9?cfem=1
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel like spending the time to answer this when I first saw the post, but I'll answer now:
ReplyDeleteHonestly? The first gadget that came to mind was a shrink ray. Being able to shrink people (including myself) to, say, 1/2 size would be small scale enough to make various things an order of magnitude less expensive (such as housing!) while not being so small that cats and bugs are deadly threats. Half size is also big enough that things are still pretty accessible.
I mean, just think about exactly how big you could deal with mosquitoes being. Take the inverse scale.
Okay, so I put a lot of thought into this shrink ray thing, actually.
So - why mention it now? Because we went to watch Revengers of the Galaxy and there was a trailer for Downsizing, which was a hilarious trailer. Or, at least it was hilarious to me because I was just thinking about that stuff.