I've Been Thinking A Bit Lately...

Grocer Man

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You know how a lot of the ideas of science fiction are becoming reality?

We've found a "Super-Earth," the military is testing giant robots for combat, cloning is now possible...

For some reason, it makes me think of what will happen to fiction if the world eventually becomes "the Jetsons."

Will we come up with more fantastic ideas? Will we call it "historical fiction?" "Non-fiction?" "Bedtime stories?"

Discuss.
 
You know how a lot of the ideas of science fiction are becoming reality?

We've found a "Super-Earth," the military is testing giant robots for combat, cloning is now possible...

For some reason, it makes me think of what will happen to fiction if the world eventually becomes "the Jetsons."

Will we come up with more fantastic ideas? Will we call it "historical fiction?" "Non-fiction?" "Bedtime stories?"

Discuss.

The bolded statement is part true and part false.

Let me explain.

We cloned a sheep awhile back, years and years ago. The problem with that is the sheep died, within months (or years, not to sure) after it's birth. The experiment failed. The reason? A human cell has a large number of Nucleotides (called telomeres) at the end of a chromosome that serve no purpose other than being there as a buffer. One people get older, everytime a cell replicates, it loses three of these nucleotides. When you clone someone, they will always die very early one, because these cells have very little telomeres left, and with the high reproduction rate that a newborn has, they most likely won't live to puberty, and never be able to produce, so therefore unable to sustain itself. One of the definitions of life is the ability to reproduce, and it can't, so this process will not be complete until it is able.

Now, 'cloning' in the science world means something completely different than what the news media puts out. Cloning means to duplicate a DNA strand, not to duplicate a human. Duplicating a DNA strand is simple, we utilize E.Coli bacteria, put the strand inside of it, duplicate the bacteria, then get our DNA out.

So, News Media Cloning will most likely not be a possibilty in our lifetime. Science cloning happens every day.

Houde's Science lesson is over
 
out of all the animals to clone i never understood why they picked a sheep. "Look we've cloned this sheep. they are identical" I have to say , IF YOUR GOING TO CLONE AN ANIMAL AT LEAST CLONE ONE THAT IS NOT FAMOUS FOR BEEN IDENTICAL! :lol:
 
out of all the animals to clone i never understood why they picked a sheep.

They should have picked something that tastes better.

No sense wasting the thing when it dies.
 
You know how a lot of the ideas of science fiction are becoming reality?

We've found a "Super-Earth," the military is testing giant robots for combat, cloning is now possible...

For some reason, it makes me think of what will happen to fiction if the world eventually becomes "the Jetsons."

Will we come up with more fantastic ideas? Will we call it "historical fiction?" "Non-fiction?" "Bedtime stories?"

Discuss.
If I'm understanding the questions correctly....

If you're asking whether science fiction books will ever be considered "non-fiction", the answer is no. Non-fiction is a collection of factual information about a subject. Science "fiction", by its very terminology, contains non-factual things like made-up characters, dialogue, and events that cannot be documented by real, non-fiction sources. Science fiction can, however, be critiqued and discussed based on how realistically the story used the science or extrapolation of scientific knowledge.

Will we continue to produce "fantastic" or "science" fiction? Of course. No matter how advanced our technology or how much scientific knowledge the human race amasses, there will always be new and/or improved technology and more knowledge to learn. (Unless humanity finds some brilliant way of wiping ourselves collectively off the face of the Earth, but let's work on the theory that we won't.) Also, new advances and information lead to new questions and searches for answers. It's an ongoing process. Since story-telling seems to be part of human nature, I suspect we'll be producing all sorts of "fantastic fiction" for generations to come.

"Historical fiction" is generally fiction that is set in a time period earlier than the one in which it's written. If the reader is lucky, the author has done enough research to make the historic detail as accurate as possible. So, books like Across Five Aprils (American Civil War), Summer of My German Soldier (World War II), or any of the American Girls series are considered historical fiction. They were written in the mid- to late 20th century, but the characters are placed in earlier time periods.

Books that have scientific advances beyond those of the historic time period will still be considered science fiction. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for example, is generally considered science fiction because the nuclear-powered submarine and the adventures it allowed to happen in the novel were beyond the scope of the science of the times. Even though we today have nuclear-powered submarines, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea isn't going to be classified as "non-fiction". (If it was written during the time when it took place, it really wouldn't be historical fiction, either. It is, however, a classic, which is usually a book that contains universal truths about the human condition that span all time.) (Of course, I think it was Mark Twain who said that a classic is a book that everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read. :wink: )
 
If I'm understanding the questions correctly....

If you're asking whether science fiction books will ever be considered "non-fiction", the answer is no. Non-fiction is a collection of factual information about a subject. Science "fiction", by its very terminology, contains non-factual things like made-up characters, dialogue, and events that cannot be documented by real, non-fiction sources. Science fiction can, however, be critiqued and discussed based on how realistically the story used the science or extrapolation of scientific knowledge.

Will we continue to produce "fantastic" or "science" fiction? Of course. No matter how advanced our technology or how much scientific knowledge the human race amasses, there will always be new and/or improved technology and more knowledge to learn. (Unless humanity finds some brilliant way of wiping ourselves collectively off the face of the Earth, but let's work on the theory that we won't.) Also, new advances and information lead to new questions and searches for answers. It's an ongoing process. Since story-telling seems to be part of human nature, I suspect we'll be producing all sorts of "fantastic fiction" for generations to come.

"Historical fiction" is generally fiction that is set in a time period earlier than the one in which it's written. If the reader is lucky, the author has done enough research to make the historic detail as accurate as possible. So, books like Across Five Aprils (American Civil War), Summer of My German Soldier (World War II), or any of the American Girls series are considered historical fiction. They were written in the mid- to late 20th century, but the characters are placed in earlier time periods.

Books that have scientific advances beyond those of the historic time period will still be considered science fiction. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for example, is generally considered science fiction because the nuclear-powered submarine and the adventures it allowed to happen in the novel were beyond the scope of the science of the times. Even though we today have nuclear-powered submarines, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea isn't going to be classified as "non-fiction". (If it was written during the time when it took place, it really wouldn't be historical fiction, either. It is, however, a classic, which is usually a book that contains universal truths about the human condition that span all time.) (Of course, I think it was Mark Twain who said that a classic is a book that everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read. :wink: )

Thank you, ma'am.
 
You know how a lot of the ideas of science fiction are becoming reality?

We've found a "Super-Earth," the military is testing giant robots for combat, cloning is now possible...

For some reason, it makes me think of what will happen to fiction if the world eventually becomes "the Jetsons."

Will we come up with more fantastic ideas? Will we call it "historical fiction?" "Non-fiction?" "Bedtime stories?"

Discuss.

The future will be bright,but not for everyone.Think about it,if humans ever leave for another world.Its only natural that only certian kinds of people will leave,while minortities will be left behind.I could imagine this would be called "purifing" the human race.

Giant robots?I dont think so.
 
The future will be bright,but not for everyone.Think about it,if humans ever leave for another world.Its only natural that only certian kinds of people will leave,while minortities will be left behind.I could imagine this would be called "purifing" the human race.

Giant robots?I dont think so.

So all the nut jobs will leave? cool, but no giant robots? **** that
 
According to every post-WW2 scifi writer ever, raising intelligent children in a happy little commune with no boundaries, the best education you can get, and only pure love (and occasionally no words) will result in a race of atomic telepathic supermen. Or something. I hope someone tries that someday, gets an uneducated, practically illiterate psychopath who runs away screaming and winds up lambasted in the press as a creepy cult.

Seriously... read Howard Fast's "The First Men". Creeeeepy. It's like every scifi writer who put pen to paper between 1940 and 1960 has a little button saying "I hate people, ask me how."
 
The future will be bright,but not for everyone.Think about it,if humans ever leave for another world.Its only natural that only certian kinds of people will leave,while minortities will be left behind.I could imagine this would be called "purifing" the human race.

:shock:

"Purifing" the human race by going to other planets and abandoning minorities? You think this is "only natural"?

What the hell is happening to our board? First Mavericker's anti-gay bull****, now this?
 

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