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Engineering From Science Fiction

Posted by timothy on from the but-using-real-money dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's long planning horizon today details a history of science facts and their sci-fi roots. The study is based on a collaborative European Space Agency project, 'Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications.' More than 200 technical dossiers are described--from holodecks to terraforming comets--but one of the fundamental questions posed is: what is the best communication device to scale-up expert opinion itself? Other than some future, expert version of the internet itself, is that a a collaborative Matrix? Other such interesting collections are from: MIT Media Lab's ThinkCycle, Da Vinci Institute, and the unpretentious HalfBakery of ideas."

2 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Sci Fi is often closer to reality than we think by PhysicsExpert · · Score: 0, Troll

    Its amazing just how many gadgets that are invented in the minds of science fiction writers actually make it to the real world, hovercraft and mobile phones being just two examples that I can think of. Perhaps the next big one will be francium as a construction material.

    Although it has long been known that Francium would make an ideal lightweight building material most scientists had given up on it because it was simply far too expensive to isolate. In the 60s series Space: Above and Beyond, however, we saw a world were Francium was abundent. Lightweight buildings 3 miles high could be built and personal helicopters were easy to produce with this new leightweight material.

    Now obviously we're not at that stage yet but Ford has just started trials of its new Hybrid car which uses a Francium spaceframe. Unlike Aluminium it does not easily oxidise and rust, although there have been some other issues when it has been exposed to water. More importantly the weight saved means the car is over 4 times as efficient as a typical SUV.

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    All that glitters has a high refractive index.
  2. SCO just bought the rights... by jkrise · · Score: 0, Troll

    You mean to tell me all of those billions of dollars over the past 30 years have gone to nothing more than unimaginative uses of existing techology?

    Sad, but true. All the imaginative uses have been bought by SCO, and we're left with nothing but Service Packs.
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    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....