Slashdot Mirror
A Law Show Set 25 Years from Now
aaron240 writes "CBS will be airing a pilot of a new show called 'Century City' tonight, Tuesday, March 16th. CNN has the story. The executive producer, Ed Zuckerman, had this to say about the future state of the law in America: 'Our future is a positive future. We assume that things are basically going to get better, progress will continue,' Zuckerman says. 'There will be problems -- new inventions, new technologies will bring with them difficulties -- but it's a bright future.' He also makes it clear that 'This is not a 'Blade Runner''. Is there any chance it will offer a decent treatment of the issues Open Source advocates worry about today? If he's so positive, could he possibly know anything about software patents to say nothing of SCO?"
This might turn out to be a great show. But really, there's already a glut of legal shows on television (The Practice, Judging Amy, JAG, etc.), and using a gimmick like setting it in the future won't attract me to it.
Is there any chance it will offer a decent treatment of the issues Open Source advocates worry about today? If he's so positive, could he possibly know anything about software patents to say nothing of SCO?
Don't expect it to even come close to issues important to us nerds.
There's just something lacking in a show that focuses on such riveting legal issues as "should a player with a super-accurate bionic eye be allowed to play professional baseball?" Really, this is an actual plot line that will be in "Century City."
Yeah Bright Future alright, until nuclear war breaks out. I mean really, its inevitable.
-- johntracy.com, because everybody else is wrong.
The 978432431th successful prosecution of someone for stealing songs of the internet.
Microsoft is currently appealing the latest decision orcing them to break apart...details in the next law show set 25 years ahead of this one.
But I think this will be more along the lines of family law, divorces, and criminal defense rather than copyright law, etc.
Not too many people find copyright law and open source law rulings terribly entertaining.
-------------------------------------------------
Does that sound like something that would discuss issues like software licenses? No, it sounds like a legal soap opera. I don't think this will outlast a season.
They'll STILL be waiting for SCO to tell us which code is in violation.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Darl, is that you?
maybe he knows they don't have a case.
One of the features of the show will be the premiere of the 256th Law and Order spinoff: "Law And Order: Illegal Cloning Investigation Unit".
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Is there any chance it will offer a decent treatment of the issues Open Source advocates worry about today?
You mean like gay marriage, sodomy law reforms and legalized pot?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
here's the pilot info:
A young boy's father wants the right to use the boy's genetic embryo clone to develop a baby who could donate a portion of his liver to save him. The firm also takes on the case of a boy band that is suing its lead singer for not adhering to his contract to keep up his physical appearance.
It doesn't look like they are going to tbe dealing with technology very much/not at all.
moreover, it looks like the 2 issues they picked for their pilot are both things that don't require much foresight to envision, not to mention that the clone thing should happen alot sooner then 25 yrs..
I find the timeline a bit aggressive. Supposedly set in 2030, the issues at hand seem more in line for maybe 2070 or beyond. Not to belittle the advances of the last 25 years (all hail the microwave) but twenty five years ago was not that *radically* different from today.
Perhaps the date was chosen to avoid appearing to be "too much like science fiction", but I must express my doubts that LA will have maglev monorails and all cars will be fuel cell powered by then. The death of paper seems even more unlikely, as does robotic kitchens.
Aw, who am I kidding: 1950's scientific optimism plus the moral dilemmas of progress... I may actually watch this just to see if it is ham fisted or actually well thought out.
Sig under construction since 1998.
This is Wonderland is a new CBC show that is genuinely funny, and a great drama too. It is by far the best new Law show I've seen, and is better than Law and Order SVU, although it covers similar turf with some of it's cases.
One problem with legal shows, is that they are 95% of the time, based in the USA, and so don't have Crown Attourneys, and other Canadian twists.
I'm too young to remember the Street Legal days, but this is one series that I hope lasts as long, and catches on. It is very entertaining.
This article seems pretty well centered around Hector Elizondo, however this show could be pretty interesting. I'll try to catch the first episode this evening, however I really hope this isn't the next Law and Order style courtroom drama. I'm much more apt to waste some time watching a CSI style show anyday.
Seems like cop/courtroom drama is the next reality TV... CBS was definatly all over that (read: Survivor)
-Adam C. Greenfield
Pity Leni Riefenstahl isn't around to consult on such positive outlooks of the future.
there are two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
in 25 years IWNBAL but...
Why would someone doing a tv show about law in the future really give a damn about the issues with SCO or anything about Open Source. Please people do you really think anyone out in the world but us (ie the slashdot crowd) gives a rat ass about these things?
The sky was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.
I'm waiting for Culver City, a futuristic cop show, which should be good. Plus I've heard that there's going to be a reality show called Glendale, which will put Syd Mead in a house with Harlan Ellison and six luddites, and every weak Harlan Ellison will eat one of them for a lame prediction about the future.
Kay McFadden is a respected TV show reviewer in the Seattle and had this to say, among other things:
"The stories tend to lean on loopholes -- cases and laws post-dating 2004. By any entertainment standards, the writers do a middling job of courtroom preparation and a really bad one with soap-opera histrionics.
At the end of tonight's episode, the verdict is clear: "Century City" is an argument against the kind of research that leads networks to mindless replication. Just say no to cloning."
If he's so positive, could he possibly know anything about software patents to say nothing of SCO?"
Of course. SCO will not exist 25 years from now. Any reference made will simply be "SC-Who?"
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
Remember though, it's just (Fiction) TV show, and what the producer said is just his personal opinion.
This is probably as excitable as the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
'Our future is a positive future. We assume that things are basically going to get better, progress will continue,' Zuckerman says.
So, what they mean is that this show will have absolutely no basis in fact? Their next show will feature Auschwitz with supermarkets...
should a player with a super-accurate bionic eye be allowed to play professional baseball? Should women with breast implants be allowed to compete in wet T-shirt contests?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Can somebody please explain to me what OSS has to do with a futuristic law show? I swear, I expect any day to see a story on something even *more* inane, such as a new color for Pepsi, and somehow, /. is going to relate that to OSS. There really IS more to life than OSS, people! Hell, there's a LOT more to *geek* life than OSS!
As someone who runs a business and technology law institute at Touro Law Center in Huntington, NY, I'm really looking forward to this show. Yes, it'll be soapy, and no, it won't go into the issues discussed on Slashdot, but I am tickled by the thought that someone is projecting out the other kinds of legal questions that may come up for my students, tomorrow's tech-savvy lawyers. But hey -- no law show ever showed licensing or similar lawyers; negotations over ownership provisions ("Work Made for Hire!" "No, Limited License!") or warranties and representations never make for good television. {Professor Jonathan}
Somebody didn't read the "Important Stuff" about posting, namely "Please try to keep posts on topic."
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Zoic, the effects house behind Firefly and Battlestar Galactica are doing the effects for this one so it should have some neat visuals... if nothing else
Actually, I think if they made it a sci-fi show rather than a lawyer show it would be fantastic. When I say sci-fi I mean proper cautionary tale sci-fi. It would be a great way to explore future legal ideas and even some current legal issues should they not be overturned [or not implimented in some cases]. It won't be though I bet. It will be the same things that have been covered before and better by other sources. Only now it's in the prime time, and will be dumbed down to make sure nobody gets lost.
This is not a 'Blade Runner'
Well done. Blade Runner is well written, original and high quality. This is network sci fi/law drama, respectively the worst written* and the most overused of TV drama settings
*Some of it may be good, but for every Star Trek or Babylon 5 there are 2 Milleniums or Space:Above and Beyonds
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I'm pretty sure SCO will still suck 25 years from now.
This summer, when it gets hot outside, and your hemmoroids
gets even hotter, just look to the cool relief of
Preparation-H to get you on your way.
If I install a Fleshlight in my Aibo, do I or my ex-wife have to pay the $1499 licensing fee?!!!
This is a must read for anybody worried about patent_laws/copyright_laws/DRM/DMCA/etc. It outlines a future scenario where a student can face imprisonment for sharing/borrowing books/software which she could not afford.
There was a time when one would've considered this scenario farfeteched. With the new draconian laws, unfortunately it doesn't seem so anymore. A *must read* for any concerned Slashdotter AND to these folks trying to paint a BRIGHT picture for the current legislative system.
Quotes:
For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college--when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan. This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her--but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong--something that only pirates would do.
---snip--
Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By 2047, libraries offering free public access to scholarly literature were a dim memory.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
That's a great idea... actually, to hell with that: make a law that says SCO is NOTHING.
Begin Rant
/Rant
Our future is a positive future. We assume that things are basically going to get better, progress will continue,' Zuckerman says. 'There will be problems -- new inventions, new technologies will bring with them difficulties -- but it's a bright future.'
You know one huge improvement in our lives that this show likely won't consider? Erasing every single law on the books every 5-10 years.
Does anyone find it odd that we have to live, for fear of imprisonment, under a set of laws and regulations so conflicting, non-intuitive, and complex, that one needs a 6 year education to begin to understand the law?
Need an example? Look at Martha Stewart, soon to be imprisoned for basically lying to cops about a crime they couldn't prove she did anyway. Over an amount of money that was a fraction of what it probably cost to prosecute her. And she wasn't under oath. I care nothing about Martha Stewart personally, but the scenario stinks to me.
The US Code is hundreds of thousands of pages. Most of it is rot, laws set by legislatures to grant special priveleges to certain constituencies- or a sketchy, contrived delegation of Congress' lawmaking power- The EPA, anyone?- that we could dispense with and make the country a better place. I doubt anyone can go a full year without breaking a good half dozen laws, even with the best intentions.
So many laws and regulations could only come from a body who is deluded into thinking that the cure to any percieved societal ill is even more government. I suppose I can't blame them too much- when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail- but it's far past time to clean house.
Oh yeah, another lawyer show- woo-fucking-hoo. No, I did not read the FA.
Oh yeah, vote for me when I'm old enough to be a Senator, so I can try- likely in vain- to fix it. Thank you.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I Orc'd your mom last night. I'm a goblin so you can expect your little Uruk'hai brother to arrive in a jelly sack in about 2 weeks.
Seriously... ever wonder about HOW Saruman crossed goblins with orcs to create the Uruk'hai? I think it was done with a turkey baster and a whole shitload of saran wrap.
I would feel better if the Sci Fi channel were handling this. A lot (not all) Sci Fi deals with social and political questions. The culmination of this, of course, is Dune. Dune deals in many ways with the British occupation of Afghanistan, and it resonates so soundly today it's frightening. Spice is oil.
If I had the CBS writers in a room, I'm not sure what I'd pass out. heinlein, Herbert, Orsan Scott Card, and maybe Necromancer. All required reading even before you get to start the first script. Really good sci-fi, the kind of stuff that clearly understands and reflects history is very rare and very special. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess the people who pen the jokes on 'Everybody Loves Raymon' or the plots on 'CSI' are going to be up to the challenge of writing good sci-fi.
Boy, the writters really had to dig deep fot this idea. Then again, this might just be a way for Hollywood to make everyone think that all the laws that they are buying are really good for the average citizen.
I can see the episode already:
*Two lawyers sitting in a cafe*
Lawyer 1 : Well, looks like they finally broke up that piracy ring
Lawyer 2 : Wow, I would have thought that with all of the consumer protection laws that were passed in the early 2000's that people would have given up trying to steal music.
Lawyer 1: Nope, seems that some people never learn that piracy is bad. After all, its the reason the economy crahsed in 2010.
Lawyer 2: Its a good thing that the Digital Rights Act of 2013 was passed. It was only by allowing the record labels the right to raid homes, and confiscate pirates computers that we managed to end that black time.
Lawyer 1: Yes, and the extension of copyrights to 1000 years was just the right thing to do, afterall, the creators should be allowed to gain the benifits of thier work.
Laywer 2: And don't forget about clearing up the whole problem with analog copies, allowing that to continue could have had seroius side effects.
Lawyer 1: Yes, indeed. If only people had realized earlier that they have no right, or valid reason to make any copy, we might have avoided the whole crash of 2010.
*break for commercial*
Or maybe I'm just being cyical today.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
So I'd say, probably not. Sounds like more far-fetched, yet hackneyed sci-fi cliches inserted into Law&Order.
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
Jebus H. Christ on a poscicle stick, hasn't the /.-is-that-you crap died *yet*? More and more like the latter half of the original name......
The thing I like about this, more than the premise of the show or its upbeat, Pollyanna tone, is that science fiction is now so mainstream that a lawyer show, at least exploring possibilities of technology and the pros and cons of an imaginary future, can be pitched to a network.
Television and film have really only scratched the surface of the deep field that is science fiction. The future of the genre will be a thing of beauty to behold.
Q: What did the comedian say to the crowd?
A: If I knew, this joke would be funny.
So when does "Law & Order: Intergalactic Criminal Intent" air? Nothing is more exciting then the criminal justice system of the future (pronounced "FUUuuuuuTURRrrrrrre").
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
From The Globe and Mail:
Just imagine the pitch some scriptwriter must have delivered for the new series Century City (CBS, 9 p.m.): "Sexy lawyers in the future! And they're practising law!" It must have seemed a good idea at the time.
Certainly, the network would like the show to become a breakaway ratings hit (not likely), but more likely, it's airing it because it's already spent the money.
The show is set in a high-end L.A. law firm, circa 2030. The company is managed by a few salty old-schoolers, Hector Elizondo among them, and a few young upstarts, including the necessary young idealist (Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd), best known from several turns as the lead in C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower on A&Eand wildly miscast here.
The first episode veers between two cases customized and contrived to fit the futuristic format: A scientist (David Paymer) is arrested for cloning, although he was doing it only to save his son's life. A septuagenarian rock star (Anthony Zerbe) is sued by his band mates for refusing to undergo procedures to look young.
Sad to report, the future looks pretty much the same as the present does, except with cleaner air and fancier laptops. There are a few advances: Pre-trial hearings are accomplished via holograms. Characters marvel about cherries without pits. But where are the moving sidewalks, the sassy robot maids and other conveniences promised to us by Alvin Toffler and The Jetsons?
Nothing is exceptional about Century City, neither its concept nor its cast, made up largely of vaguely familiar TV faces, which includes a bit player from Suddenly Susan and a woman from Judging Amy. They are actors at a way station -- on the rebound from one show and on their way to the next.
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
Hopefully he is not saying this from a lawyer's perspective. Here is hoping 25 years from now, the law will have a LOT more common sense than it does now. here is hoping corporate america won't be able to use the law as means of terrorizing joe america.
Here is hoping no 14 year kid gets sued and branded as a criminal for something as trieft as downloading a song or two. Here is hoping no one company can sue and lay claim on the product of hardwork of millions of developers across the globe.
And finally here is hoping that the law and courts be used to settle much more pressing issues like corruption, and crime and not trivial issues like carving of some 10 commandments in front of the court.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Perhaps:
/. to run an advertisement for your new [toy|show|website] by somehow linking in "Open Source".
Slashtroturfing
or
Slashbaiting
?
definition: getting
I'm sure this show will be doubleplusgood.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Yeah, it will be great, all the gun manufactures will be sued out of existance. McDonalds and Burger King will be long gone. Forget cigs, they're almost wiped out of the PRESENT.
Why do I have the sinking suspicion that this will be a liberal glorification of trial lawyers against "evil companies of the future who dominate the world", when in reality, the future is more likely to be dominated by evil lawyers surpressing innovation.
Get this man a doctor and wheel him into the O/R.
NO! Not the 2003 O/R with our new doctors... wheel him into the 1980 room with Dr. Jeff, who's still using 1980 tools and techniques!!
Necromancer is a (usually evil) death magician.
Maybe we could add the more populist Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven types, too. That should get those networks boiling the pot.
Q: What did the comedian say to the crowd?
A: If I knew, this joke would be funny.
anyone that modded this offtopic needs to get a fucking sense of humor and remove the stick up their asses.
You must be new here.
From a guy that loves Law and Order, The Practice, The Guardian, and other lawyer shows, this is like Star Trek, Time Cop, and Law and Order rolled into one!
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How the heck did the submitter find a way to tie in "Open Source values" into the summary? It's a law show set 25 years in the future. Why the heck would it care about tying in Open Source advocacy issues?
OK, so if everything is just going to be hunky-dory in 25 years then it's not going to be a very interesting show... neither will it be believable.
Most people don't assume that legal matters will improve over the next 25 years, to the contrary, most people assume they'll get worse. The trends of the recent past seem to bear this out:
DMCA, (so-called)Patriot ActI&II, Increasing litigiousness (so that you need malpractice insurance now to be a software developer).
I suspect that 25 years from now everyone will need some sort of mal-practice insurance and the percentage of the population that are Lawyers will at least double.
Like getting dates?
Most Obscure Example of Godwin's Law.
Leni Riefenstahl
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
Hell, not even Slashdotters would watch it.
Investigator: OH MY GOD! LINE FIVE IS STOLEN FROM MICRO-FORD-AOL-SOFT-WARNER!
Software Pirate: Oh no. You have found me. I am in trouble.
I mean, honestly, it's difficult to make something like that interesting viewing.
gnu.org seems to be down right now, so here's the google cache link.
Yeah, it's down for me as well as of this writing. Yet, I don't think Slashdot will be breathlessly reporting it as front page news, will they? Not like they did with the "Hotmail was down for four hours last Saturday" article we saw yesterday!
Just funny. Even this article about a TV law show set in the future has an out-of-the-blue OSS/SCO tie-in. Slashdot is sometimes extremely OSS-biased, and it's really outrageous sometimes.
...It's already being done better, and as an animated action / crime-drama show no less, in the form of the japanese anime series "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex".
The show will have a north american release this year, and I daresay its the most important hard science fiction I've seen in quite some time.
Certainly the first issue has been hashed over six ways from Sunday. It's not even remotely original, which is about par for the course these days. Didn't Enterprise have some ep with a clone of one of the crew, and use the clone for spare parts? In fact, I'd be flat out amazed if The Outer Limits hadn't done something on this years ago(naturally with some twist where the copy kills the original or something far more interesting than a legal battle).
The second case is a decent example of the entertainment industry's infatuation with itself...
Please help metamoderate.
"Is there any chance it will offer a decent treatment of the issues Open Source advocates worry about today? If he's so positive, could he possibly know anything about software patents to say nothing of SCO?"
Will you get a life??? WHAT SHOW on TV today gets into detail on any of the issues you just described???? PLEASE tell me you were joking... For some reason, I don't think you were.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I'm curious why the producers decided on such a short time span to cover. Sure, there will probably be some marvelous advances between now and then that will become publicly accepted and commonplace (and certainly there will be more gee-whiz toys available).
But Do we really expect bionic eyes, cloned organ donors, and super-surgeries that keep you young to all show up in that time period?
They might. It's possible. But I doubt it; For years science fiction has promised us smart highways, hover cars, and cyborg super-soldiers, all just around the corner. And none of those things have materialized yet.
A hundred years from now, I'm sure things will be very different. But my guess is that 25 years from now will seem about as advanced as we would seem now to someone from 1979. There are still cars, there are still telephones, there are still televisions. There are even still computers. Everything's been refined and improved, but it's still recognizable as the same society. You can't say the same thing about the differences between now and 1904.
Only old people watch CBS. Most of whom won't be alive in 25 years.
What do they care what the laws will be then?
I predict a flop.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
I have no idea why Ford was included in the Oligopoly. The GT is a cool car, but we all know that Toyota will rule the world eventually.
Don't expect any cool tech references or innovation from this. It seems like a pretty standard law show with just about enough standard sci-fi things to make network PHBs believe that they are innovating. Networks don't go for new concepts right now, they're just combining already proven elements from older shows.
/me waves hand jedi-like
See, the average consumer is already scared about "modern life", it's all sooo comlicated and confusing. People get the feeling that they're lost in everyday life, tech/scientific advancement scares them if it doesn't come disguised as something familiar. The last thing Joe Sixpack wants to see on TV right now is a freaky, complicated show with scary new ideas. Just give them LA Law and Melrose Place all over again, everything will be fine.
Shows that tried to do something different have all failed recently, because they were not suitable for the average consumer. Firefly went down pretty fast - and to stay with the Joss Wedon thing - Angel got cancelled right away when they made their first remotely intelligent season. Those examples may be shows you like or dislike a lot, doesn't matter, just as long as you can acknowledge (for the sake of argument) that they were radically different from the simplified, standardized and sanitized world people have come to expect.
By the way, from a geek point of view, the research team for Century City doesn't seem to bright anyway. There is a poll in the website:
Should bionic players be allowed to play professional baseball?
- Yes, they have as much right as anyone
- No, it's not fair to the other players
- It's hard to say
Obvious geek answer: if bionic extensions are superior to natural parts, just tune them down until they match average natural performance. (The example case was a bionic eye, it's really simple with that.) Yeah, so bionics can help you just enough to overcome a disability and it can make you a super athlete. But it doesn't have to be EITHER OR, does it? Can't it just be configured to make you "normal"? (OMG, I'm actually discussing a stupid TV show argument with myself, I must be pretty bored)
So, anyway... don't expect anything ground-breaking from this show. Speak after me: there *are* no new ideas.
-
I'll see your cybernetic estoppel and raise you one affidavit of positronic imbalance.
This is way more fun than the tv show is, I bet. Just sitting around making up future law show stuff.
Your Honor, I object! The precedent set in United Posidyne vs General Subatomics clearly establishes that transmissions by tachyon mail cannot be used as an affirmative defense against a charge of q-spectrum barratry!
Objection sustained. The bailiffbot will mindwipe the jury regarding the last piece of evidence, and counsel will approach the hoverbench.
-- Jeff Paulsen
What if USA PATRIOT, Software Patents, Closed Source, all of our hot button issues, all of it work out ok, and that humanity does get better and life does go on, and that, the chicken littles of today really turn out to be chicken littles?
This is my sig.
is another man's regress!
"... and MRAM chips."
(with any luck)
+++ATH0
The Star Trek spinoffs already did a lot of this "ponder the ethical ramifications of new technology" type of thing. The genetically enhanced Dr. Bashir of DS9 raised the same issues as the bionic baseball player this show will have. Picard's arbitrations in various alien disputes were essentially legal drama in space. Janeway's constant ethical delimmas come to mind, particularly the way she always tried to follow her principles even when it was not the best thing for the crew -- much as the justice system must uphold legal principles, even when it is not the best outcome for the specific litigants. In Enterprise, the episode where Tripp is cloned to harvest his brain has obvious parallels to the current debates on human cloning, stem cell research, and so forth.
I'd expect something that puts forth these same kinds of delimmas, but with technology much closer to our own, and an emphasis on resolving them through the legal system. No starship battles, Borg, or aliens with funny latex foreheads. Sci-fi often uses futuristic settings to explore hypothetical ethical issues -- consider The 6th Day (what would widespread cloning do to society?), Minority Report (is knowing someone WILL commit a crime, does that justify preemptive punishment?), or Star Wars (if you have a big spacecraft, is it okay to blow up Alderaan?). Just kidding about the last one. This show sounds like it will be sci-fi lite, taking the same approach to exploring the questions new technology brings, but set in a society that is still a lot closer to our own.
In those ~45 pages, he completely examines the implications of all the time paradoxes that other writers just leave alone.
The short story is so much better than the movie.
In short, the information you have now determines the choice you make now which determines your future.
In order to make a different choice than the one you made because of your knowledge of the future, you'd need NEW knowledge of the NEW future that was based upon your decision.
Wasn't there a Sci-fi version of ER a few years back? (I'm thinking '92-'95 here) It only had about a six episode run, and I think they ran through Dr. McCoys entire run of bad situations in the pilot episode.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
You mean people under 60 actually watch CBS?
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Is there any chance it will offer a decent treatment of the issues Open Source advocates worry about today?
No.
Glad I could help.
Seriously. Somehow, these issues seem less captivating to the public at large than legal issues based on criminal, medical or moral issues. Go figure.
Why does no one consider that the Amish, rather than geeks, will rule the future?
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
All these guys are pro Copyright & strong I.P enforcement. They're in the content business this is part of the problem. Your news & media pipe is controlled by the content creators and of course they want to turn the screws on us all over their government entitlements.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those enhancements already violations?
A better scenario would be.....when fetal manipulation is practiced, does that make the person who was manipulated/enhanced ineligible for sports? Particularly because it was done TO him/her instead of BY him/her.
Would there be a test for such?
Would there be a seperate division for enhanced athletes? Would the "pure" athletes lose viewership because of that? Could they sue?
And that's just chemical/bio enhancement. They're still thinking too small and focusing on individuals.
Looks like CBS does not think the near future will have diversity in the white collar job sector by 2030: they only have on black woman in their show.
Not what we are doing. The progress we have made over the past 25 years is more about many things becoming easier to do or in some cases obsolete. I mean all Tivo is just an automated VCR. You hardly ever put disks or anything into your computer. Using internet banking just saves a trip to the bank or the mail box. It's now very simple to send messages to anyone anywhere in the world for almost free.
In 25 years from now it will be much more of the same. Tax preparation may become a thing of the past because computers have it nailed. Gas stations might be completely automated. Typing things into a computer could be fully optional, (But people still will). People will probably live longer. It will cost even more to live in New York. You get the idea.
I hope that we will have one or maybe even two OMG technologies. (Anti Gravity, Warp Drive, Sentient AI, you get the idea.) But these things tend to only come around once every hundred years. (Fire, Farming, The Wheel, The Gun, The Car, The Light Bulb, The Computer) so it might be asking for a bit much.
Is there any doubt that EVERY episode will be about cases involving patent law(suits)?
-- jimmycarter
Divorce: Kitt from Knight Rider divorces life partner Michael for alimony and a monthly oil change. But who gets the fuzzy dice and the beaded seat cover?
Product Liability: Customer sues when a vegetable becomes mixed into his Soylent Green.
IP: RIAA sues ancient space faring race for IP infringement (Their eons-old anthem bears a striking resembelance to theme of 'Growing Pains'). Aliens carpet bomb Earth.
Technowhiz: Geek invents a lawbot the size of a hearing aid that translates between legalese and english. The firm goes bankrupt -the lawyers into the wilderness for the spin-off "Lawyers in the deadzone"
Murder: Peta activists genetically engineers sentient dog. Dog tells PETA to F-off and insists on his right to eat meat. Activists then kill animal under the defence of 'its just an animal'
Libel: Snake Pliskin hires firm to sue the guy that publicizes his death.
"First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
Like those "sheets of clear plastic" Tom Had to load up before doing his hand waving voodoo? Great future view of storage technology.
lol
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
My favorite sci-fi/fantasy series about a law firm is 'Angel'. But it's about an eeeevilllll law firm (is that redundant, or what) called 'Wolfram & Hart'. Apart from that, I'm tired of television's endless stream of doctor / lawyer / cop / reality shows. Probably why I don't watch much TV anymore.
[Insert pithy quote here]
there are still going to be bald men 25 years from now, let alone 400 years.
The future is NOT going to be positive. We have two choices; we can live in the world of either the Jetsons or Blade Runner. We'll either have cool Japanese robot servants or we'll be watching our back for Replicants programmed to act as supersoldier police in a facist military state.
Look at the trends in American (and world) politics, and tell me we're going to have a shiny happy planet where everyone lives in peace and the law isn't paid for by Microsoft, the Republican party, and the NRA.
World tension, possibly caused by the Pentagon's supposedly dead (but not really) Operation Northwoods (google it if you care); terrorism and hatred -- and because of this, division, not unity ("you're either for me or against me", says the great Uniter); widening gap between super-rich (our rulers) and super-poor (we the servants); environmental degradation (I didn't care about the environment until I caught a fish with two heads and open sores all over its body -- REALLY. Do you eat Tuna? what's in that can anyway?); the universal use of lying, deceit, and the growing apathy and lack of morals EVERYWHERE; immorality of all kinds, and the violent angry response to it; the growth of propaganda and the belief that the truth does not matter, only winning over an enemy; a US government who CHOOSES to have a second cold war and is positioning things to ensure we will be at war forever; loss of privacy; loss of basic Constitutional rights and freedoms; [insert your own corrupt government story here]
And don't get me started on reality tv.
And DEFINITELY don't get me started on KDE versus Gnome, or vi versus emacs.
If you think about it, the probability is extremely high that we aren't going to have a happy future. Looking at the world around you, the facts are undeniable -- unless you have your head in the sand, or don't give a good goddamn about anything but yourself (in which case you're part of the problem; see above). Can you REALLY look at everything that's going on and think the future is really that bright?
And before you answer "Yes", you DO know marijuana's illegal, right? You shouldn't smoke and Slashdot at the same time.
One last thought: the media is NOT an informational tool, but a calming time-wasting distraction to keep you from spending your time researching the real issues that are going to kill you someday. Discuss among yourselves while I fill out my daily Homeland Security reports.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
Hrm, I don't buy the 'future will be lovely and perfect' hyperbole, the BBC are currently a series of some really dark dystopian shit.
Of course the US outlook of the future will be idilic, it's the American dream, but it can be little more than hoping for the best.
SCO went under for the third time and last time in 2021, when the Fifth Kentucky Volunteer Meme Warfare company infiltrated their HQ and smashed the glass jar containing Lyndon Larouche's brain. It was just a matter of time after that.
Bitter irony: This was just a few days after Linus was killed defending the Godwin Institute's archive vault from a bunch of uplifted coyotes armed with demag bombs. (They all had Windows-based ID chips, but MSFT denies any connection.)
Stefan
We aren't all libertarians.
This is absolutely ridiculous.
1) if you follow the trend of people being in prison for the last 20 years you will statistically see that in 100 years everyone will be in prison
2) if you follow the trend of things being illegal, in 100 years everything will be illegal.
3) in 100 years everyone will be in prison and everything will be illegal.
the world will be a police state and only the select few will have rights.
you probably think I'm paranoid or wearing a tin foil hat. but look it up
do a plot on the population and the amount of people incarcerated every year and you will see that in about 100 years every one in the population will be incarcerated.
the truth is that in probably less that 20 years 1 of two things will happen
1) we will be in a 1984 style police world
2) there will be a heated revolution and the government will fall.
"(like how can his eyes still be authorized to the top secret area when he is most wanted)"
This is one of those things that may be hard to believe but is very realistic. The key to it is understanding that the top secret area was not connected to any of the rest of the systems and was essentially hard coded. The reason for this was to keep it from being compromised (compromising the exterior systems does not help compromise the interior systems).
It would have been very difficult to change that system to keep him from getting in, as it would have involved changing the hard coding. To make it worse, the person who would naturally have been in charge of seeing that that was done was him. Further, his replacement did *not* have authority to go into that area, much less change it.
This was actually very realistic. Separating the exterior and interior systems is the correct thing to do, but it also means that if one of the limited number of people authorized to change that system (the movie implies three people had access, including him; the precogs do not count, as they wouldn't have access to open the door) is compromised, one must make changes to that system as well as the exterior system. Easy to overlook.
The part of Minority Report that bothered me was the idea that if they couldn't send the people to jail, the system would fall apart. Who cares if they go to jail if they don't murder anyone? Particularly with the crimes of passion, like the guy with the scissors. The issue was subtly different in the short story, which I remember as being more realistic.
They also don't explain how they were going to expand the system with only three precogs with limited range.
Something along the lines of the robots from Futurama trying to hold legal proceedings. Imagine a tense courtroom full of judgebots, jury bots, shady criminal defense bots, idealistic district attroney bots, a comical oafish bailiff bot. Robot Judge: Before us stands the accused Bender. You stand on trial for five counts of stealing gin from orphans, 3 counts of vehicular petty larceny involving heavy construction equipment and 1 count of jay walking. How do you plea? Bender: Bite my shiny metal a$$ Robot Judge: I sentence you to 100 years gas mining on the sun. Bender: aww crap
on Discovery. I saw a flying robot controlled car on a show in 1997 and I want it now, dammit.
Consider "Revolution OS". I'm a geek, and I really like documentaries, so you'd think I would love a movie like that. I guess I can't really blame the subject matter - it had the potential to be interesting - but the execution was horrible. It didn't explain enough to the "outsider", and it didn't really teach anything new to anyone vaguely familiar with the history of Linux and OSI. It just came across as a yearbook to let you place faces with the names you already know.
I'm from the future. Century City was cancelled after 3 episodes, resurrected in 2005 after a fan email campaign, then cancelled again after the campaign proved to be the work of a lone haxx04 named dl3374, whose brain as of 2047 was still serving a 200,000-hour sentence as the CPU of the Volograd sewage treatment facility.
Television ceased to be a commercial medium after the Copyright Wars of 2019, when the Distributed Fiction Experiment proved that all copyrighted material could be randomly generated.
>"...other than personal computers and the Internet..."
I suppose that, other than smelting and metalworking, the Bronze Age wasn't that remarkable. Let me guess, you're waiting for flying cars and housemaid robots? Golly Gee Willikers, if you've been bored by the progress in the last quarter century, you've been playing at Rip Van Winkle!
Today, I access vast swaths of human knowledge from my living room (Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, Slashdot, The Onion) on a machine running three billion operations per second that only cost me a few weeks pay. My car has airbags and ABS, it rarely breaks down, and has more electronics than you can shake a stick at, and is still cheaper than a car from the '70s.
Apart from everyday stuff, you've apparently missed out on amorphous metal, nanocoatings, depolymerization, the nuclear battery, DDR RAM, hyperthreading, steel minimills, not to mention all the advances in medicine and agriculture.
What could you do on the Net in '76? Could you search Google, shop Amazon, or play XBox Live? Do you need zeplins that moor atop the Empire State Building and biplanes with laser guns to feel like you're living in the future? The future is a gyp unless it enfolds by the stale plan of antediluvian futurists? I'd look to Century City before the works of Jules Vern or Ray Bradbury to see what quantum computing, biotech, and nanotech may have in store.
"Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries!"
Few care about rights they should have, and care more about rights they shouldn't have or don't need.
Product of consumerism? Everyone eats food for taste and not for content and buys cloths for fashon not function. This leads people to poison themselves and wear clothing that lasts at most a year. Only makes sense that they'd care more about the right for a high school jock to use sterioids or the right to abortion rather than the right to discuss those topics.
He're's to 2 years of not watching television or going to movies, and another 20 free of it if I have my life my way.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
Alien McBeal
and never get any better again." -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.
I can see it now.
"Three children shot for the capitol crime of downloading music."
I once worked for a company that specialized in developing and selling law firm computer systems. I learned a lot about how the legal industry works(and yes, it is an "industry", not just a "profession" anymore). One scary trend I noticed is that the legal industry seems to collectively have its sights set upon domination of all other professions, industries, markets, and yes, even governments... that is to say that it expects to prosper by making all other industries, professions, etc, completely subservient to, and absolutely reliant upon the legal industry in order to be permitted to conduct business period, and all business shall be conducted in the manner and direction towards furtherance of that goal, above and beyond making even simply making profit (except for the ultimate extreme long term goal of max profit for the legal industry at the expense of all others).
Given how the business and legal climate of the USA has evolved since the time of the industrial revolution, and especially on an accelerated rate since the dawn of the information revolution, I think my prediction may be more than just a little on-track.
u nerds will be busy flapping to america's next top model 2. i bet you like yoanna for her ho-hawk, april for her ricey facade, shandi for her uglyfactor, and mercedes for having a vagina and tits
I'd like to see a fictional treatment of real developments in law today. Of course, if the producers actually did this, they would be carted off to Guantanamo without charge, trial or council. After all, "liberal leaning Hollywood producer" and "enemy combatant" are basically synonymous.
Actually this will probably be the only show to deal with today's most important legal issues.
The 'future' setting in television shows is always just a plot device to handle controversial modern issues without getting shot down by the network censors (the 'standards and practices' department).
Television in the USA is always a fine line between pissing off the commercial sponsers and attracting viewers. The material must be 'hot' enough to attact viewers from cable and internet but not to 'hot' to invoke the possiblility that the commercial sponsor will flip out.
However today since the media corporations own so much of the rest of the economy (or, more precisely, the media corporations are owned by giant conglamerates who own large chucks of the economy), it is more important not to piss off anyone in the government.
Television is stupid because there are very few types of progamming that meet those exact requirements, and all the possible plots and scenarios were already developed and aired twenty years ago.
Television would probably have to go off the air anyway by December 2006 without government decree. They simply have run out of things to show.
I can see it now...
A run-amock AI leveled Little Rock early this morning (2025.6.03.03:24:52.23452345) by overloading a fusion plant in Heber Springs on the shores of Greers Ferry Lake. Arkansas is devastated by plasma fires and fallout, and rednecks wake to discover they now really have red necks!!! The AI was sequestered, then brought before a legal computation within the minute. The prosecutor (running on a beowulf cluster) made terse opening arguements making it clear that permanent storage was the least that needed to be done, and that the jury should seriously consider deletion. The defense software (running on a Windows 2,000,000,000,000 platform) made a wonderful opening arguement shortly before catching a virus and exploding in the courtroom before terrified jurors. The trial, one of the longest in recent history finished in just over 325.542 nanoseconds leaving an emotionally drained audience as the AI was slurped off of it's server and deposited in a scummy little desktop to serve it's sentence. In the end the jury sentenced the AI to spend the rest of eternity in a PC, watching reruns of Fear Factor 2020... a gruesome end to a gruesome act.
Who wants to bet that my plot is at least an order of magnitude more entertaining than the sorry excuse for video scan rot that will be actually be served tonight...
Genda
I stopped reading after I saw:
CBS will be airing...
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
Yeah, sure. What a schmuck this Zuckerman fellow must be.
What kind of low-grade moron doesn't know that the SCO lawsuit and an overly liberal regime of granting software patents is the direct pathway to a horrifying, Blade-Runner-style future where gangs of midgets tear the fittings off your police aircar given half a chance?
I think it's very, very important for any show like this to offer detailed depictions of OSS-type issues. These issues should arise every other show at the very least, and possibly feature verbatim quotes of essays by Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman. A major character might take time out from the courtroom scenes, sex and scandal and face the camera and talk for about 10 minutes about the difference between 'free as in speech' and 'free as in beer'.
I thought it was pretty good- decent acting, plausible plots. In this episode a man wants to grow a clone of his son (illegal in the future US) to harvest the liver(?) to save his son's life. The other case involves a boy band from the '90s who has used youth treatments for 40 years so they look 20ish while they are all about 70. Plus some internal office squabbling about a genetically modified lawyer.
Seems like a standard lawyer show, but with technological twists in the plot. If they can keep up with new ideas it may play for a while, but I can see that falling by the wayside in a bout a season, leaving Just Another Lawyer Show.
As for Open Source issues, none this episode. I also don't know what kind of plots they could wrap around Open Source. Stealing GPL code for a proprietary system, open source insurance? Don't know how much drama could come from that.
I'll give this episode a solid B.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
It seems to me the focus of the story line on Century City is issues that will emerge with the advent of the age of biotechnology and genetics. (You can stop reading if you're on the west coast and don't want to spoil your viewing experience)Tonight's episode involved the issue of "harvesting" cells to use for organ transplants, and the use of "age-defying" drugs to make one look younger. Issues of information technology didn't even register here-- although I found the scene where the technician "punctures" the plasma image of the prosecutor in the "virutal hearing" when it puffed up to be amusing-- must be a glitch of some kind. :) I also wanted to see what they imagined IT in the law office of the future to be like-- everything is transparent monitors and hologram images-- who knows, that just might be around the corner. Ioan Gruffudd (Yo-wan Griffith to you non-Welsh speakers) gave a credible performance as idealistic lawyer Markus Gold. I wanna see the next episode before deciding if this series will fly-- it depends on the writing.
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
They are all soap operas :
Star Trek : Space Soap Opera in Skimpy Leotards
Babylon 5 : Space Soap Opera with Bad Hardo
Millenieum : Soap Opera overdosed with sedatives
Space Above and Beyond : Vietnam in Space Opera Setting
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
I'm sorry, but a firefight between laser pistols and lever action rifles? And the rifles win?! Give me a break!
Everyone seems to think Firefly was so damn original. A space ship captain/thief with a heart of gold in trouble with the big bad crime boss? Can you say "Han Solo"? I knew you could. How about "child with frightening mental abilities as a result of experiments". Firestarter? Ender's Shadow? This Alien Shore? And the psycho kid's older brother is basically a male version of Dr. Quinn Medicine woman, frontier doctor/moral compass.
I recognize that it is very hard to come up with original characters. The body of existing works covers so many, and if you believe people like Jospeh Campbell and Syd Field, there are certains things you have to do to make a story work. But when you take the characters above, mix in "Holy man who has lost his way", "Shy young girl with huge crush on hero", "Tough as nails female fighter" it all just turns into a big mess. Way too many viewpoints to cycle through in an hour.
I was driving home today, thinking about DRM/Trusted Computing, etc, and scaring myself. Then, I see this show, and think great! What a great way to get people educated on technical issues!
I watched the pilot, and I would love it if I liked legal dramas. It had the typical relationship stuff, typical arguing in court stuff, and the politics stuff. It's all there. The show did not feature any quirky anorexic single women looking to get hitched, so I think the show is meant to be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, all the "futuristic" issues were Biotech: general cloning, cloning of embryos for parts, a fountain of youth pill (you look young, but still age), and a genetically enhanced lawyer who hid herself so wouldn't grow up shunned (shades of x-men, very very light shades though).
They really glossed-over the everyday technology issues: Doors open and close automatically, everything is pretty and clean, noone is fat, etc. They didn't even touch on computers, or cell phones, or integration of technology with life. I don't think DRM is going to appear on there at all.
Instead of complaining that the show is YALD (Yet Another Legal Drama), has anyone considered the possibility that there are clueful writers, and that Slashdot geeks could have a voice over the air? Wishful thinking, I know, but since this show will probably appeal to typical TV-watchers is just a plus really.
The TV show I want is a sitcom based on the Bastard Operator From Hell.
LA Law 2030
Why not have a show based on the first generation of Martix-style internet users? People who literally "plug and play" and what happens to those caught on the outside. Maybe from the standpoint of a paralyzed/disabled accident victim who has no other way to interact with the world.
Or since we're dealing with so many ethical issues in medicine, why not a show about a future ER? Maybe one on an asteroid mining facility where it's the lawlessness of the Wild West meeting the corporate overworking and unethical standards of Red Faction?
Just some thoughts...
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
Supertrain!
NBC
Be There!
A law firm show might get a chance to visit all of those issues. One week a future medical malpractice case takes us to visit a new ER, another week they can deal with corperate dispute...
So this is where all the out of work 'Star Trek' episode writers went to.
Dolemite
_____________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
They simply have run out of things to show
That's just you showing your age. My parents said the same things about 8 years ago. They constantly say that "this show is just like this other show" and blah blah blah.
Well guess what, I wasn't around 20 years ago. So it's new to me (to borrow a line from NBC). We'll get tired of it, and we'll just end up watching the Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune for kicks.
And our children will relive all the classic TV tales and themes without having to bother us to recount them or break out our AVIs.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
but how they are MADE has vastly been overhauled. You rarely see an engineer with a slide rule anymore. Cars are crashed millions of times virtually before they ever are put on a track. You can send a package halfway across the world for much less than you could 25 years ago.
Business processes have seen the greatest changes in the last 25 years. (All the outsourcing should be a sign that this has been successful; business prcoesses have become fluid and more efficient, although some people would debate on calling it "success")
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Interesting idea with lots of potential but poorly executed. The show tried to do way too much. Instead of just doing the basic clone-importing case which they could have made good, they need to throw in a long series of surprises, plans to harvest organs, that the boy is already a clone and so on. It was too much to put in one show, especially with two cases to do.
Can't say I cared much for the overacting or dramatics either.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Come on, this isn't about SCO. What if the media industry makes it impossible, through legal and technical means, to borrow a book or a music recording to a friend? What if public libraries are forced to pay the full books-on-demand fee every time they lend a book? What if every copyrightable 4-note sequence is already copyrighted, and brutally enforced by computer searches, stifling the work of young artists? I could go on and on...
How can we lose?
Be interesting to see if nanotech shows up on it - or if the "genetically engineered babe" lawyer gets to show HOW she was genetically engineered - and what the benefits were in her case - or for her boyfriends.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Sorry I don't have a subscription-free link, but the LA Times has a review (go to latimes.com and type "Century City" in the search box).
Anyway the reviewer pointed out that this is just extrapolating today's hot-button issues into the future, and that this kind of thing works better as satire. "As a predictor of the future I'll take Futurama over Minority Report", he writes.
So the verdict is clear...
Bring back Futurama!!!
It is a science fiction (cyperpunkish?) radio play set in a rather bleak future. It covers issues about copyright, corporations etc, and is likely to be a lot more interesting and thought provoking than some show about an unlikey feel-good-shiny-robots-and-flying-cars future.
--
Simon
A pilot is a pre-production episode of a show generated for studio execs to review. The execs base their decision on whether to produce the show based on whether they like the pilot. Generally speaking, no pilots go to air, because the show doesn't have a production budget when the pilot is produced, and frequently there are important cast changes before production starts. Often the pilot gets recycled into an episode. E.g. in Star Trek, "The Cage" was a pilot, and "The Menagerie" was the first episode (and note the cast change). Often the pilot script, and maybe some of the footage, is actually used to produce an episode; the resulting episode may or may not be the first to air. In any case, by this time, it is no longer technically the pilot, although it may have the title "Pilot" if nobody bothers to come up with a better one (e.g. The X-Files).
Unfortunately, a lot of people now seem to think that "pilot" is interchangeable with "first episode". This is generally wrong and should stop.
If the "digital rights management" and "trusted computing" technologies become ubiquitous, and legislation continues on its current course, there will soon be a day when you aren't allowed to do anything with a creative work without paying the copyright holder for a permission. If you think such a development will be only a positive thing and that no ordinary people will be affected, check out "The Right to Read" by Richard Stallman. I'd bet that one COULD make several strong TV episodes about the issues of fair use in a digital world.
Expect plenty more shows set in a bright and shiny future. Propaganda sucks, but at least it's predictable.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
What if he needs steroids to treat a medical condition? There are a lot of people who take steroids for legitimate medical reasons.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Frankly, even Blade Runner is optimistic at this point.
Gotta ask. . . Were there any people of Middle Eastern, Asian or African descent in the pilot?
-FL
(1) Open source software. How much was available in 1979? Could you run a small business on it?
(2) Cell phones, obviously.
(3) Digital music, digital photographs, and the tools so that nearly anyone can make more copies of their own or other people's work.
(4) Overnight package delivery.
(5) E-mail, fax, and cheap long distance phones.
At this point, someone pipes up and says that a few elite people in 1979 had limited access to primitive versions of these things (such as e-mail). There's a big difference between Eric Allman and Vint Cerf having e-mail connectivity and 100,000,000 people having routine, cheap e-mail connectivity. In other words, you have to use the same criteria for 1979 and 2004.
...25 *seconds* in the future, I would've seen myself turning this show off. That's all I gave it to convince me, but it really took less time than that to realize this show won't be on for long.
If I had mod points you'd get them all. That was the funniest thing I've read on slashdot in weeks!
Worst episode ever.
Have any other Slashdotters ever tried to read a transparancy when it's not on the overhead or sitting on top of a white piece of paper? It's hard, isn't it? Basically impossible, huh?
Then why on earth is the paper of the future and all the monitors made of transparent plastic???
My self of 25 years ago would have been surprised by:
*The end of the Soviet Union as the US's significant enemy.
*A movie about Jesus would have been a runaway hit.
*People would have driving mini-tanks (SUVs) and one hours worth of the mediam US wage could buy five gallons of gasoline. 1979 was the worst of energy crises of a decade of them. Everyone was predicting $100 / bbl oil, subcompacts. An hours worth of median wage could only buy two gallons of gasoline.
*Gay marriage would be the big social topic. Gays at that time were just a part of the larger sexual liberation movement. The hippee communes were just winding down. There was a controversial social consitutional admendment however: The liberals were pushing the Equal Rights Admendment for women. It only got about 34 of the 38 necessary state ratifications, then stalled. A marriage admendment would probably get just as far.
*People could copy music and movies electronically practically free.
*The emergence of political conservatism and the republican party. The country was coming off of two lame presidents of each party: Nixon and Carter. Reagan was elected because of his militarism after we wimped out in Iran.
What were not surprises:
*The dominance of MicroSoft. The 60s and 70s had AT&T and IBM as the evil empire. MicroSoft was merely a passing of hats.
*The InterNet. My univerisites Standrd and MIT were fairly wired up already. Email and file exchanges were common.
*F/X movies. Star Wars I had rewritten that book a few years earlier.
*Open source. AT&T UNIX had been around for a decade. The source code was floating around universities for nearly free. Also, lots of people were hacking LISP freeware in the A.I. labs.
Were there any people of Middle Eastern, Asian or African descent in the pilot?
Hannah Crane (Antwone Fisher) plays the partner-in-charge of the firm. An Asian actor, whose name I know not, played the U.S. Attorney opposing Markus Gold.
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
First of all, there are still lawyers, that is utterly pessimistic...
Their "bright future" is based on maintaining the status quo for another 1/4 of a century. Besides technological and medical advances, nothing has fundamentally changed in the US, that is utterly optimistic...
Noone is wearing stars & stripes armbands. Where are the obligatory Ministry of Homeland Security surveillance pods and the "this news(TM) broadcast brought to you by the Ministry(TM) of Truth(TM)" disclaimers ? Not very realistic if you ask me...
This is not a 'Blade Runner'
Wasted an hour of my life last night watching this (ok, 3/4 hour -- I couldn't stand to watch any longer) and you better effing believe this is not Blade Runner. It stuns me beyond belief that they would try to distance themselves from a truly intelligent scifi movie when all they have to offer is this steaming pile of crap.
Did anyone else notice that one of the lawyers has a secret identity?
I looked into the abyss, and the abyss looked into me--and we both winked.
Thought I'd post a review after actually watching the pilot, instead of just reading /.ers making wild assumptions (I know, I'm a radical)
No spoilers ahead.
We have our cast: (satirical labels mine):
the tough but fair Matriarch,
the Wizard
The Lothario (look it up)
The Hot Chick Who Is Smart, too
The Young Idealist
The Politician
Negatives:
This is just a law show with a different gimmick. The poster who commented that "The World of the Future" is just a dodge to get around network S&P is right on! This is probably just like every other law show out there. The characters might be well-written and fleshed out, but they're probably the same lawyers who (are/were) over on the Practice, with different actors.
I say "probably" because I don't watch that much Law TV, just the commercials.
Positives:
Of course, I don't watch the Practice, even though I love James Spader, and it comes on right after Alias (which I do watch). Law shows have just sort of glutted in my brain right now. I didn't want to have to try them out, or watch them a lot.
But it's a good gimmick, and it made me, a sci-fi fan, something for me and the SO to watch at that time slot, while we're waiting for QE4SG.
Overall review (4 star system)
Difference from other Law Shows : 1 star (hypothetical)
Science Fiction Elements: 3 stars
General Drama : 3 stars
Cool Actor Power : 4 stars to Hector Alizondo (sp?)
So, overall, a positive review from this watcher. We'll watch next week.
There was a huge story arc that was slowly being revealed (two by two, the men in blue).
"Two by two. Hands of blue"
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
The idea of a show set in the near future is pretty cool and interesting, but this one is just junk. Like we need another touchy-feely panting beween the desks law show....
What many of you /.'ers here seem to be missing is that the world protrayed in CC isn't all "bright and shiny" - it is today's world, set only a few years in the future. The show revealed what we should already know: in the future, people will be petty, people will be greedy, and lawyers will still be making tons of money. Oh, and the abortion debate will still be going on (I would even interject something here about religion, but not enough was revealed in the show, yet).
I got a feeling from the show that in the world of CC, everything looks OK - but in reality, it isn't - look a little closer (ie, be more than a prole or a sheep) - and you will see the dystopia - a dystopia that is around us today.
Today, look at how our rights and the way we live are being eroded, seemingly on a day-by-day basis. Maybe it isn't much different from the past, maybe we just have more information sources 24/7 - I don't know - still, it seems to me like the United States is going to hell in a handbasket - and everyone is smiling.
Everyone is buying shiny houses, shiny cars, shiny clothes - and refusing to see the dystopia unfolding right before their eyes.
In our current world, on the surface - it looks all fine and dandy - shiny. But in reality, we are still arguing and prosecuting (and persecuting) thousands, if not millions, of people simply because of viewpoints they hold, or because of who they are biologically. Furthermore, many of us are each saying "F the environment", collectively supporting bad practices instead of embracing renewable methods.
Is today not Century City - just 25-26 years in the "past"? Arguing that it isn't simply exhibits blatent willfulness to ignore what is right in front of one's face...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
The executive producer, Ed Zuckerman, had this to say about the future state of the law in America: 'Our future is a positive future. We assume that things are basically going to get better, progress will continue,' Zuckerman says.
All the great empires have fallen.
Do you believe the history will not repeat itself? I doubt.
Ok, I'll bite, Mr Troll..
Did you actually read any of the material the site uses as reference?
There's a lot of material out there about the coming oil crisis.
Try a search in Google for "Peak Oil" and read some of the other sites.
Hmm.. maybe a geologist from Princeton might be more convincing than the site I linked to?
Or how about CNN???
Important info:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
http://dieoff.org/synopsis.htm
http://www.peakoil.net