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Star Wars May Not Just Be Science Fiction Anymore (No Spoilers)

4 pointsby Oxydepthover 9 years ago

3 comments

krappover 9 years ago
1) Droids: fair enough. But Star Wars didn&#x27;t really invent the concept of androids, so I don&#x27;t know how much credit it should get for that. Might as well mention Softbank&#x27;s robot Pepper[0], if only to mention that the terms of service apparently explicitly say you can&#x27;t have sex with it. Certinaly, intelligent software agents seem to be more commonplace, which isn&#x27;t surprising since you don&#x27;t have to worry about having those lumber around the real world.<p>2) Lightsabers: Probably only marginally possible if you entirely abandon the premise of having an energy weapon altogether, and <i>certainly</i> that the &quot;blade&quot; has to be made of light. The closest thing reality has, and maybe can have, might look like a cutting torch.[1]<p>3) Tractor Beams: Probably impossible as envisioned by science fiction - a beam of energy that pulls you towards it, rather than pushing, which would be more reasonable. Manipulating some medium like air or water might work, but shouldn&#x27;t count. Although at small scales, where you can harness the Casimir effect, it might be feasible[2].<p>4) Holograms: Everything like the &quot;Tupac Shakur&quot; and &quot;Hatsune Miku&quot; concert holograms seem to be images projected onto a surface, but the technology to create and manipulate points of light as an actual 3d matrix does apparently exist[3], but are nowhere near ready for shipping with HoloChess.<p>5) The Force: Simple tricks and nonsense.<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aldebaran.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;a-robots&#x2F;who-is-pepper" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aldebaran.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;a-robots&#x2F;who-is-pepper</a><p>[1]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gamezone.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;someone-made-a-real-life-lightsaber-it-s-both-terrifying-and-awesome-3431251" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gamezone.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;someone-made-a-real-life-lights...</a><p>[2]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livescience.com&#x2F;48414-tractor-beam-pulls-in-particles.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livescience.com&#x2F;48414-tractor-beam-pulls-in-parti...</a><p>[3]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;qz.com&#x2F;438880&#x2F;scientists-have-created-3d-holograms-that-you-can-touch&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;qz.com&#x2F;438880&#x2F;scientists-have-created-3d-holograms-th...</a><p>So yeah - any possibly valid technological ideas in Star Wars would seem to be pretty generic for the genre, and the unique concepts are, unsurprisingly just magitech.
imamachineover 9 years ago
I want a droid...
rit344over 9 years ago
Tractor Beams are so much cooler than droids.