• Question: Do any of you watch Sci-fi, like star wars. Do you think this actually related to science in anyway?

    Asked by codfish to Clare, Divya, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 14 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Yeh shedloads of it. My wife and I got to the cinema a lot and watch quite a bit of sci fi, I’m working my way through the Stargate series at the moment. Very few sci-fi films are scientifcally accurate because they don’t think it’s exciting enough and Startrek would be really dull if they didn’t have warp travel. I don’t get upset about inaccuracy though – it’s fiction.

      Two best films for accuracy I’ve seen recently are Gravity and Contagion.

    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 15 Mar 2014:

      Oh yeah ! Nothing at the moment but Star Wars and the Star Trek (films) series figure. I’ve seen all of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis – which were great (I’m sure Ian’s enjoying them :)) Also parts of Red Dwarf, Farscape, Fringe, Firefly, Doctor Who (new ones but not the latest)…. And so on. I won’t start on the books (which are totally worth it too – hitch hikers guide to the galaxy is my favourite).

      I agree with Ian that they are not usually scientifically accurate but that’s the point of it. If it made sense now, it’s no good is it – it’s about imagining all the possibilities. It hasn’t been too shabby in predicting the future http://mashable.com/2010/09/25/11-astounding-predictions/

      Of course, it would be nice if sometimes they weren’t so hopelessly defying the laws of physics but I’m cool with that now.

    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 15 Mar 2014:

      Yeh I love sci-fi too! Star Wars especially. Obviouly a lot of it cant exist in the foreseeable future, but some sci-fi stuff has come true- like touch screen computers!

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 15 Mar 2014:

      No, I don’t really like sci-fi. In the comedy gig that I did the other week, part of my act was about why scientists don’t have to like sci-fi. I would post the link, but it is a bit too sweary!

      I know lots of people do like sci-fi – I am not criticising them, I am sure that some of the things that I like, other people would have no interest in at all!

    • Photo: Clare Nevin

      Clare Nevin answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      I don’t really watch sci-fi films but I love futuristic novels because they reveal the strange possibilities that science can bring to society – and not all in a good sense!

      There is a book called Brave New World which was written in the 1930s and speculates that in the near future, all people will be bred in lab test tubes, we’re not too far off that with IVF, fertilising eggs with sperm outside of the body. Have a read!

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