I was not at all impressed with Firefly. It’s idioms for the more primitive were too primitive (dresses from the 1800s???). It’s Premise was awesome, but due to the mainstream audience, the writers were very constrained. Had it been done as an anime, I imagine it would have looked far more like Trigun.
Now, Farscape. This was a re-telling of the Buck-Rogers story, and it was done Freaking Well! They did not focus overly much on the technologies, which were mostly post-Singularity (as were many of the alien species), but due to the collapse of the civilization that supported that portion of the Galaxy, the Peacekeepers had become a force for malevolence and dystopic vision rather than the force for good which they began as.
I have never been able to enjoy Star Trek in any of its genres past TOS. The lack of obvious applications of much of the technologies, and the strict adherence to a dualist New-Age philosophy of consciousness really kept me away from the show. They occasionally had some excellent shows, but overall; I found that their lack of general AI, given the supposed power of many of their computers, and their lack of nano-tech based technologies (given the absolute necessity of nanotech for some technologies) was just appalling. The Medical technologies were also rather wonky. If they can regrow bone, and they can regrow nerves, and they can regrow skin, and they can regrow muscles… Why cannot they re-grow entire limbs.
Also, the silly rationale behind there were not more technologies like Giordi’s eyes really made no sense.
IMO, the absolute Best Sci-Fi TV series in recent years has been the new BSG, and the upcoming Caprica, which will tackle a civilization as it approaches its own singularity and then fails to make it through the event horizon. Not due to having created unfriendly AI, but by having their AI corrupted by a psychopathic religious girl who manages to inhabit that AI. It should be excellent.
They did not focus overly much on the technologies, which were mostly post-Singularity
Was this ever said or shown in an episode? It seems like a cop out to just assume magical technology is post-Singularity without it being in the back story.
the strict adherence to a dualist New-Age philosophy of consciousness really kept me away from the show.
Wasn’t there a consciousness swapping episode of Farscape? Also, what about the Data is basically a person trope in TNG? I agree that Star Trek technology doesn’t make a lot of sense, though.
Give your high standards shouldn’t the fact that cylons were never much more intelligent than humans bother you?
Was this ever said or shown in an episode? It seems like a cop out to just assume magical technology is post-Singularity without it being in the back story.
A society, or group of societies, needn’t have the concept of the singularity in order for one to have occurred. Farscape had some very obvious technologies (mostly medical) which were very highly advanced nanotech, and there were elements of AI. Most of the theme of the show, though, was that they were living in a fallen society, which had once passed through a Singularity (at least parts of the interstellar civilization) yet had fallen back below it, with these magical items being carefully guarded and little understanding of how they worked. That did bother me a little, but since the story was driven by the plot and some of the characters, and they rarely sunk into techno-babble, it was easier to overlook.
There was a consciousness swapping episode of Farscape. It was not one of my favorite episodes of the show. As for Star Trek and Data… That was something that I hated. If they had the type of imaging technology that they claimed to have in their medical and scanning technologies, creating more Datas should have been the easiest thing in the world. and, Data should have known that there was no more to him that the patterns in his “Positronic Matrix” and that if he was taken apart, all that would be necessary was a back-up of this matrix… Of course, just by fiat they claimed that this was impossible.
And… As to BSG… It did bother me that the Cylons (the human ones) were never much more intelligent than humans did bother me, until it was explained why (The episode where Cavil has his screaming fit at Ellen Tigh where he screams at her “I am just a machine… I want to see gamma-rays, smell x-rays, hear radio waves, touch the solar wind and taste dark matter. Yet, you gave me this arthritic old body and these failing eyes to look at the wonders of the universe”.
It was explained the Cavil, in his jealousy of the First 5, who had arrived from the Original earth in the final months of the Cylon War with the colonies, had managed to trap the 5 (long after the end of the Cylon War), and suppress their original memories and knowledge (which were vastly greater than either man or existing Cylons) and replace these memories with false memories & knowledge. Cavil then placed them in the colonies to await the final destruction of the colonies, to live among the humans (and discover how much they deserved annihilation) only to have his plans thwarted when the extermination did not go as plan.
When Ellen is resurrected after Saul kills her on New Caprica, she re-gains her old memories (and knowledge), yet does not share it with Cavil (or the other Cylons) because of Cavil’s betrayal of her (and the original 5′s) Values (and because Cavil killed Daniel, who was the most successful and advanced of the 13 models of cylons… Yes, there were 13 models, not 12. Cavil completely destroyed Daniel in a fit of jealousy because of Daniel’s incredible brilliance and talent.
Lastly, the remaining Cylons were more intelligent than the Humans. only Baltar came close to their level of intelligence. Their technology was higher than humans as well. It was not significantly greater due to the fact that the Original 5 refused to give the remaining 7 much of their technical knowledge because of Cavil’s pride and desire to exterminate mankind for what were sins that should have been forgiven.
I was not at all impressed with Firefly. It’s idioms for the more primitive were too primitive (dresses from the 1800s???). It’s Premise was awesome, but due to the mainstream audience, the writers were very constrained. Had it been done as an anime, I imagine it would have looked far more like Trigun.
Now, Farscape. This was a re-telling of the Buck-Rogers story, and it was done Freaking Well! They did not focus overly much on the technologies, which were mostly post-Singularity (as were many of the alien species), but due to the collapse of the civilization that supported that portion of the Galaxy, the Peacekeepers had become a force for malevolence and dystopic vision rather than the force for good which they began as.
I have never been able to enjoy Star Trek in any of its genres past TOS. The lack of obvious applications of much of the technologies, and the strict adherence to a dualist New-Age philosophy of consciousness really kept me away from the show. They occasionally had some excellent shows, but overall; I found that their lack of general AI, given the supposed power of many of their computers, and their lack of nano-tech based technologies (given the absolute necessity of nanotech for some technologies) was just appalling. The Medical technologies were also rather wonky. If they can regrow bone, and they can regrow nerves, and they can regrow skin, and they can regrow muscles… Why cannot they re-grow entire limbs.
Also, the silly rationale behind there were not more technologies like Giordi’s eyes really made no sense.
IMO, the absolute Best Sci-Fi TV series in recent years has been the new BSG, and the upcoming Caprica, which will tackle a civilization as it approaches its own singularity and then fails to make it through the event horizon. Not due to having created unfriendly AI, but by having their AI corrupted by a psychopathic religious girl who manages to inhabit that AI. It should be excellent.
Was this ever said or shown in an episode? It seems like a cop out to just assume magical technology is post-Singularity without it being in the back story.
Wasn’t there a consciousness swapping episode of Farscape? Also, what about the Data is basically a person trope in TNG? I agree that Star Trek technology doesn’t make a lot of sense, though.
Give your high standards shouldn’t the fact that cylons were never much more intelligent than humans bother you?
A society, or group of societies, needn’t have the concept of the singularity in order for one to have occurred. Farscape had some very obvious technologies (mostly medical) which were very highly advanced nanotech, and there were elements of AI. Most of the theme of the show, though, was that they were living in a fallen society, which had once passed through a Singularity (at least parts of the interstellar civilization) yet had fallen back below it, with these magical items being carefully guarded and little understanding of how they worked. That did bother me a little, but since the story was driven by the plot and some of the characters, and they rarely sunk into techno-babble, it was easier to overlook.
There was a consciousness swapping episode of Farscape. It was not one of my favorite episodes of the show. As for Star Trek and Data… That was something that I hated. If they had the type of imaging technology that they claimed to have in their medical and scanning technologies, creating more Datas should have been the easiest thing in the world. and, Data should have known that there was no more to him that the patterns in his “Positronic Matrix” and that if he was taken apart, all that would be necessary was a back-up of this matrix… Of course, just by fiat they claimed that this was impossible.
And… As to BSG… It did bother me that the Cylons (the human ones) were never much more intelligent than humans did bother me, until it was explained why (The episode where Cavil has his screaming fit at Ellen Tigh where he screams at her “I am just a machine… I want to see gamma-rays, smell x-rays, hear radio waves, touch the solar wind and taste dark matter. Yet, you gave me this arthritic old body and these failing eyes to look at the wonders of the universe”.
It was explained the Cavil, in his jealousy of the First 5, who had arrived from the Original earth in the final months of the Cylon War with the colonies, had managed to trap the 5 (long after the end of the Cylon War), and suppress their original memories and knowledge (which were vastly greater than either man or existing Cylons) and replace these memories with false memories & knowledge. Cavil then placed them in the colonies to await the final destruction of the colonies, to live among the humans (and discover how much they deserved annihilation) only to have his plans thwarted when the extermination did not go as plan.
When Ellen is resurrected after Saul kills her on New Caprica, she re-gains her old memories (and knowledge), yet does not share it with Cavil (or the other Cylons) because of Cavil’s betrayal of her (and the original 5′s) Values (and because Cavil killed Daniel, who was the most successful and advanced of the 13 models of cylons… Yes, there were 13 models, not 12. Cavil completely destroyed Daniel in a fit of jealousy because of Daniel’s incredible brilliance and talent.
Lastly, the remaining Cylons were more intelligent than the Humans. only Baltar came close to their level of intelligence. Their technology was higher than humans as well. It was not significantly greater due to the fact that the Original 5 refused to give the remaining 7 much of their technical knowledge because of Cavil’s pride and desire to exterminate mankind for what were sins that should have been forgiven.