One Sci-Fi Universe To Become Real

[Havok]

If you could pick one Sci-Fi universe to become a real universe that intertwines with ours, which would it be?

Please give reasons and explanations. What about the particular universe intrigues you? How would their integration into our universe affect Earth, if at all? Do you feel you would gain personally from the Sci-Fi universe becoming reality?

[Purple]

The one from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Because screw you all there is nothing like achieving instrumentality.

[Havok]

Yeah and we all know what that is and means.

I honestly thought it would get past the first post before people completely ignored it.

[Stark]

Your expectations are just too high, Hav.

But man - fucking Demolition Man. That'd be both hilarious and profitable! Peaceful and wealthy, while at the same time foolish and naive.

[Formless]

Yeah and we all know what that is and means.

I honestly thought it would get past the first post before people completely ignored it.

To oversimplify a little bit, Instrumentality = The Rapture/Apocalypse except its reversible... sorta. So basically, Purple is admitting to being a completely selfish and idiotic fucktard to everyone who knows the context of his post; par for the course.

I would go with.... Digimon. Any series/season, preferably the third. Quick cliff notes picture of the premise: take Tron and its parallel universe based on computer code and internet architecture and populate it with intelligent monsters that are totally not Poke'mon, we swear to god the name and idea are a coincidence [/Bandai's POV]. Its interesting to me in part because anything involving parallel universes are interesting to me, and there are all sorts of exploits here in particular that come with being able to manifest computer programs in the physical world (and not just the monsters, by the way). Or even just traveling around the world at the speed of light by passing through another dimension. And there is alien life in the cosmos after all! ...from a certain point of view.

Best of all, its extremely easy to integrate with our world, by design. There would be some issues regarding how the locals interact with humans, but as long as no one and their government or corporation tries to monopolize the place and turn it into their private playground things should be fine. I think.

[The Imperator]

I would choose Star Trek. Just the fact that humanity would be so important, so powerful, so inquisitive, makes it worth it. Even though I wouldn't live to see it, and probably would die in WWIII, the knowing of what the future would bring would make it alright.

[Borgholio]

I'd have to pick either Star Wars or Babylon 5. I'd want a universe where there's an entire galaxy to explore, full of strange and neat things. At the same time, SW and B5 are more realistic in terms of things like prejudice, politics, war, etc...so it's a culture I'd be likely to understand and deal with. Plus, Star Trek is way too pussified for me. I'd go apeshit with everybody around me talking out of their ass on how to be a better human. Unless you're talking about the rebooted Star Trek...which would also be cool for the same reasons as SW and B5.

[Havok]

Hmmm has porn made enough sci-fi spoofs to constitute a "universe"?

I still haven't decided.

[Jub]

I would either go with something like Star Wars for the vast exploration potential, but that comes with the fact that we'd be nobodies on the galactic scale and could get screwed by politics. The other choice would be Cyberpunk 2020, sure things suck a bit worse in some ways, but the VR and cybertech would be pretty awesome and I wouldn't be totally lost in the setting.

One other choice, assuming that reality changes so that we end up in space colonies, would be the setting from Eclipse Phase. It's sort of Orion's Arm light with mind uploads and super AI, but the actions of people still matter. It's pretty post scarcity and if you live in the right place you can literally make replicators that make more replicators and swap between different robot/organic bodies with relative ease.

EDIT: With body swaps and such you also tend to get a free love vibe in a lot of places so Hav gets his porn universe with the Eclipse Phase setting.

[Thanas]

Mark Brandis. Because it has humanity, challenges, stable politics and no crazy stuff.

[Simon_Jester]

Doc Smith's Lensman setting.

It didn't predict computers, but the laws of physics do so I don't believe we'd lose them. And frankly, the science and technology strikes me as very human-congenial. It's one of the sources for the optimism of Trek, and the great diversity and versatility of life and civilization in Star Wars.

[Irbis]

I'd have to pick either Star Wars or Babylon 5. I'd want a universe where there's an entire galaxy to explore, full of strange and neat things. At the same time, SW and B5 are more realistic in terms of things like prejudice, politics, war, etc...

Yeah, they are realistic. So, how about something that doesn't eat us for breakfast?

If you want to explore, why not go to the source instead of the copycats? Foundation gives humanity big empire, lots of places to explore, no extinction of humanity in cards, and even in case Earth shows up in time of some aggressive Emperor at worst they would demand loyalty and some taxes.

[Terralthra]

I'd go for the Culture, personally. Transhumanism, expansive universe, immortality if I want it, post-scarcity society, and the Minds.

[Simon_Jester]

I'm not so sure I want a Singularitarian universe. I really like the idea of the future belonging to people, entities I can recognize and understand as human. If I had to pick an SF universe to come true, I'd want to pick one that secures that.

Hence I'd vote for (for instance) Trek over the Culture. The Culture is shinier and has a better life for more beings. But Trek gives us a human future that doesn't boil down to "AI gods are content to have large numbers of us around for sentimental reasons."

[Darth Tedious]

Hmmm has porn made enough sci-fi spoofs to constitute a "universe"?

I still haven't decided.

Never mind the parodies, there's enough original sci-fi prons out there to count.

And yeah, you just made me forget whatever I was actually going to suggest.

So this instead.

[Lonestar]

Posleen-verse.

[Terralthra]

I'm not so sure I want a Singularitarian universe. I really like the idea of the future belonging to people, entities I can recognize and understand as human. If I had to pick an SF universe to come true, I'd want to pick one that secures that.

Hence I'd vote for (for instance) Trek over the Culture. The Culture is shinier and has a better life for more beings. But Trek gives us a human future that doesn't boil down to "AI gods are content to have large numbers of us around for sentimental reasons."

I'm not opposed to Star Trek, except it has godlike beings who keep large numbers of us around because they're not bored enough to wipe us out, today. Is that any better?

[Serafina]

I don't care one iota about humanity mattering. We already live in a society where the individual human being matters little to nothing to society as a whole, except for a select few. Going transhuman only means more of that, but so does every large society for more and more people.

As an individual human being i can certainly make enough of an impact on my immediate surroundings - other people - no matter whether i live in a transhuman society or not.

So yes, my vote would go to the Culture - and if you really want another universe, you can go with 100% realistic virtual reality

[Eternal_Freedom]

It may not count as sci-fi, but I'm going with Futurama. Sure there's lots of weird shit, but you can quite literally fly from one side of the universe to another. In a single morning. In a ship a less-than-sane scientists built himself. Mainly though, it's just so damn funny.

And, in the futurama verse, I could reliably freeze myself and actually see it for myself.

[Formless]

I don't care one iota about humanity mattering. We already live in a society where the individual human being matters little to nothing to society as a whole, except for a select few. Going transhuman only means more of that, but so does every large society for more and more people.

As an individual human being i can certainly make enough of an impact on my immediate surroundings - other people - no matter whether i live in a transhuman society or not.

So yes, my vote would go to the Culture - and if you really want another universe, you can go with 100% realistic virtual reality

So you don't want to solve the single most depressing fact of life in the modern world, don't care if human beings can actually self actualize or not? What? I want a world where I can make a fucking difference, not one where I am condemned to sit around and twiddle my goddamn thumbs because you are either born with a silicon chip for a brain or you are considered obsolete. And fuck virtual reality. I can play video games right now in this world without super duper advanced transhuman technobabble. Its no substitute for real accomplishments.

Even a world where the transhumans are still humans, but with enhancements, isn't as depressing as goddamn AI gods. Hell, look for a moment at the use of the word "Gods" and you might just see why I hate the idea right there.

This is why I can't bring myself to give a shit about transhumanism or transhuman fiction. Its based on the idea that people will be content to be babysat right up until death. If you really think that, you have officially lost some of your humanity.

[Beowulf]

Posleen-verse.

Presumably not with fucked up ness that screwed over humanity in the original series?

[Simon_Jester]

I'm not opposed to Star Trek, except it has godlike beings who keep large numbers of us around because they're not bored enough to wipe us out, today. Is that any better?

To be fair, that's true. I'd forgotten the Q's for a couple of reasons.

They intervene rarely- they aren't the center of all great decisions in human life. And they're not really... thematically essential, shall we say. TOS made do without the Q's entirely. Though it had its own superpowerful beings, they weren't explicitly a universe-spanning dominant race of omnipotent life.

You might say I'd like the Star Trek of TOS a bit better than that of the later ones, on that basis.

I don't care one iota about humanity mattering. We already live in a society where the individual human being matters little to nothing to society as a whole, except for a select few. Going transhuman only means more of that, but so does every large society for more and more people.

Put this way.

For me it's about the idea that there is heroism somewhere out there: ambition, courage, the virtues and vices of our society matter. Being the right kind of people (tolerant and flexible, intelligent and bold) matters, producing the right kind of people matters. Even if the average person is not themself operating on the heroic level, there is a heroic level, and it's something normal people can aspire to and use to illuminate their lives.

This may be an American thing, but think of all the kids who grew up wanting to be astronauts. Who would grow up wanting to be an AI god?

[Lonestar]

Presumably not with fucked up ness that screwed over humanity in the original series?

(1)Sign on to defend alliance, gain tech
(2) ????
(3) Profit.

[Havok]

I'm kinda leaning towards the Doctor Who-verse.
Humanity will live until the end of time and at least be a semi-important part of the universe.
There is time travel.
There is amazing technology, aside from duh... time travel.
Space travel will be fairly accessible.
Earth as it stands currently isn't going to get completely obliterated, even without the Doctor's protection.

Star Wars would be great, but there is absolutely no connection to our Earth and it being real, may as well just be it being a movie.

[Terralthra]

I don't think transhumanist/post-scarcity/singularity societies remove ambition, heroism, or meaning from human lives. Almost all of the Culture novels focus on humans, doing things that are heroic, in one fashion or another. Are the actions of a Mind in a GCV more "meaningful"? Maybe, but that doesn't mean the actions of the humans in the story aren't meaningful.

As for "the most depressing fact about human existence today," I'd say that "some people starve for no good reason," "some people die of treatable preventable diseases for no good reason," "some people are killed over scraps of metal and plastic," and, really, "people die," are much more depressing facts than "I don't feel like my life has meaning!"

Talk about first-world privilege.