United States of America
I specialize in science, technology, sci-fi, fantasy, pop culture, and other, weirder things. I've spoken at New York Comic-Con, Silicon Valley Comic-Con, Columbia University, and the Glasgow International Fantasy Convention. In my free time, I work on games and short stories.
SyFy WIRE
Elon Musk may have sent a copy of Foundation into space as an homage to Isaac Asimov's vision of the far future, but in retrospect, a box set of Cowboy Bebop might have been more appropriate.
When Serial Experiments: Lain wasn't terrifying you with its warped vision of the internet (called "the Wired"), it was dropping in little Easter eggs for technophiles: if you look closely, you'll notice that Lain writes code using Lisp, and that one screenshot of her computer shows Conway's Game of Life, a zero-player game that models the division of cells.
Whether it's a Stryder Titan from Titanfall, an EVA Unit from Neon Genesis Evangelion, or a good old-fashioned Gundam suit, mechas are the gold standard of sci-fi tech, along with hyperdrives and lightsabers. Now that the highly publicized MegaBots vs.
It's comforting to know that the critics can be dead wrong, especially when it comes to science fiction. Case in point: despite being known today as a classic of horror and sci-fi, John Carpenter's The Thing was initially torn apart by critics, who called it (among other things) "the quintessential moron movie of the '80s."
Since its release in 2006, Satoshi Kon's Paprika has built up a reputation for being somewhere between an LSD trip and a waking nightmare. It's been compared to Spirited Away and Inception, but anyone familiar with anime can pick out the parts that are distinctly Kon: cartoonish, creepy characters, reality-blurring into nightmares, and a plot that almost makes sense.
I'm a firm believer that if you ever have enough money in your bank account for a plane ticket, you should seriously consider a trip to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Pinhead has his puzzle box and Jigsaw has his weird Rube Goldberg-style torture devices, but science fiction has built itself on whole galaxies full of bizarre and frightening technology. Whether it's about human-machine hybrids or homicidal AIs, good sci-fi bounces between forecasting the technology of the future (tricorders!)
Outer Places
Everyone remembers "the scene." Ever since Apollo 13 hit theaters in 1995, everyone remembers the moment when the team has to fire the engines at precisely the right time to change their course and make sure they enter Earth's atmosphere at the right angle.
Image credit: Viacom, CBS Peter Graham once said that the golden age of sci-fi is twelve. After childhood, some science fiction fans go on to make sci-fi technology a reality, while others write their own stories set among the stars. Morgan Gendel decided to do both.
Every kid who saw the original Nintendo Power Glove had the same thought: the future is now, and it is awesome. For this generation, VR is evoking the same reactions (wonder, awe, child-like excitement) and meeting the same problems ("Jesus, that's expensive, and it's still this clunky?").
