How many categories of scifi technologies are there currently I only know starships, weapons, energy source Are there other, more diverse categories? P.S. trying to build a scifi but having a hard time sorting out the categories in Technology
How many categories of real technology are there? AI, robots, personal transport, teleport booths, medical advances (anything from cloning for limb/ body replacement to immortality), mind control, advances in the social sciences (see the thread on pyschohistory for example), food production, education methods... etc. etc. One thing you need to sort out is when your story is set. Near future (couple of hundred years at most) will be "recognisable" extrapolations. If the setting is thousands or millions of years from now then practically anything goes: after all, any sufficiently advanced technology...
An interesting reply, Dywyddyr. Even in my childhood, there were comic books and short stories contemplating a future where robots were intelligent and humans had somehow created and lost control of this technology. Interesting to contemplate a story set very far in the future and what kind of technologies and species might populate such a time. At some point in the future, WE will be the fossilized record being excavated. I wonder what they'll make of that....
Plastic was patented by Alexander Parkes 1856 and unveiled to the world in 1862, according to the following link which details a bit of it's history. http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/plastics.htm I was thinking that we would possibly be identified as the era of fossil fuels. As many plastics are derived from petroleum and natural gas, this would be an inclusive observation. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think most likely they would shake their collective heads and sigh about how idiotic we are as a race in general.
Terraforming Artificial intelligence Genetic engineering Contact with aliens Next-generation entertainment Economic and political impact of an increasingly automated infrastructure High-capacity space travel, i.e., the ability to move an entire population when our sun dies and swallows the planet
Here is a good starter list: Offensive: eg Laser weaponry Defensive: eg Forcescreens Communications: eg Tachyon Transciever Manufacturing/Building materials: eg Nanoconstruction/Living metal Imformation gathering: X-ray Goggles Counter Intelligence: eg Cloaking Device. Information systems: eg Pentium 12 Nueralnet processor Medical: eg Cybernetic Eyes. Survival: eg Spacesuit Transportation: eg Reactionless Flight Pack Living Conditions: eg Bioplastic houses that consume your wastes.
Cloaking technology, virtual reality, hyper dimensional beings/travel, Other good scifi stuff: Alien archaeology, linguistic disintegration, post evolutionary beings, undersea colonies, hollow earth, Fun stuff
