Sci-Fi Reality/fantasy?

So I've been thinking for some time now about the disparity between science fiction as it exists in film,book and most impressively in film and the actual reality of our real and comparatively small accomplishments into outer space.In most Sci-fi escapades the very real obstacles which confront our actual advancement into space are conveniently glossed over.But after so much exposure to sci-fi material it almost at times feels like a surreality has taken hold over our collective psyches,as though we disparately crave to make real the sci-fi dream,but instead defer it to a reified fictional alterity that functions as an escape valve for our deeply ingrained desire for adventure.Instead we our stuck on a strangely Sci-fi planet that seems to be hurtling towards inevitable doom...What do you think?

 

Dead right?

 

Exactly.

 

There was a series which aired a few years ago on the Science channel called Prophets of Science Fiction.

It pretty much discusses your op topic but usually from the view that science is realizing much of the science fiction in some capacity. Checking out youtube, It looks like most the videos have episodes sectioned up but it was a quality series. If you can find it elsewhere or mind these sectioned videos, I highly recommend it. Here is a sample from the Issac Asminov episode..

http://youtu.be/U2FBH8gWP6g

 

I watched the video with interest.I have read Asimov's "Guide to Science" and the "Foundation" series,picking up a useful philosophical concept from him along the way.Granted,a lot of speculative Sci-Fi tropes have become reality,and contemporary ergonomics take their design from a very futuristic aesthetic,but it is specifically the complexities and seemingly insurmountable difficulties of manned space travel that I had in mind,and that Sci-Fi fictive narratives have overcome.The real test would be the proposed manned journeys to Mars,which appear to me to be a very risky undertaking.It also often amuses me how so many Sci-Fi scenarios depict militaristic post-political cultures wherein there is no place for the outsider or artistic sensibility to exist.Trans-humanism certainly has it's proponents and it may develop quickly if there are no laws regulating it's limits concerning augmented physical and computerized upgrades.It is something I would personally resist.Opposing armies of combatative robots leave me with a similarly morbid chill.

 

I think we are blinded by the sci-fi we see to the sci-fi of reality. I think Star Wars is the best example. Remember in the first movie how things were a little grubby? Like the Millenium Falcon for instance. That all disappeared with the prequels. Now we sit around in grubbiness, which is unavoidable, and pretend it's all clean as a whistle. With callous indifference to the plight of the homeless, for example, as we move into the ideal, spot-free future. But the true nature of humanity is unavoidable. Something is rotten.

 

The line in my life between reality and fantasy to me is nothing more than blurred.

 

Maybe what makes science fiction so interesting is the way it elicits idealized future concepts. Sci fi (usually) provides us with some definite imagined future where we can trace our steps from our current actual understanding of the world, to some distant imagined world and we can more or less project certain aspects of our culture, behaviors, ideas that'll get us there for better and worse.
However, When some of these aspects of sci fi concepts are realized, maybe we become desensitized to them in a way where they no longer strike our idealized imaginations in the same awe-inspiring way and basically they get integrated into our 'mundane' experience of life.

For instance, if you think about it in a certain light, everytime we turn on a tv, radio or go on the computer, our jaws should drop. Consider the timeline these innovations have been around in the context of the span of human history.

I think humans will always have the desire to explore further, so if we did send manned journeys to Mars, then the 'real test' becomes sending humans to potentially hospitable moons in the Solar System such as Europa and Titan, once that is completed maybe the 'real test' becomes sending humans to a planet in a neighboring solar system.

As I mentioned earlier, regarding the timeline of human existence, if science fiction is a by-product of post enlightenment literature, I think Science has been far from stagnant in exploring many of Sci-fi's proposed ideas and realities.

 

I don't know why people always fear the future as some type of doom. People have been doing that forever, and have always been wrong
I read this really interesting article about how over-population is a myth, because people are constantly changing the carrying capacity of earth with technological advances. It's argument being that there is no natural eco-systems for human, other than what we create ourselves. And this has happened time and time again, where a new invention ups are carrying capacity. (I couldn't find it again on a quick search, but I'll be sure to link it when I do)

I think sci fi is great, it's a creative outlet that has more often that not, lead to actual reality breakthroughs. Think of it as the creative, giving an engineer a project

Edit: Here's that link http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/opinion/overpopulation-is-not-the-problem.html

 

Science fiction is still a movie, so they make everything for it to be interesting to as much people as possible...

 

Maybe Hollywood dumbs all the sci-fi down?

 

I've been declaring for years now that we'll never make the space age. Nothing like it is portrayed in the movies anyway. Hell, we won't even even build a ship 1/4 the size of the Nostromo, we won't have the resources left on earth to accomplish a space age. We need to start making advances in living underwater.