Dinosaurs Reborn

Most people know anout the classic Jurassic Park movies. And most people have probably thought, how cool would it be if dinosaurs still existed. Well it's not a subject that could remain science "fiction" for long.

Scientist have been working quite closely in this field. An example is there are plans of placing preserved Wolly Mammoth DNA in an elephant so the elephant gives birth to a "new" species. Think about that, pretty cool. But in a world where polar bears are becoming extinct I'm not so sure a wolly mammoth is the greatest idea.

But if one was to combine that kind of technology with another species we could get some interesting results, or some monstrous results. Because I'm not sure what would give birth to a T-rex. A gorilla? A feret? A lizard? So maybe its less possible than originally thought. Because an elephant and a wolly mammoth are very similar species so one birthing another is possible. With most other dinos a different strategy would have to be in place, if any.

Still, if we did have dinosaurs it wouldn't be like an apocalypse. Obviously we would have some sort of control over them like in jurassic park. Although they had a way of controlling them and it still went wrong. So maybe we stick with the nice dinos, non-human eating ones yes? Sounds good to me.

Attack of the Clones

The second movie in the Star Wars prequels is also very, very unpopular among some fans. The only thing I find repulsive about the movie is the painfully forced romance scenes. If you take those scenes away the movie holds up alright, but is there anything else wrong with it?

It begins with bounty hunters going after Padmè. Obi-wan leaves to search for the assassin and this is where my first question lies. Obi-wan stumbles apon a planet that is manufacturing a clone army for the republic. But nobody knew about this except for Count Dooku who began construction. How did nobody know about this. I assume i cost the Republic a large sum of money so why were no questions asked. And if Count Dooku made the plans for an army why didn't he go and stop construction on the clones once he switched sides, I mean, it would've made his life A LOT easier.

The movies arena battle is one of the coolest parts of Star Wars. It is filled with action, even if it is the most inefficient way of killing a jedi. Its questionable how all those jedi got into the stadium to help, and why they didn't help a lot sooner, but it makes for a cool battle.

All in all the movies action itself holds up well enough and the movie is a step up from Phantom Menace. But it could just be me blinded by nostalgia.

Phantom Menace

The "first" Star Wars movie is often considered the worst of the Star Wars trilogies. It has a few great scenes but mostly it is a lot of  unnecessary background junk, and of course way to much JarJar. But is there more than just the obvious story flaws to this movie?

It begins fine aside from the painful JarJar commentary. When you see the underwater city for the first time you think "cool, its like living in bubbles". But a few scenes later and there are huge monster-fish eating other monster-fish and immediately you think, "why don't those fish go to the underwater city and completely wreck it"? I mean, those creatures are like 5 minutes away, It makes no sense...

Fastforward to tatooine and we meet a creature named Watto. Watto is a chunky thing so let me ask, how do those small, thin, dragonfly-like wings keep him in the air? Ah, because he is mostly gas and very lightweight, so my problem isn't there. My problem is what he says, "Jedi mind tricks don't work on me", yeah no. So stormtroopers, perfectly cloned soldiers are weak minded, but a fat, stingy bug creature is invulnerable because he is greedy? At least try to make sense!

Lastly, towards the end of the movie we see child anakin begin to pilot one of the naboo fighters. He somehow turns it on and begins to fly right into a space battle. In this battle he manages to fly into the droid command ship and blow it up. How does a small child who has never flown before, accomplish such a task. And if it was that easy to get into the ship and blow it up, why was nobody doing it?

These are just a few complaints I have about the movie. Don't get me wrong, it had great parts, like the fight with darth maul, or the podraces. But some things in this movie just make you stop and think, what? Why? And take away from the movie.

Self-Aware Cars

First question is, what is a self aware car? Well, think of Jonny Cab from Total Recall. Its only there for a small amount of time, but its a good example. Its a car that can drive itself through some kind of technology. Tech like this isn't far-fetched at all though.

A modern day example would be Google's self driving car. Real strides have been made in this area. It can use GPS technology to know where it, what road its on, and where its going. And at the same time uses sonar- like technology to see where other cars are, and what they are doing.

You may not like it but this may be the future. Instead of driving yourself the car drives you to your destination. With multi-tasking being as big as it is this wouldn't really be that big of a deal. Especially since self driving cars would be safer than human controlled cars. Accident rates would go down, drunk drivers wouldn't exist, leaving this reality a very plausible one indeed.

Force Abilities

"Use the force Luke" is a popular line in Star Wars. In Star Wars (the originals), the force is almost like a religion. To become a "master" one would need to meditate, clear their mind, and have a mentor, not unlike praying in church or listening to a pastor. The prequels make some confusing lore about midichlorians, stating that the force is a bunch of micro-organisms that are around you and one would need to be able to control them. But all that is just a poor attempt at making Star Wars more science fiction and less fantasy and you cannot change it after something has already been established... But enough of that. If the force were to exist, how could it? We all have tried it, and we all have failed, but how long until i reach for the TV remote and it flies from the floor into my hand.

Well its not impossible, through sound waves we can get things to move, not very much but enough. Like a dragonborn from skyrim, blasting people back with soundwaves. If we made a machine that could replicate that, force is possible. But not by having a high midichlorian count...

End of the World

There are a few movies that depict a future where planet Earth is becoming non-hospitable. Either mankind has run out of Earths resources or just overpopulated the planet kind of like Elysium. What happens then, where does mankind turn when the place we have called home for centuries is gone? Do we make a giant spaceship like Wall-E and just live out our lives in it, or do we go around looking for a new place to stay and possibly colonize a new planet.

Well why would we have to leave, I mean, Earth is great so the only reason we would permanently leave is if something was forcing us to leave. One factor could be that the sun is burning out. The sun will eventually go dark, but not for millions and millions, which gives us time. Hopefully by then we have a plan B that can save us. By that time we possibly could have a concept that "re-energizes" the sun, keeping it going, making it so we did not have to go anywhere. This defeats the need to leave which means something else has to kick us off the planet.

Another possibility is that we have overpopulated the planet. Assuming the population will continue to grow at the rate it is growing this is a very real possibility that isn't so far away. Hopefully, the solution isn't kill off a third of the population, and lets say that castrating a third of mankind isn't the solution either. Some would definitely need to leave the planet and look for another home. Who? I don't know, but staying on Earth after awhile would probably be just as safe as travelling into space and searching for a home.

The most ideal out of all of the scenarios is most likely we would build a giant space station or ship that could hold a majority of the population. We already can grow food in 0g, but we cannot really live our lifetimes in 0g. Our bodies are built and grow because of gravity. Extended periods of time without gravity really messes with our bone structure and other parts of the body. We could survive, but we would most likely be extremely weak and frail and just messed up. But if we were to stay alive this is possibly the only way to do so, but let's hope that we don't get forced into these situations.

Is Star War Syfy or Fantasy

Star Wars is an iconic science fiction film, but is it even science fiction? Science fiction is classified as some thing that could be possible in the future, fantasy is more mystical and imaginary ideals. So which is it? Well Star Wars kind of has both elements, trust me I can explain.

Star Wars has some science fiction elements. The ability for interplanetary travel is possible, the planets and moons themselves are not blown out of scientific proportion either. Desert, lava, forest-like planets are all somewhat possible. The engines the vehicles run on are based on real science, and there are other examples than these that can put Star Wars into the science fiction category.

The force aspect is when Star Wars gets more into fantasy. The force seems more like a religion, a mystical energy field around you. In the prequels they tried to make it more syfy with midi-chlorians but its was mainly just confusing and contradictory with the originals.

All in all Star Wars kind of makes its own genre, a science fantasy genre. But why is that a bad thing? It's kind of a cop out but Star Wars really doesn't fit into one category, which is  why it is so cool, because it can reach multiple audiences and connect with so many different people.