Laser Technology

When most people think lasers, they obviously think science fiction. Lasers are present in a lot of science fiction movies, like Star Wars for example, so it makes sense why they would think that. That preconception may begin to change though. Lasers may not be science fiction for long, in fact, they already exist.

You probably know about small lasers that are only dangerous if you look right into the beam, such as a laser pointer. Although those are considered, lasers, they are not what I am talking about. What I am talking about are lasers that for lack of a better word, destroy things. You may not believe it but these lasers do in fact exist. Aboard some modern day battleships are actual lasers, but not to the extent of Star Wars... How they function as a weapon is relatively simple. They can take down aircraft quite easily by pointing the laser at the jet. More precisely, they point it at a mirror on the jet that then ignites the bottom of the jet into flames. It's really cool to see and there are videos online if you are curious or you don't believe me. Since this technology already exists it begs the question can we take it a step further. Can we turn this into some kind of concentrated shot that can be fired out of say, a rifle.

I really do hope so even if its just for a cool factor at best. But the odds are not in this technologies favor. Think about it, light travels extremely fast, faster than the naked eye can detect. If we created this laser rifle it wouldn't fire cool big red blasts that are observable, the effect would be along the lines of turning a laser pointer on and off again. So there probably won't be a laser rifle that functions like I want it, the answer most likely lies in plasma as it usually does. Tech that could fire a small dose of plasma is definitely more plausible than lasers, and it would undoubtedly be much more effective, and cool.

Empire Strikes Back

Often regarded as the best Star Wars has to offer, Empire Strikes Back does live up to that. Unlike the other films it has few flaws, a less cheesy story and plot, while still retaining that Star Wars magic. I think the key is in the director. George Lucas is a great writer and story creator, but executing his script and ideas onto the screen has always been poor or lackluster in my opinion. All the prequels were directed by him and they are disliked by many who love the originals, and I'm not sure if that's a coincidence.

It does not take this movie long to get into the action. Fairly quickly the rebel base is found on Hoth and a massive battle with towering vehicles begin firing. The entire movie it feels like they are being chased or hiding, but the movie is called "Empire Strikes Back", so it's almost expected. Even in Luke's training the movie continues that feeling. Since Luke cannot get this new force thing down and is still having problems with his fears. This movie not only has action but emotion as well. When Luke learns that Darth Vader is his father it is a very serious scene that makes you rethink everything. Nowadays everyone goes into the Star Wars movie knowing that Vader is Lukes father but thats because its the biggest plot twist ever basically.

Time Travel

Time travel is a complicated thing. If we go back in time, we could mess up the present. If we go forward in time, there is so much unknown that it would be extremely dangerous. So obviously it is a risky and dangerous idea in general. But, plenty of movies capture what would be wrong with time travel, think about it. There isn't a lot of time travel movies where the time travelers don't end up in some sort of predicament, it wouldn't be interesting if they traveled back in time and everything went according to plan anyway.

So what is the point of time travel in general. Well, travelling back in time would be used to study history, prevent something historic from happening, or for self gain, kind of like the plot in Back to the Future movies. Honestly it wouldn't be that hard to make a living traveling back in time. If you just brought your cell phone back to the early 1900's it would amaze everyone. Go back any farther and it might scare people, some may call you a witch and burn you for your cell phone. But dangerous problems also arrive when traveling to the future. How do you know when you travel forward in time, Earth will even be there. What if aliens came with a death star and blew Earth up. You would have a giant problem as your gasping for air out in space.

But that brings me to my next point/problem/confusion about time travel. Say I traveled forward in time, 2 years. Assuming the time machine works the year would be 2016. But where would I be in 2016. When I came out of time travel am I where I was when I began traveling, because with Earths orbit I wouldn't be in the EXACT spot I was, again, I would be floating in space dying. So if a machine were to exist, we would need to make it place you on Earth, but even at that what if you time traveled back in time and you were placed inside of a building that used to be standing there. Not inside the building like in a room, but inside the wall of a building, or ceiling, or floor.

All of this is the confusion I have with time travel in general, and if you know the answers then go ahead and tell me. In my opinion, I hope that time travel never does exist, because if it did, all of these problems are a concern. But if you think about it, if time travel did exist, wouldn't someone from the future have traveled to the past at one point. Maybe there is a rule against it, or maybe, people from the future visit us all the time, we just don't know it. As long as they dressed the part for walking about in 1814 or 2014, there would be no way of telling where they came from, or WHEN they came from.

Prequels vs Originals

I've talked a lot about Star Wars, and you should be ok with that because Star Wars is worth talking about. But I'm going to get "ranty" and talk about the pros and cons of the prequels and originals of Star Wars. Obviously this is all my opinion so take it with a grain of salt and don't get all flustered or salty with my opinions.

Lets start with the story aspect of both. Both are influenced highly by fantasy and have a lot of fantasy elements in the story. The prequels story mostly follows Anakin and his path to the darkside. Overall he has to much emotion to be a Jedi and is lured to the darkside to try to save his love Padmè. But this is conflicting because he isn't a bad guy, hes just confused and conflicted. The originals story follows Luke, and his conflicts with the darkside of the force. He is unable to be swayed to the darkside, unlike his father, but in doing this gets his father to side with him. Personally I enjoy the prequels better because it's alittle darker than the originals which can be a bit over the top at times. I think these stories show that there is a bit of gray zone, it isnt just darkside and lightside, that there is some good in all, scratch that, most of us.

Now onto visuals of both trilogies. I'm going to say it outright, the originals did it better. Yes, the 30 years older trilogy beats the coming of age technology in the prequels, but heres why. The prequels got to caught up in CGI that the movies at times felt, empty or inorganic. Not a single set of clone armor was built, all CGI. The originals used props, people in costumes, and miniatures which in some ways were more convincing. For this reason I'm glad they are returning to their roots and using mostly props for episode VII.

I am not going to say one trilogy is better than the other, because one isn't. They are both great, but at the same time, so different from one another. I wouldn't want to live in a world where one existed and the other didn't because they are both fantasic, they are both Star Wars.

Zombies and Disease

Zombies are definitely 'in' right now. Movies like DayZ and TV shows like Walking Dead show that the mindless walkers are huge in pop culture. And with Halloween coming up why not talk about zombies, it's fitting. Plus zombies themselves are quite interesting on their own.

First off, let me scare you by saying zombies are probably the most plausible thing I have mentioned. Take rabies for example, rabies patients begin to lose their mind and bite others, which transfers the disease. The only thing that keeps rabies at bay is that theres treatment and it is really hard to spread. But that doesn't mean the disease cannot evolve making it spread much easier leading to worldwide pandemics.

So lets say a worldwide outbreak of a zombie like infection occurs, what next? The government would obviously intervene. I assume the most logical thing to do is evacuate the cities, then bomb them, depending on how out of hand things are. If things are too bad in the United States there is a military base basically inside of a mountain. It is protected by a huge door and has tons of firepower inside, to me that sounds like the best place to be. And the soldiers who are stationed in places like that have to feel extremely safe, considering they are in modern day castles and fortresses.

With all of the commotion about Ebola outbreaks lately it needs to be said that occurrences like this are highly unlikely. An outbreak of catastrophic proportions like the Black Plague would be hard to reach with all the knowledge modern medicine has. If your worried a second Plague is afoot know that people in those times threw fecal matter onto roadsides, rarely washed their hands, or bathed entirely for that matter, and rarely washed any tools either, including surgical equipment... but they had no idea thats what caused it. But its basic knowledge that eating that spoiled meat is going to make you sick today and you have modern medical practices to thank for that. So to wrap up, an outbreak is probably not going to happen, but if history repeats itself and we live like pigs, than don't blame me because I told you better!

Spartan Program

If you know anything about science fiction, or videogames, or most likely both, than you know Halo. If you don't than get out. Close this window and/or look up what it is because A. I don't have the time to explain EVERYTHING, and B. Its awesome and you should know about it. Ill give you a little info... In Halo humanity has created super soldiers named Spartans. They are incredibly strong, quick, and deadly. And these guys are needed to fight aliens, so they gotta be good.

Spartans are genetically modified, and that is how they are incredible at all attributes. In Halo, this Spartan program is seriously ethnically and morally wrong because the Spartans were basically kidnapped as children and turned into soldiers. In the world we live in it would be morally wrong as well obviously but it begs the question, can Spartans be made? And if they could be, would humanity react the same way?

To answer the first question, yes, they can most definitely be created. Getting a really buff guy on steroids makes him stronger than the normal human. Combine that with Exo-suits modern scientists have been working on and we have a close similarity. It isn't quite battling the Covenant in space ready but still, it's an improvement on the modern soldier. But if they did exist in our world it would most likely be the way I previously described it. Our government's PR would have no excuse to back up why they kidnapped innocent children and trained them to be super soldiers, no matter what it was for. People would get enraged that the government has that kind of power, and they wouldn't be wrong in doing so. Many people are upset already with things like the NSA "spying" on them, even if it is for their own good. But to contrast with the popular opinion, creating these immoral super soldiers could end up being a necessary evil in order to keep humanity alive. My thoughts on this are, if a small sacrifice has to be made to save more, or that the pros do outweigh the cons, than take that chance. Nobody can be that selfish in saying their life or their child's life is more important than the human race as a whole. For this reason I'm going to have to side with the Spartan program, that I would hope humanity could muster up a fighting force like that.

A New Hope

The iconic movie. The one that started it all. The first Star Wars movie is fantastic. An unsuspecting farm boy ends up being a key player in saving the galaxy. Along the way he meets memorable characters. Not a very groundbreaking plot really but who cares, its Star Wars. So, what are my thoughts on the movie (you can probably already tell).

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the prequels just as much as the originals and the originals just as much as the prequels, but a huge plus to the originals is the props. In this movie, all of the props, scenes, etc. it all is a miniature, a costume, or a painted cardboard set. Compare this to the prequel movies where everything and everyone is CGI, this movie holds up better than some of those do. It makes it much more believable. For this reason I am incredibly happy that episode VII will use very little CGI characters and props.

The story of this movie is fine, Luke can seem a bit, whiney, at times but it never takes away from the movie. Honestly I only have one problem with this movie, The Death Star. I mean, if you have a giant space station, why would the hole that could be the end of said space station not be heavily guarded? My problem isn't with the hole itself rather the particularly easy way of getting to the hole. The trench to get there seems needless and there is only a few turrets in that trench. I would have like 4 turrets sitting and waiting at the end of that trench that blew away anyone who came through it. Its stupid simple and seems lazy, even if it is a cool scene. All I'm asking for is a shield there, just something so a small squad of fighters can take thousands of lives with a single missile.