How the Ray Gun Got Its Zap! Part II—Handheld Ray Guns

2021 ◽  
pp. 182-190
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Wilk
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Washington Irving ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Century Science

The earliest “ray guns” in fiction were large, unwieldy devices that might more appropriately be called “ray cannons.” The devices used in stories by Washington Irving, H.G. Wells, and early 20th century science fiction writers were large devices that required their own mounts. This reflected the reality of real experimental ray devices and the various experimental “death rays” that inventors were trying to develop and sell to armies all over the world. The idea of the small, handheld ray gun changed the nature of the device in fiction and its place in pop culture forever. Now the ray gun could be a futuristic sidearm and both symbolize the future and provide a shorthand way to signal the fantastic nature of the stories.How and why did this development take place? What were the results of the change, in both Pop Culture and Real Life?

Advanced Methodologies Descriptions and Applications

2014 ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
Brad Morantz
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Mathematical Applications

Artificial intelligence is the stuff of science fiction writers, robots taking over the world, and computers knowing our every thought and action. Advanced methodologies is the utilization of accepted artificial intelligence programs in mathematical applications to solve a variety of problems. In this chapter, many of these methods will be described and sample applications provided to better explain the advantages of this method in problem solving.

Imagining the Future

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Torok ◽  
Paul Holper
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Technological Breakthrough ◽  
The Future ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Changing World

Flying through time and flying in cars. Living underwater and living forever. Robot servants. 3D printed food. Wouldn’t it be amazing if science fiction became science fact? We’re living in a rapidly changing world. Hardly a week passes without an exciting technological breakthrough. That’s the power of human innovation – it never stops happening. Inventors keep inventing. Get prepared for the fantastic future with this guide to the unbelievable and incredible inventions just over the horizon. Invisibility, instant transportation, holograms and lots of gadgets were once the dreams of science fiction … now they might become science fact! Imagining the future is the first step in arriving there. If you can dream it, perhaps one day you can invent it. Strap yourself in and get ready for the future! Imagining the Future is perfect for kids aged 9-13.

Hope and History

1968 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
JÜRgen Moltmann
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Church

“If one hopes for the sake of Christ in the future of God and the ultimate liberation of the world, he cannot passively wait for this future, and, like the apocalyptic believers, withdraw from the world. Rather he must seek this future, strive for it, and already here be in correspondence to it in the active renewal of life and of the conditions of life, and therefore realize it already here according to the measure of possibilities. Because this future is the future of one God, it is a unique and unifying future. Because it brings eschatological liberation, it is the salvation of the whole enslaved creation. The messianic future for which Christianity arouses hope is no special future for the church or for the soul alone. It is an all-encompassing future. As all-encompassing future, its power of hope is able to mediate faith to earthly needs and to lead it into real life.”

Modernist Alternatives

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the dark themes and moods that characterize some of Ray Bradbury's short stories, a reflection of his deep ambivalence toward an increasingly destabilized world. Bradbury never developed a postmodernist dislike of where technology and science had brought the world, but he always remained wary of where science may lead mankind in the future. This predictive urge led him to use his science fiction stories to work through some of the issues left unresolved in his failed novels. This chapter discusses “—And the Moon Be Still as Bright” and several of Bradbury's tales, written in the 1946–1948 period, which are distinguished from other Bradbury stories of the period by their science fiction trappings, their unrelieved darkness, the lack of any familiar points of reference, and their relative obscurity within the Bradbury canon. It also considers the relationship stories that eased Bradbury through his impasse with Modernist themes.

Arthur C. Clarke

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Westfahl
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
First Century ◽  
Space Travel ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
First Time

Despite extensive critical attention, Arthur C. Clarke’s distinctive science fiction has never been fully or properly understood. This study examines some of his lighthearted shorter works for the first time and explores how Clarke’s views regularly diverge from those of other science fiction writers. Clarke thought new inventions would likely bring more problems than benefits and suspected that human space travel would never extend beyond the solar system. He accepted that humanity would probably become extinct in the future or be transformed by evolution into unimaginable new forms. He anticipated that aliens would be genuinely alien in both their physiology and psychology. He perceived a deep bond between humanity and the oceans, perhaps stronger than any developing bond between humanity and space. Despite his lifelong atheism, he frequently pondered why humans developed religions, how they might abandon them, and why religions might endure in defiance of expectations. Finally, Clarke’s characters, often criticized as bland, actually are merely reticent, and the isolated lifestyles they adopt--remaining distant or alienated from their families and relying upon connections to broader communities and long-distance communication to ameliorate their solitude--not only reflect Clarke’s own personality, as a closeted homosexual and victim of a disability, but they also constitute his most important prediction, since increasing numbers of twenty-first-century citizens are now living in this manner.

Who Invented the Golden Age?

1952 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Baldry
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Imaginary Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
The Future ◽  
Normal Human

There are many passages in ancient literature which depict an imaginary existence different from the hardships of real life-an existence blessed with Nature's bounty, untroubled by strife or want. Naturally this happy state is always placed somewhere or sometime outside normal human experience, whether ‘off the map’ in some remote quarter of the world, or in Elysium after death, or in the dim future or the distant past. Such an imaginary time of bliss in the past or the future has become known as the ‘golden age’. This is the name which modern scholars generally give to the ancient belief. The phrase is often echoed by modern poets. The same language has been transferred from the unknown to the known, and it has become a commonplace to describe an outstanding period of history or literature as a ‘golden age’.

scholarly journals Robotics: development factor or social isolation of the child

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 03008
Author(s):  
Irina Kulikovskaya ◽  
Raisa Chumicheva ◽  
Ivan Panov
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Development Factor ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Children Development

In this article, dealing with robotics is defined as a factor driving the development of preschool children. What was created by science fiction writers has become a natural space for the child. Children do not know a world where there are no drones, smart phones, and computers. Robotics is becoming one of the leading activities for children, which determines the development of creativity, initiative, and independence. Joint design acts as a team work environment where children learn to agree on a project topic, discuss problems in its implementation, look for information from different sources, and use digital technologies. However, immersing a child into the world of robotics can isolate him from the society; immerse him into the virtual world. “Digital flashing” of a child‟s brain can affect its cognitive methods, affecting the neural mechanisms responsible for communicating with other people. This problem is being studied by scientists from around the world. Today the world is doubling - life in two spaces - material, objective and virtual, ideal. That is why the determination of the common ground for these worlds determines the harmonization of the children development in modern space. One of this common ground could be robotics classes. In preschool education, the development of technical creativity occurs through the designers of LegoEdu. The logic of designing cognitive-research activities of children is presented.

The Last Night of the World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Creative Writer ◽  
Fahrenheit 451

This chapter reflects on Ray Bradbury's career, describing him as a writer who never really fit the genres he was assigned to. It begins with a discussion of Fahrenheit 451, a novel that illustrates how the ideas in Bradbury's science fiction, often dark and occasionally hopeful, had become cautionary. For Bradbury, the future danger was not technology, but the humans who will control it. The nuclear war that closes both “The Fireman” and Fahrenheit 451 ran parallel to a number of mid-century Bradbury stories, such as “The Last Night of the World” and the last four tales in The Martian Chronicles. This chapter also considers Bradbury's strengths and shortcomings as a creative writer, one who could not resist the temptation of playing the storyteller with details of his own life, but also absolutely true to his public convictions; his desire to be true to his Muse, to write for himself with little regard for outside pressures, has been a constant hallmark of his writing career.

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