Sci-Fi Shenanigans

From Our Present, Our Future?

A link!

http://notalwaysright.com/klingon-to-the-hope-of-a-ticket/2460

On a more serious note, I've been pondering the idea of how a present day society can affect the development of a science fiction story. Oddly enough, this train of thought was inspired by the description of a hypospray. More links! (I love you, Memory Alpha.)

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hypospray

I saw on another page where someone described it as being like an aerosol. This got me to thinking if it was designed to operate in a similar manner to aerosol cans. If so, would the hypospray of the 1960s have been designed with CFCs in mind? It's hard to say without digging through the archives to find and crew commentary from that time which would shed light on the subject. Given that a more ecofriendly propellant wasn't introduced until the mid 90s, it's pretty likely that the hypospray in TOS would have been designed to use CFC as its propellant. This means the hypospray would have to undergo another design change in order to make sense to present day audiences that are used to not having CFC products around in large quantities.

So what does a hypospray have to do with the development of a science fiction story? The CFC hyposprays were designed from the mind frame of what technology was available back in the 60s. A hypospray created in this decade would be designed to use an HFA propellant due to the lovely Montreal Protocol basically put the kibosh on CFCs for medical use. This little detail is the culmination of years of scientific research that ended up altering various technological developments. As humanity further explores the sciences, more developments would occur that can change any number of elements of a science fiction story.

Such developments are not restricted to the sciences. Social changes can affect the development of technologies or even plotlines for sci-fi. Generally speaking, the more suppressive/repressive the change, the more it will affect a story. This is pretty obvious, but it does lead to an interesting question. What if certain shows had been developed at different times? For example, what would Doctor Who be like if the show had been developed a decade earlier or later? Would Heroes have had altruistic characters like Peter Petrelli if it had been pitched in 1999? Would the original incarnation of Star Trek have been set in the 24th century if it was airing today due to the somewhat slow development of space travel technology over the past couple decades? No one can really know the answers, but if we were to look at the technologies available, the social mores and what was known about scientific areas of concentration we could make some fabulous guesses.

So...anyone want to take a stab at it? I'll be sure to share my thoughts in future entries.