10 Reasons how Science Fiction Geeks Changed the World

Science Fiction or Sci Fi (Sy Fy) has not always had the best reputation. Yes, the books, short stories, tv series, movies, etc., have enticed us for more than eighty years, yet there is still a stigma surrounding Science Fiction. It’s known to be a genre where geeks, nerds, and gamers go. You see people at Comic Cons wearing Sci Fi, Fantasy, or Horror genre outfits, acting as if they are indeed the character that they’re dressed up as. You see them being made fun of in movies, on Conan and Fallon, or you see them huddled in groups outside of their schools or at a game shop talking about the characters on Star Wars and why a certain character was motivated to do this or that.

In Sci Fi, the geeks rule the genre. In fact, they rule the world–in a good way–and I’ll tell you why.

But first, I must say that Sci Fi is not only a geek genre. It attracts everybody. In fact, it’s more than likely that a relative of yours watched Battlestar Galactica or your friend absolutely loved Star Wars. Those people enjoy the genre, yet they don’t become the genre.

Geeks become the genre.

A geek, like me, reads a Sci Fi book or watches a Sci Fi movie and, instead of moving on in life, they sit and wonder and think and dream of Science Fiction. They can’t get the characters out of their mind. It intrigues geeks so much that they can’t stop talking about it and look for more of it, scouring the internet for additional comments, feedback, and information. They then find themselves in a group of Science Fiction lovers, all arguing about the theory and truth behind Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica.

But, there is a truth I want to tell you about. A truth that us Sci Fi fans know to be as real as Yoda’s quotes, and as palpable as a Klingon’s forehead, or as bumpy as one.

Sci Fi is truth. Plain and simple. We’re drawn to it because it is full of future technologies not yet created, future clothes not yet worn, and future ideologies not yet adopted. We, as fans, see these important things and keep the genre going. Because of this, we are single-handedly keeping the human species alive. Without us, we most assuredly would get nuked by Cylons, or cross over to Darth Vader’s Dark Side of the force, or find ourselves on the bad end of an angry Klingon’s photon torpedo. We Science Fiction lovers know the tell-tale signs of such incidences, and more importantly, what to do when they arrive.

So, if you look at “us” Sci Fi fans as geeks, then realize what exactly we “geeks” are “geeking out” about. We aren’t just “geeking” because we think the show, movie, or book was awesome. We see something beyond the book, beyond the author’s incredible and genius concepts, we see, like I said above, the truth of it all. We geeks understand that Science Fiction isn’t just entertainment, it is prophecy, philosophy, and story-telling in its finest form.

Let’s take a look at 10 points in Science Fiction that has directly influenced our lives, and how Sci Fi has prophesied future trends and future technologies. All of the below points were influenced and written in books, shows, and movies by, yes, a “geek” that has saved the earth from total annihilation.

• Enders Game: We all by now have seen the trailer for the movie or have actually gone and paid good money to watch it. I liked the movie, but I liked the book so much more. Did you know that the book spoke of a world wide web, extending out to a galaxy and universal wide web, that had instant messaging, chat boards, global news feeds, and access to anything you wanted information on? Enders Game was written in the mid 1980’s, long before the internet was used by the public. Yet, it fully explained the internet before it came to light. 1 point for the brilliance and genius of a science fiction writer’s creative mind, let alone his ability to write such an enticing story that accumulated millions of readers.
• Star Trek: In Star Trek, Starship Enterprise used ion propulsion systems to move their ships at incredible speeds. Did you know that an ion propulsion engine has actually been created and is currently being used? From NASA, “Modern ion thrusters use inert gases for propellant, so there is no risk of the explosions associated with chemical propulsion. The majority of thrusters use xenon, which is chemically inert, colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Other inert gases, such as krypton and argon, also can be used. Only relatively small amounts of ions are ejected, but they are traveling at very high speeds. For the Deep Space 1 probe, ions were shot out at more than 88,000 mph.” (www.nasa.gov) We are in the first phase of studying, building, and using ion propulsion, but what we have attained so far is an ion engine, along with ion thrusters, that have been in continual use for over 8 years without the need to be recharged. So, here’s 1 point for the “geek” of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry!
• Star Wars: My favorite of all Sci Fi is Star Wars. It showed two anti-matter devices, one as a weapon and the other as a hover car that Luke drove in a couple of the first scenes. Even though antimatter hasn’t yet been created (so say the 1 percenters that own the world), the concept of antimatter, the theory and application of it, along with actual observation of it in a lab by a guy named Carl D. Anderson (look him up, because I don’t want to spend paragraph after paragraph explaining him), exists. However, if it does come to light some day that there really are cars out there without wheels, yet are magnetically hovering above the ground, then we’ll know that Star Wars has arrived and that the geeks around the planet must develop and use the force to stop the Dark Side from taking over. 1 point for George Lucas.
• The Jetsons: The cartoon that had us wide-eyed as kids, and some of us as adults too, had many gadgets, gizmo’s, and more importantly, cool flying cars that flew across our tv screens. I always wondered when we’d have flying cars and, years later, a friend pointed me to a website. My jaw dropped as I was looking at a Jetsons’ flying car on the internet and it was real! They can even be purchased and used now! Kudos to the Jetsons. 1 point! The link to the flying car is here: http://www.terrafugia.com/
• Buck Rogers: I also watched this show as a kid. I grew up in the 80’s, so the show had been long cancelled when I was watching it. Taken from Listosaur.com, this is why this show was revolutionary: “Focused-beam lasers have been a staple of pulp science fiction from the time of Buck Rodgers in the 1920s right up to the present day. Of course, in the Buck Rogers era, they were known as ‘disintegrators,’ or ‘infra-rays.’ Yes, lasers play a key role in modern weaponry, helping lock on and track targets. But modern-day laser technology is also used in science, surgery, communications, and security technology.” 1 point for Buck!
• Star Trek (again): The Prime Directive is a philosophy that, if adhered to, in my opinion, would help civilization along, allowing cultures to evolve on their own, without the help from another culture, which may spiral a culture out of existence by forcing different ways, different concepts, and different morals into their society. Many cultures have been wiped out because another culture attempted to change them, or, in their mind, help them. The Prime Directive, according to Star Trek, “prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the internal development of alien civilizations. It applies particularly to civilizations which are below a certain threshold of development, preventing starship crews from using their superior technology to impose their own values or ideals on them.” That’s pretty cool. 1 point for being a great philosopher. Thank you Star Trek.
• Star Wars (again): “The Force is strong in this one.” Thanks Darth Vader, I appreciate that. The force, according to Obi-Wan Kenobi, is “what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” If you look at physics, quantum physics, or eastern religions such as Budhism, and even at your own life, you’ll see that this concept is not foreign, though some may attempt to disagree with it. Science is coming around and noticing that many religious and spiritual truths can be observed, researched, documented, and even video taped, stamping them as a very real phenomena. In this case, the force is “energy”. We have seen that energy is in every living thing, animate or inanimate. Krilian photography is a good example of how we can see it. 1 point for interesting philosophical debates that have been going on over this movie for decades.
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Have you ever heard of the iPAD? Of course you have. You would have to live in a tribe in the far reaches of the earth to NOT hear about it. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy had one of these (iPAD-looking device) in the book. The device was the guide to the galaxy, being aptly named as the title of the book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It eerily resembled the iPAD–touch screen. Douglas Adams, the author, was on to something. Too bad he died in 2001. He would have been excited to see that his idea actually came to invention. 1 point to Douglas Adams. May he rest in peace.
• 1984: There are too many “predictions” and/or “prophecies” from this book to put into this article. I’ll give you a link to four of the predictions that have come true (though, there are a lot more). George Orwell, a “geek” who saw past the fireworks and illusions and studied the man behind the curtain, published 1984 in 1949. Copied and pasted from policymic.com, Alasdair Denvil writes: “In Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother — the purported leader of the Party that rules the nation of Oceania — keeps constant tabs on the population through “telescreens” (basically two-way televisions). With our National Security Agency (NSA) involved in warrantless wiretapping, maintaining a call database (MARINA), and engaged in data-mining (PRISM), we can be forgiven for wondering if Big Brother is no longer a fictional character. The difference, though, is that telescreens weren’t owned by most people in Orwell’s 1984, because they were too expensive. In the real world, however, each of us has a hand-held “telescreen” we carry with us most everywhere we go, which we’ve willingly paid for ourselves and which we almost never turn off.” Read the rest of the article here: http://www.policymic.com. It’s awesome! 1 point to George Orwell.
• Star Guild: I know, I know. I’m tooting my own horn, but I had too. I’m the author of this ongoing Saga. In Star Guild there is a device known as a Suficell Pod. It’s a pod that someone goes into and lays on a soft bed for an hour, a day, or a week, depending on their condition. What the pod does is cure diseases and illnesses by matching the vibration of the diseased cell, thus shattering the cell, allowing it to exit out of the body through natural means (peeing). It sounds Sci Fi, but it’s not. In the 1920’s this device was created by Dr. Royal Raymond Rife, though not as a pod. It was a hand held device that was studied and researched by the Mayo Institute, curing 100% of the patients it was used on–so say the documentaries and the documents recovered many years ago at the Mayo Institute. At the time, the machine was so popular in the medical industry and science journals that the Chief of Medicine in California penned it as the cure for cancer. It was then buried and shunned by science thereafter. Apparently, the pharmaceutical industries didn’t like the idea. The good news is that the machine is still around, though sparingly used by hippies and alternative health care practitioners. The machine, called the Rife Machine, was main headlined in a 1928 San Diego newspaper, which you can see here: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net. Does it really work? In Star Guild it does! 1 point for Star Guild.

So, as you can see, “geeks” not only have changed the world, they are currently helping to save it. Not only by the technologies they’ve written about–those that have been copied by rocket science–but by the warnings they have given for what may come and ways to get around it, along with philosophies of how to live in order to change the warnings and predictions into an enlightened civilization.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, because I would be thinking it too. How do I become a geek and what is the quickest route to “geekdom”? Just open up a Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Star Guild, Hitchhikers Guide, or any other Sci Fi book and enjoy the read. And, when you do, take heed and learn from the best.

For those few who actually read this article, then I want to give a big thanks and give you one of my Science Fiction books for free, Star Guild Episode Zero. Click here to read it, or just carry on and have a great day.

Thank you,

Brandon Ellis
www.brandon-ellis.com