A small read about the overlap of POP-culture and the oeuvre of science fiction

The more aware we are about our world, the better we can relate to it. 'See' ourselves in context of the universe. See for yourself, for example, this wallpaper:

It's reminiscent of Carl Sagan's ultra-famous "Pale Blue Dot", because it puts a humorous spin on our physical insignificance at a cosmic scale.

Seriously though, Carl Sagan was an visionary with a cometary impact, pardon the pun. In Contact, he wrote an Earth-centric 'first contact' story - us meeting aliens for the first time - which was born as a screenplay, then developed into a novel, and finally made into a not-t00-shabby movie (that he, alas, did not live to see) starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey and James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, Jake Busey, David Morse - what (or rather who) more?

And now, Dune is releasing on 18 December 2020.

Shot for Shot: 'Dune' (2020) vs. 'Dune' (1984)

Does the new 'Dune' look familiar? Check out our side-by-side comparison with scenes from David Lynch's 1984 adaptation.

imdb.com

This is Denis Villeneuve's vision for the iconic novel on the big screen, after David Lynch's 1984 cult movie. The Dune franchise plays down technology in favor of 'spirituality'. As such, it is 'soft' science fiction.

At the polar opposite is Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe, in which humankind has all but forgotten about Earth being the origin of our species (shoutout to Darwin the Evolved) and spread all over the Milky Way, because of our mastery of science. The upcoming series on Apple TV Plus will be released in 2021.

Foundation on Apple TV+

Coming to Apple TV+ in 2021. Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to …

tv.apple.com

With this 'hard' sci-fi streaming series, Apple TV continues to expand its horizons into science fiction, after Jason Momoa's See, Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (which I felt was a dud, quite uncharacteristically for me), and For All Mankind.

Now when it comes to inspo, I think there's defo a link between what info a person absorbs since birth and what they aim fo' while adulting. Apropos, we are privileged to be alive at this time of rapid upswing in all kinds of technology, when even Moore's 'Law' has been outstripped by the pace of technological evolution. RIP after the 2020s, Moore' Law.

Humankind (as I've written elsewhere, please be kind, it is in our name as a species - let's live up to it!) will not stop refining technology because of an archaic (albeit really legendary, to coin an oxymoron) law bound by the physical constraints of current semiconductors (pun intended).

Instead, science fiction in all its forms - books, movies, TV series, games, comics, VR, to name but a few - will continue to inspire bright minds to be creative in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

I, for one, can't wait to experience the breakthroughs of the future. How 'bout you?

While we spiral forever into the future, let's also get used to the New Normal brought on by coronavirus [COVID-19].

Wear a mask. Stay safe!