Sci-Fi Geek

For as long as I can remember I have loved science fiction. For as long as I can remember I have been made of for it. But the truth of it all, is that science fiction has helped shaped the world. Laugh at me if you will, call me a geek (though I think the picture of me sitting in Picard’s chair on the bride of the Enterprise is really cool), but read on and be enlightened if you will.
Let’s start with the classics. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and of course Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984) by George Orwell. It has been translated into 62 languages and has left a profound impression upon the English language itself. Nineteen Eighty-Four, its terminology and its author have become bywords when discussing privacy and state-security issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted in the novel, and the phrase "Big Brother is watching" has come to mean any act of surveillance that is perceived as invasive.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has, at times, been seen as revolutionary and politically dangerous and therefore was banned by many libraries in various countries, even besides those countries controlled by totalitarian regimes.
The novel was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.
Not bad for a bunch of geeky science fiction, huh?
What about some modern day classics, things like Blade Runner, which explores the relations between man and machine. Can man love machine? Will man one day create a machine so complex and sophisticated to match his own image? If you look at the research and achievements in the Japanese robotics industry those questions asked in the 1982 film (which by the way was listed by the American Film Institute as the 98th greatest movie ever made) or the novel it was based on: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Or what about The Running Man the 1987 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger; In the year 2019, commodities like oil and food are scarce, and the world economy has collapsed. The great freedoms of the United States are no longer, as the nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state, censoring all film, art, literature, and communications. With full control over the media, the government attempts to quell the nation's yearning for freedom by broadcasting a number of game shows on which convicted criminals fight for their lives. The most popular and sadistic of these programs is The Running Man, hosted by Damon Killian. This evidently shows the birth of reality television… Again, what people laughed, realize today that these post modern views are not so far away.
The work of William Gibson tells of people’s lives on the internet, look at things like Facebook or MySpace where people can forgo traditional publicity, avoid the big corporation and attract their own viewers on a free medium. YouTube does the same for visual artists. You don’t need to screen your short film anywhere, upload it on YouTube and build a fan base through Facebook… watch as you become famous.
And coming back to Star Trek, the highest selling phone in 2006 was the Motorola Razr, which a flat flip phone based on the flip-to-open communicator designed on Star Trek 40 years ago.