Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Futurist Agrees With Star Trek: DS9 On Job Destruction
Futurist Thomas Frey recently predicted that more than two billion jobs would disappear by 2030, inviting us to imagine the social disruption that would ensue. Fans of the 1999 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine entitled Past Tense have already been shown this future, which the show predicted would happen by 2026.
(Star Trek DS9 Past Tense)
A transporter accident traps Sisko Bashir and Dax in the turbulent 21st century, where massive numbers of unemployed are warehoused in filthy crime ridden ghetto-detention camps called sanctuary Districts. Sisko must assume the identity of Gabriel Bell, a martyred historical figure who was prematurely slain by protecting Siko and Bashir in order to restore the timline.
SISKO - Ever hear of the Bell Riots?
BASHIR - Vaguely.
SISKO - It was one of the most violent civil disturbances in American history. And it happened right here. San Francisco, Sanctuary District "A," the first week of September, twenty-twenty-four.
BASHIR - That's only a few days from now.
SISKO - The Sanctuary residents will take over the District. Some of the guards will be taken hostage. In the end, the government will send in troops to restore order. Hundreds of Sanctuary residents will be killed.
BASHIR (shocked) - Hundreds.And there's nothing we can do to prevent it.
BASHIR (continues) - Starfleet's temporal displacement policy may sound good in a classroom. But to know that hundreds of people are going to die, and not to be allowed to even try to save them...
SISKO - I sympathize, Doctor. But if it makes you feel any better, the Riots will be one of the watershed events of the twenty-first century...SISKO - A bad one. By the early twenty-twenties there was a place like this in every major city in the United States.
BASHIR - But why are these people in here? Are they criminals?
SISKO - No. People with criminal records weren't allowed in the Sanctuary Districts.
BASHIR - Then what did they do to deserve this?
SISKO - Nothing. They're just people. People without jobs or places to live.
BASHIR - (shocked) So they get put in here?
SISKO - Welcome to the twenty-first century.
Via Futurist Speaker; special thanks to Moira for resubmitting this story and references.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/3/2012)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Culture ")
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.' - Edmond Hamilton, 1948.
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...' - Frank Herbert, 1964.
Musk Proposes Sites For Martian Cities
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.' - Percy Greg, 1880.
Who First Thought Of A Tin Foil Hat?
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.' - Julian Huxley, 1927.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
