got robots performing acts of butlery, and doing the dirty work on the battlefront. How long do you think it will be before the military unveil their new Robocoptype riot-control units? They say the government is usually about 3 decades ahead of us when it comes to high-tech? If that’ s true, imagine the humdingers and doozies they’ ve got locked away ready to launch on us?
Entertainment is going to spill way beyond the small screen, and become more like something out of Philip K. Dick meets Arthur C. Clarke, directed by Kubrick. Something like THE GAME meets TOTAL RECALL meets I, ROBOT meets BLADE RUNNER with elements of VANILLA SKY... Maybe not quite“ immortality as home entertainment”... not yet. But, take a day trip to Mars and end up being hunted by Robotic Storm- Troopers? Sure. Join a military mission to deep-space where you get to battle cyborgs, aliens, monsters, zombies, whatever? No probs. Step right up, wave your chip-hand and live out your Alter-Ego holiday- for real. That will be the paintball of the future. And, when we’ re not at space-war killing or being killed by Drones, Androids, Humanoids, Clones, genome Gnomes, Replicants or Skin-Jobs... then we’ ll be fucking them.
What else is going to pull us away from story? A new Rocket Age. If you follow techno mags you’ ve seen the trends. New flying machines are coming. An article in Popular Mechanics recently described a near future that looks like the cover of a 50’ s scifi novel with rocket ships and flying cars taking off across the planet. That’ s right. We’ re about to experience the new Space Race and Rocket Fever 2.0.
The first taste was back in the sixties with the Apollo missions... and now it’ s back. And everybody and their brother is going to get into the next big bang: Rocket Science. Aerospace and Rocket Tech are going to be the next“ in” Apps... in the same way a once specialized niche field like“ Computer Science” is now accessible to every kid and commoner.
It’ s a short matter of time before we see citizens with the money scrambling for an apartment or condo in space. Or on the moon. And they’ ll travel to and from these units in another industry that’ s about to explode. Flying machines. Jetpacks. PAVs. Space lifts. Commercial Shuttles. For the first time in mankind’ s history we will be jumping off our planet and colonizing space for the masses. And you know what that means. War. Fought over, and in, space. Straight out of Battlestar Galactica or Star Wars. But with cooler make-up and costumes. And with the wars will come Death Stations and Battle Satellites- right out of George Lucas’ s worst nightmares.
And it’ s the new space age... that could reboot story. Our story. Mankind’ s. If some genius creates a new kind of energy propulsion engine that brings us anywhere near light speed... then we’ re talking the biggest human migration in this universe since the Big Bang. For the first time, individuals and communities will be planet hopping, and star surfing and taking annual trips to Proxima Centauri. They’ ve already got a super-telescope out there doing a recce, searching for other earth-like planets in our universe. If they find one, or two, or a thousand? We’ re talking individuals flying to and colonizing their own planets. What if we discover planets inhabited by primitive races that are still in the stone-age? Why, that would mean... to them we would be like... gods. Bringing them enlightenment and hi-tech. And stories of earth and humanity. Like our Alien Ancestors did for us. And so the cosmic cycle goes round. Cool huh? Now, what book or movie is going to top that experience? Seriously. With all that going on... who’ s got time to catch up on that( yawwwn) Jane Austin novel you’ ve been meaning to read?
Until then... the final frontier? The only thing that will revive story... is War. 3rd World War. Fuck Zen, and the middle way, and the path of least resistance. Without resistance... there’ s no change, no strength, no survival... just flat-line boredom. Fact of the matter is, without all the war and death and destruction out there, there’ s no story. Story is conflict. A story without real dramatic conflict is a movie produced by NFVF or Videovision. We need all this. We need the wars and the misery. It’ s a yin and yang, pleasure and pain thing. Or, like Jason Lee’ s character put it in VANILLA SKY;“ Without the bitter, baby, the sweet just ain’ t as sweet.”.
In a world without heroes There’ s nothing to be It’ s no place for me...
The Elder
18 | WGSA MAG June 2013