by Pat Gray

Created on: March 02, 2009   Last Updated: March 04, 2009

As a science fiction fan and eternal optimist, I like believe that many standard sci-fi "inventions" considered impossible today (faster-than-lightspeed travel, instantaneous communication, transporters, time travel, friendly visitors from alien worlds) will be possible tomorrow, in my lifetime or at some point in the distant future.

Consider what was deemed impossible 50 or a hundred years ago, which is commonplace today. Robots that seemed pure "science fiction" a few decades ago are being built today. Frankenstein was scientific fiction when it was written, but today we replace organs and limbs, and we do bring the dead back to life. We know that radiation does cause mutations, although they don't flatten major cities (at least not yet).

Having said that, there are a few things that science fiction did get wrong, although perhaps several of these "errors" were necessary to keep the story moving along and to keep us entertained:

1) Space

"In space, no one can hear you scream." and no one can hear your ship blow up or the sound of your engines either. The spectacular explosions, burning space craft and the roar of battle cruisers we enjoyed in movies like "Star Wars" would neither be seen or heard. There might be a small flash as the oxygen in a ship burned, but no fireballs, and the only engines you would hear would be the engines in your own ship.

2) Spaceships

The size, shape and configuration of the ships imagined in early science fiction movies came nowhere near the reality of the ships we've actually sent into space. On the big screen the propulsion sections were smaller, the crew quarters larger and the shape reflected the general sleek styles popular at the time. If you compare the bullet shaped ship in "Destination Moon" to the lunar lander, the fiction and the reality are very different indeed.

The other big flaw with science fiction space ships and travel is gravity. Maintaining an earth gravity in a spaceship probably won't be as simple as a "gravity generator" and rotation of the crew quarters or Velcro shoes will be required to keep everyone's feet on the ground. "2001" got it right, and just about every other film got it wrong.

3) Alien Extremes

Aliens are either portrayed as VERY similar to humans (Kirk's green slave girls) or very, VERY different (the evil artichoke in "It Conquered the World"). Alien civilizations are either completely benevolent and wise ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") or completely hostile and bent on the destruction/conquest

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