You only get shitfaced every other year?
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Yes, but spectacularly.
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Are there any dates left from science fiction that aren’t centuries off like Zager and Evens 2525? I remember hitting 1984 (obviously), 1997 (Terminator’s Judgement Day), 1999 (Space: 1999 and Prince’s song), 2001 (A Space Odyssey), 2010 (the year we made contact in the lousy sequel to 2001). 2015 (Back to the Future II), and now 2019 (Blade Runner), but I can’t think of any other dates coming up.
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The Bell Riots from Star Trek (2024).
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That’s because we create the sanctuary districts next year. Distressingly credible.
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The 2020 Tokyo Olympics from Akira, surely?
2048 counts as a nice round number in binary. And of course there’s the end of the Unix epoch in 2038 – which some will no doubt proclaim as the two-thousandth Easter.
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I’m fascinated by the timing of this, i just hope the games don’t end with a massive psychic and laser canon battle and (neo) tokyo getting flattened (again).
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Yeah. I was thinking that, too. Of course, the Bell riots came on the heels of the eugenics wars (90s) and right before the incredibly destructive third world war in the Star Trek timeline…
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Much of the Star Trek universe attempt to have a coherent timeline came after TOS, and I wonder how much of it is due to the influence of James Blish, who was involved in TOS novelizations (though possibly his wife did most of the work there). Blish was really big on this kind of thing, and his remarkable Cities in Flight quadrilogy was pretty explicitly influenced by Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West.
Cities in Flight was supposed to start in either 2013 or 2018 (depending on edition), and in the first version 2021 was the year that people from Earth first left the Solar System.
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There wasn’t really a year 200 or a year 400 either
WP informs us that the year before A.D. 532 was “Diocletian 247”
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I’m just saying, it’d be really cool, and even really REALLY big bombs going off at the proper distance could technically be safe. The biggest problem with my proposal is that if it happens, we’d have someone who can make an 500 MT bomb and put it in the vicinity of the moon. Or anywhere on earth.
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That’s just always the catch, isn’t it.
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That’s why I said we’d have to set aside the diplomatic problems. Why not build this thing as a planetary effort?
Now look here, the only way I can condone any of this is if I get to push The Button.
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There is also the matter of ideally not doing anything that would contravene § 328 StGB:
Section 328 - Unlawful handling of radioactive substances, dangerous substances and goods
(1) Whosoever produces, keeps, transports, treats, processes or otherwise uses, imports or exports
- nuclear fuels without the required permit or contrary to an enforceable injunction; or
- other radioactive substances which because of their nature, composition or quantity are capable of causing the death of or serious injury to another or of causing serious damage to animals, plants, bodies of water, the air or soil by ionising radiation, without the required permit or contrary to an enforceable injunction
shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine.
(2) Whosoever
- fails promptly to deliver nuclear fuels which he is obliged to deliver on the basis of the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy Act;
- delivers nuclear fuels or substances indicated in subsection (1) No 2 above to unauthorised persons or procures their distribution to unauthorised persons;
3. causes a nuclear explosion; or
4. encourages another to commit an act as indicated in No 3 above or supports such an act,
shall incur the same penalty.
(3) Whosoever in violation of duties under administrative law
- in the operation of a facility, especially a plant or technical installation, stores, treats, processes, or otherwise uses radioactive substances or dangerous substances and mixtures under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 ( OJ L 353, 31.12.2008 ), last amended by Regulation (EC) 790/2009 (OJ L 235, 5.9.2009, 1)
or
- transports, forwards, packs, unpacks, loads or unloads, receives or supplies to another dangerous goods,
and thereby endangers the health of another, animals , plants, bodies of water, the air and soil , or property of significant value belonging to another ,shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine.
(4) The attempt shall be punishable.
(5) If the offender acts negligently the penalty shall be imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine.
(6) Subsections (4) and (5) above shall not apply to acts under subsection (2) No 4 above.
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How do we mark the end of a decade?
With ten-year-old whisky?
(Ignore misspellings in article–I just linked it to get the picture to show as an example.)
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That’s true of Doctor Who as well. If I’m not mistaken, a bible wasn’t written for that show until relatively recently? Continuity has often been shoe horned in later, and is now sort of expected in franchises, I’d say. I think it’s the original wave of fans growing up and working for these franchises and pushing them to be internally consistent universes. that’s probably the influence of Tolkein, who did have that internal consistency. Of course, that’s harder to do with our own universe, which both Star Trek and Doctor Who (mostly) exist in.
Did not know that… Not sure I’ve ever read that, though. I’ll have to see if we have a copy and check it out!
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I found Spengler turgid reading, typical of German polymaths of the era, and right-wing by modern standards, but as a historian you might find him more interesting. Unless you mean checking out Cities in Flight, which I can’t recommend highly enough.
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Yes, that’s what I meant… I know enough about Decline of the West to know it’s not going to be my cup of historical tea… I probably should read it, but… given how right wingers embrace that narrative… I’m pretty meh. I’ll go watch Decline of Western Civilization instead…
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