If You See the Future, You Can Change It

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer: In the source material for the television series, the consciousness of the human population is flung 21 years into the future for two minutes. Although some who see the vision are resigned to their eventual fates or actively seek them out, there are those who quickly prove that the future isn't set in stone — by killing themselves so their visions cannot come to pass.

Next: Nic Cage plays a fellow who can see two minutes into the future. It's helpful for winning blackjack, but he otherwise finds that by observing his own future, he changes what his future will be.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: Alice Cullen has a limited ability to see into the future, but her vision of the future depends entirely on the decisions humans and vampires have made in the here and now. If a person changes his/her mind at the last moment, the future will be very different from what Alice has perceived.

The Power of Five by Anthony Horowitz: Matt Freeman accurately predicted his parents' death, but did nothing to prevent it. Later, Matt learned that his dreams are, in fact, precognitive, and that seeing the future allows him to change it.

Star Wars: A handful of Force users, notably those related to Anakin Skywalker, have Force Visions of possible futures. While the Sith tend to see the visions as true or try to make them come to pass, the Jedi tend to view the future as ever-shifting. Of course, Anakin Skywalker was prodded down his path to the Dark Side because he was trying to avert the future he saw, only to end up helping it along.

Marvel Comics: Several characters in the Marvel Universe have the ability to see into the future, but there are plenty of indications that those visions aren't set in stone. Irene Adler, also known as Destiny, has the ability to see probable futures and determine which events and choices would lead to which future. Similarly, Layla Miller has the ability to see paths of causality and understands how to change or avoid future events. And though Tick-Tock sees a mere 60 seconds into the future, he sees diverging paths as well and knows which ultra-near future is most likely to occur.

No Heroics: Timebomb can also see 60 seconds into the future, and can make small changes based on his predictions. But burned out from the superhero life, he mostly uses it to predict whether pick-up lines will succeed, or whether the train will come.

You Can Change the Future, But Only to a Certain Extent

Lost: Desmond Hume sees visions of the future, notably of Charlie's death, and can avert specific instances he foresees. But he eventually realizes that Charlie's death is inevitable, and that he can only hold it off for so long. Other castaways have similar visions of the future, but are unable to prevent those visions from coming to pass.

Supernatural: Sam Winchester has visions of the future that sometimes allow Sam and his brother Dean to avert catastrophes. However, Sam's powers are a far cry from the divine prophecy exhibited by Chuck, whose visions of the future always come true.

You Can't Change Anything

The Dead Zone: Johnny Smith's visions of the past and near future are always accurate, and he uses his precognitive and postcognitive abilities to solve crime. His accuracy becomes distressing, however, as he captures glimpses of an apocalyptic future tied to the congressional election of Greg Stillson.

Premonition: When Sandra Bullock experiences the day after her husband's accident before the accident ever occurs, she thinks she has been given the opportunity to save him. But it's her attempts to avert his deadly accident that end up causing his death.

Your VIsions May Come True, But Are Still a Warning

Angel: Doyle (and later Cordelia) receives visions of people in trouble. Said people always end up in trouble, but the purpose of the visions is to give Angel time to save the victim — or the world.

Charmed: Phoebe Halliwell is another recipient of warning visions from the powers of good, visions that let Phoebe and her sisters take down demons and evil warlocks.

Eastwick: We don't yet know the full extent of Roxanne Torcoletti's precognitive powers, but in the pilot she's able to see the beginning of her daughter's assault, allowing her to nip it in the bud.

The Matrix Reloaded: Throughout the second Matrix film, Neo is plagued by visions of his beloved Trinity dying. She is shot and falls, just as it happens in his dreams, but he is able to make the choice to save her after the fact, digging the bullet out and bringing her back to life.

Your Vision Will Come True, Just Not in the Way You Thought

That's So Raven: Raven Baxter's brief flashes on the future always come true, but she generally misinterprets their meaning. Plus, she'll often spend half the episode trying to keep her vision from coming to pass, even though her actions inevitably lead up to the scene from her vision. After 100 episodes, she still hasn't learned.

Minority Report: Presumably, the visions of the precogs aren't 100 percent accurate, since the three occasionally occasionally disagree on how and whether a crime will be committed. But on top of that, they can only see the literal visual of the crime and not the circumstances, and the precrime unit may, at times, misinterpret the visions.

Battlestar Galactica: Caprica Six, Sharon Agathon, and Laura Roslin share a dream-like premonition. Although it's not a literal vision of the future, at least Sharon fears it signifies a future in which Baltar and Caprica kidnap Hera, although in the end, they merely rescue the child from Cavil and his forces.

Blake's 7: The Orac supercomputer is capable of many astounding feats of computation, and when it falls into the hands of the Liberator crew, it claims it can predict the future. To prove it, Orac shows them a video of the Liberator exploding. But it then proceeds to manipulate events so that a ship identical to the Liberator explodes, thus fulfilling its own prophecy.

Heroes: Although time travel has changed more than a few future events, premonitions hold quite a bit of predictive water. But even as most of Isaac Mendez's paintings come true, they don't occur in the way the viewer might expect, and Angela Petrelli's prediction that Matt Parkman would save Nathan's life has a horrifically twisted outcome.

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Additional Reporting by Caitlin Petrakovitz.

On the heels of Jason Stoddard’s “Happier Science Fiction” manifesto, Solaris has announced that science fiction writer and former Interzone magazine editor de Vries will be soliciting manuscripts for stories depicting a kinder, gentler future:

Shine is a collection of near-future, optimistic SF stories where some of the genres brightest stars and some of its most exciting new talents portray the possible roads to a better tomorrow. Definitely not a plethora of Pollyannas (but neither a barrage of dystopias), Shine will show that positive change is far from being a foregone conclusion, but needs to be hardfought, innovative, robust and imaginative. Most importantly, it aims to demonstrate that while times are tough and outcomes are uncertain, we can still bend the future in benevolent ways if we embrace change and steer its momentum in the right direction.

De Vries is looking for stories set within the next 50 years that would persuade “the biggest skeptics on the planet” that the near future can be a better place. He has also set up a blog for Shine, hoping to create an “open platform” for discussing the nature and challenges of an optimistic future.

[Shineanthology’s Weblog via Jason Stoddard]

Here's the streamlined Venus airport where you'll arrive in your super-spaceage plane.
Check out the main meeting center, where the vast digital library filled with artificial intelligences will be housed.
This just makes me think of Disney World, which makes sense because The Venus Institute is located in Florida (where Disney World lives too).
More awesome housing, above, and some beautiful sea-going cities below.

Want to learn more? Visit the Venus Project.

Wired blogger Jenna Wortham quotes opening keynote speaker David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, describing how web fame has transformed fame as a whole:

"We made him, made them, famous," Weinberger said while showing photographs of the Star Wars Kid, Obama Girl, the home page of Turkish net fad Mahir and clips of YouTube's ubiquitous laughing babies. Weinberger went on to describe the current state of the fame game, saying that the traditional model of Hollywood megacelebrity is "based on alienation" — a model, Weinberger says, that opens the door for us to reinterpret our notions of fame.

"[Hollywood celebrities] cease to be famous when we see them as they are," a concept he demonstrated by showing several gossip magazine pictures of celebrities without their makeup. "Blogging, however, is all about taking off the 'makeup.' They're exposing themselves as fallible human beings."

The same holds true for the rest of the web celebs. "What's famous on the web looks like it was done by a human hand," said Weinberger, while showing a Homestar Runner graphic. "They still feel like ours."

"It's not just the homespun quality of what's famous on the web. It's how fame works — it's becoming much more DIY," said Weinberger. "Fame is now living in a long tail, or a long continuum of ways to be famous."

While it sounded like a seriously fun party at ROFLCon, packed with people whose online creations I've been enjoying for years, it's hard to take seriously the idea that web celebrities are truly challenging the sartorial-celebrity industrial complex. Many of the "celebrities" in attendance didn't know who the other celebrities were, and a lot of the attendees were fans of the obscure rather than the popular.

Ultimately ROFLCon was a gathering of people who are subculturally famous, the way many weirdo artists and creators have been for at least the past 200 years. I'd love it if Tron Guy's fame really were challenging Tom Hanks' fame, making all of us into potential celebrities. And making Tom Hanks into less of a big deal, which he really should be. But if anything, ROFLCon proved that challenge isn't happening. Web celebrities, if you can call them that, have hundreds of cool, devoted fans. But they're going to need millions before I'm convinced that, as Weinberger asserts, we're "reinterpreting our notions of fame."

I guess what I'm saying is that millions of downloads aren't the same as millions of fans. Until they are, Gem Sweater lady will never vanquish Paris Hilton. I'm not sure if that's a tragedy or a joke.

Tron Guy photographed by Scott Beale.

There's an amazing online exhibit of Radebaugh's art at the Palace of Culture called "The Future We Were Promised," which is just a short mouse click away.

Artist David Levy has been working as a concept artist and visual director in the gaming industry for several years, and he's currently working with Spacetime Studios, most notably on their upcoming Blackstar science/fantasy MMO. He's also worked on Turok, Red Star, and others, where he brings his love of outer space and Japanese animation together. Although he wanted to become a naval architect, his love of science and fantasy took in a different direction, mostly inspired by his grandfather.

"My grandfather used to draw a lot, and I saw him as a hero," David recalls. "He built roads in the desert, ski-jumped and was a flower geneticist, while staying very humble. He was a real inspiration for me, and drawing was part of it."

Levy was also inspired by Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury, and movies like 2001 and Blade Runner. When he's not working with his brushes and Wacom tablet, he also teaches classes on art. Check out more of his work on his website.

After several failed attempts, scientists now believe that by withdrawing water from deep within the moon's inner core of newly discovered ice caverns, their terraforming operation will at last prove successful. Once the water is brought up to the surface and pumped through the eight mile wide transforming spheres, it will then be dispersed as new oxygen-rich compounds, which eventually will create a livable lunar atmosphere. The surrounding city has grown twofold in the last several months and its inhabitants anxiously await the momentous outcome.

Choosing a main image was especially difficult because here's this amazing crashed FedEx plane with a bridge for a wing, these enormous turrets that look like they've grown out of the landscape, or this massive coastal battle.

Korean developer Reloaded Studios has only been open for a month, and this ambitious massively multiplayer action game is scheduled for release in 2010 and will be their first.

Set in the near future, The Day finds mankind discovering a way to travel between two connected parallel worlds. Players will face a changing world never before seen in an online game as they travel back and forth between the past and present, accomplishing critical missions that extremely influence and affect their present-day world. With the fate of mankind at stake, players are thrown into brutal warfare and a fight to keep humanity from slipping into self-destruction across time.

The Day screenshots [Gamers Hell]

Looks like Wall-E's little bug sidekick will make it to the game as well, so that might be a bit of a spoiler news: he doesn't get squished and sent to insectoid heaven in the flick. Players will be able to play head-to-head in the multiplayer version of this game, so we're not sure if that means multiple Wall-E's or what. but we're sincerely hoping they don't rush this game out to coincide with the flick, giving us a crappy game that vanishes from shelves in the blink of an eye. If it does, at least we'll have this artwork to fondly remember it by. Wall-E: First Screenshots [Team Xbox]

We weren't really sure what to expect going into this movie, because every 3D experience we've been promised has been fairly "meh" in quality. The recent Beowulf CGI meets 3D experience wasn't bad, but the promised third dimension still felt like all the 3D films we'd been seeing for years. Namely, a few things loom out of the screen, but it feels like a gimmick instead of something organic.

Enter the U23D concert film. We've seen concert films before, but never like this one. From the first shot of a packed arena that opens up like a pop-up book, to the long zooms from the audience right up into Larry Mullen's drumface, or the Edge's guitar, it feels like an otherworldly experience. You're literally right there with the band, experiencing something 1,000 times better than the view you'd get from a front row seat. You can see Bono's setlist tossed down on the edge of the drum platform, a couple of cups of coffee next to water bottles, the stitching detail in their clothing and so on. It looks so realistic that at times it feels fake, like you're looking at a VR concert, or action figures in a plexiglass block. Extremely surreal.

In Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, there's a group of ad-hoc theme park workers bringing a new technology to Disneyworld called "flashbaking". They use it in the Hall of Presidents to bring "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln" to new life by cramming the experience, smells of gunpowder, sounds of his era, photos, etc, into your cerebral cortex. It makes you feel like you're right there with a living, breathing Lincoln and a stretch of time within minutes. This film is as close to approximating that (albeit without the smells, the added into, and without any baking of our grey matter).

Some people will decry that it's not a true concert experience, since you aren't being battered around by sweaty people, crammed towards the stage like sardines, straining to see over the heads of those in front of you, and being charged astronomical ticket prices. But, we won't miss most of that. True, there's a lot to be said for the human experience during a concert, but we're excited about the possibilities this technology brings. Virtual concerts for the masses, priced for you wholesale.

The film was shot during their "Vertigo" tour throughout South America over several dates, but it's been assembled into a seamless experience. Shot with over 18 cameras and using the 3ality 3D technology, this is the first time zoom lenses have been used in 3D, and the first time they've done layered visual effects in 3D. The movie premieres at the Sundance Film Festival next week, but you'll be able to see it starting January 23rd at theaters all over.

• The show ignores everything laid down by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, especially since Sarah Connor is dead in that movie. Ouch. Although she wasn't originally supposed to be. According to James Middleton, "Early drafts of T3 had Sarah in it, and while that was eventually unable to happen, I think that was a good thing for us because it has allowed Lena Headey to come in and do such a good job as Sarah in this show."
• So during what time period is this new series set? Is it pre-internet? Middleton: "No, it's not pre-internet. Through the pilot, we deposit our heroes in the present day."
• If you're wondering how the T4 film will affect this new television series, Middleton said "I think they will naturally cross promote each other. In terms of the timelines, we've created an entirely new one for the show. We'll be following Sarah's journey through this new timeline, and we'll be staying with her on that journey. Sarah is always concerned about her mortality, if she dies, will her work be done? In terms of our show, the pilot establishes that we move away from T3 entirely. The plot is informed much more by Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
• He's also working on a new animated Terminator project, which will be a series of short animated pieces done by different animation directors, just like The Animatrix. "I'm working on a production called Termination that would use animation directors from all over. It will be like The Animatrix, but will be much more worldwide in flair. We'll have European animators along with Japanese anime auteurs.
• Since production was shut down after only 9 episodes were completed, is there any hope for more episodes this season? Middleton: "I don't know, I have a feeling that the nine shows we have will be our first season. It takes a show about nine weeks to get back up and running. Our show is very involved in terms of CGI, costumes, and sets so that preparation time is crucial. It would really be up to Fox.
• Does that mean episode nine serves as a season finale? "Actually, yes. It turns out that episode has a very big cliffhanger ending."
• Given the shortened season, where does that leave Sarah emotionally at the end of these episodes? Headey: "I think it's such a kind of ongoing evolution. Her relationship with John is reaching new depths. There's a lot of things going on with Sarah, she's learning to be a mother, she's learning what it is to live like this. It's a complete realization of what's going on."
• Are you sick or being compared or contrasted to Linda Hamilton at this point? "Yes, I'm a little tired of that comparison. Linda Hamilton will always be the original Sarah Connor, but I'm hoping to bring fresh eyes to it. It's a new era and I'm approaching it in a new way.
• Did you get banged and bruised up during the filming? Do you have any stunt injuries? "Just a lot of hand injuries, because it seems like every "breakable surface" never breaks. So you have experts telling you to 'Just hit it' and it doesn't break!"
• Given that the show is called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, it's obvious that there is going to be a lot of interaction between Sarah and Cameron. Can you talk about that at all? "It's very complicated because Sarah has a well-earned fear of machines, yet she must keep this machine close to her in order to protect her own son. But, as the series goes on, it's impossible for Sarah and John to not become attached to Cameron as a being. We're watching Sarah deal with what is her biggest nightmare and have her embrace it each day."
• You had to re-shoot some of the scenes in the pilot because of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Would the network still make you re-shoot it today?? Were you upset about it? Middleton: "No, we actually found very clear headed people at the network, and we were all horrified by the Virginia Tech shootings. One must remember that the premise of our show is that Terminators and others are coming from the future to kill a child, and that might happen in public places. One thing we do in the show is that we really value human life. Sarah is really conscious of this as the show goes on and in thinking about who must die in the fight against Skynet.
• If you had the power to go back in time and change anything, what would you change now to make a better future? Lena: "I can't choose an answer to this one! I guess mine would involve world politics, but I won't go into that right now. Or...give me a time machine so I can erase wrinkles but not my wisdom."

  James: "I think I'd go back and change a certain election in 2000."

  Lena: "Uh, I think that's what I was trying to say, James."

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• In Lexx, the living spaceship was also equipped with... living toilets. They even had large, waggling tongues, a la Little Shop of Horrors, and were more than eager to lap up the crew's waste materials. That would either make going to the bathroom incredibly fun, or moderately terrifying. Think you can hold it for 42,000,000 miles? You could if the toilet looked like it wanted to eat your ass.
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• Lexx wasn't the only living spaceship with bathroom facilities. Moya in Farscape also grew convenience spots for her crew, including showers and toilets. In fact, the water system was provided by Moya's own internal plumbing system, which her saliva powered the sewer system. That just seems like all kinds of "two girls, one cup" wrong.
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• In the future of Demolition Man, Sylvester Stallone was perplexed by the futuristic toilets. The bowls looked the same, but as far as waste management went, there were three mysterious "seashells" next to the toilet that he never quite figured out. We never figured it out either, and we'll chalk it up to extremely lazy writers who didn't feel the need to explain how they wiped their asses in the future, so now we'll forever be wondering what those damn shells did.
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• Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was so detailed that the Zero Gravity Toilet installed on the passenger ship to the moon including verbose instructions on how to use the waste facilities. Although if you really had to go, we can't imagine anyone taking the time to actually read through all of these steps before stepping inside. Wouldn't you print something like this where you could easily read it while doing your duty? The only way this could be worse would be if they just handed you a 200 page manual as you went in.
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• Onboard the Serenity in Firefly, living space is at a premium, so they've got toilets that fold neatly into the wall and flush as they go. Then you pull out the sink like a drawer and wash your hands, although preferably using soap. In the clip below, Captain Mal Reynolds takes a whiz and then simply WETS HIS HANDS DOWN THE WATER then puts them on his face. Meaning he's just coated his cheeks in penis germs. No wonder he hasn't scored with Inara just yet.
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With apologies to Kathleen Meyer's How To Shit In The Woods.

In Saving Charlie, fans will discover why Hiro has gotten more action on the show than the hormonal Peter Petrelli. The plot features Hiro's missing six month time-travel adventure with Charlie the cute waitress, when he went into the past to try and save her from Sylar. While he ultimately had to let her die in one of those "it was meant to be" moments, they did fall in love.

The novel is being put out by Del Rey Publishing, and is written by Aury Wellington, who seems to be best-known for her novelizations of teen angst drama The O.C. . It also features one of the dullest book covers we've ever seen. But we're trying not to judge. We need our Heroes fix.

Walt Disney once said, "Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future." However, it looks like that blueprint is sponsored churros and Coca Cola, and has no clue what it's doing. Which might not be too far off from the actual future we're heading towards as a society.

Tomorrowland has been reworked and relaunched three times by Disney since the park opening in 1955, with the most recent facelift happening in 1998. But 10 years haven't even passed since then and the park feels incongruous and meandering, plus the "Rocket Rods" attraction that replaced the boring "People Mover" hasn't worked since 2000, yet it still sits there, looking like a heap of junk. Visitors to Tom Morrow's (an animatronic goof-bot voiced by Nathan Lane) "Innoventions" seek the exits within moments of entering what used to be the kitschy but cool "Carousel of Progress." Mostly because they take everything that is cool about science and make it as much fun as getting a root canal. Plus, "Star Tours" feels like it's about 20 years too old, which it is.

Over the past few years they've attempted to zap some life back into Tomorrowland by adding Buzz Lightyear's Astro-Blasters, which is basically a video game turned into a ride (riders get a gun and "blast" aliens with it throughout the ride, which keeps track of your score), and the Jedi Training Academy, which is a stage show aimed at turning tots into lightsaber-wielding badasses. They get to face off with Darth Vader, who could quickly turn them into padawan-cutlets if not for the cutesy power of the Force. it just doesn't work for a place that's supposed to be showing us what the future is like. You mean, we get to see more Star Wars in the future? George Lucas will be so pleased.

What's really sad is that it's been 20 years since Space Mountain opened, and that's still the coolest attraction in Tomorrowland. With all of the gee-whiz special effects and design innovations we've had along the way, Disney chose to upgrade Space Mountain for a limited time last summer with music from The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Give us a break. It's high time that Tomorrowland started living up to its name and wowing us with the possibilities of unknown worlds and the wonders of science.

Here are a few places that manage to get it right:

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• The Science Fiction Museum: Located in Seattle, this museum dedicated to all things science fiction is massive, fun, and has a roof made out of glass so you can see the stars at night. It's couple with Paul Allen's Experience Music project, and will keep you entertained all day.
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• The Hall of the Universe at the Rose Center for Earth and Space: This giant explorable hall feature a circular staircase that tells you how the universe formed as you climb up. It's housed inside the giant glass and steel cubic Rose Center, and shouldn't be missed if you visit New York City.
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• The Exploratorium: San Francisco's huge science museum near the Golden Gate Bridge recently got a makeover, and it puts an strong emphasis onto hands-on exciting experiences about science. It might look like ancient Roman history outside, but inside it's a whole different world.
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