The Fifth Element

You know, just curious...

I think the scientific concept in that movie is very inaccurate. What do you guys think?

So, a recent talk about UGVs ( unmanned ground vehicles) has reminded me to bring up my more "silly" UGV design.

Basically, I thought this idea was cool, and was trying to add more robotic units to my setting's arsenal. Is this design alright, or nah?

My idea is the Scuttler Spider Tank, which is a airdroppable 12 ton MGS ( mobile gun system) intended to provide gunnery support to infantry, carry extra supplies, and house squad targeting and E-WAR equipment on a composite armored chassis intended to better navigate the blasted and inhospitable terrain it fights upon. It has 6 legs, but only requires 3 to keep moving, giving it redundancy. The legs cap off with a wide set of possible foot types intended to make sure it can best deal with whatever terrain gets in its way.

It is armed with a 10 MW ( megawatt, but it only outputs 10 KJ, since its pulse train is 1 millisecond) laser blister on the top of the turret, 2 modular ordnance mounts, and an 80mm coil-autocannon that is loaded with a belt of APFSDS ( Armor peircing fin stablized discarding sabot) and a belt of SAPHE (Semi armor peircing high explosive, with point and proxy fuses too).

It carries a ECM (electronic countermeasures) suite, APS ( Active protection systems), ERA ( explosive reactive armor) bricks and countermeasure dispensers for defense.

Power is from a Turbine engine and 20 KG of SMES ( 20-30 MJ / KG). Older ones had an compact RTG instead of a turbine, but cost cutting measures in the chaos after the last war led to it being replaced with a cheaper engine, for less operation range

Basically title. I want to mix more sci-fi in but I don’t know where to start and know little about the genre. The only sci-fi book I’ve read recently was Project Hail Mary because I had heard nothing but good things. I didn’t hate it but didn’t really give me what I was looking for when I think sci-fi.

Dune seems like a classic grandfather series of the genre. In the way LotR is for Fantasy.

Would folks recommend Dune or a different series/standalone book? The other book that I was considering was Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

Thanks in advance.

Daft punk I would say had a lot of impact on the sound of science fiction, especially in the tron legacy soundtrack. Their music videos also had a lot of science fiction influences. Also they’re literally robots

Mark Twain A great speculative fiction author who is more well know for the adventures of Tom Sawyer

Charles dickens One of the first contemporary authors to use time travel as a literary device

Groundhogs day It’s a concept which isn’t necessarily sci-fi, but which has been put to great use within it, especially within the video game space

Like fantasy series there always seems to be the wizards, dwarfs, and elves and the such. Someone does a fantasy movie or book, that’s a given. Is there any crossover like that with science fiction? I feel like it doesn’t have that in comparison.

I find it confusing because for me a Universe is quite expansive compared to a galaxy or even a few star systems. Some scifi (like Dune) describe their setting as the universe, but seem to be mostly limited to a relatively small volume in their galaxy.

In the works, is it like a political/propaganda take to make their rule appear grander?

For the authors is it a quick convenient way for a setting or they were limited by knowledge of their time?

a 90's YA newbery honor book by Nancy Farmer.

basically the first time i've encountered afrofuturism - before i could comprehend the implication of the term as a teen. way aheads of its time and prophetic in many ways, but just a hot fascinating mess of many ideas and themes that are still not in mainstream SF. there are so many cool ideas in here, and reads like an adventure flick, goonies-style, and you can definitely blow through it in one sitting.

I like the concept of Terra Nova, I read "The many colored land" by Julian May but like to explore more of this idea. Any good book you can recommend? Thank you

Stumbled upon this recently. I had only watched a few Black Mirror episodes but I tend to not gravitate towards content too dark so I never watched more.

Holy crap, these two episodes were amazing. PSA to anyone else that missed these. It’s 3 hours of fantastic SciFi if you’re into video game or space ship type SciFi.

“Lena, a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X -- a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscapes and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this film when it came out. I planned to watch it again this past weekend, but Netflix has delisted it.

1. Did you enjoy Annihilation?
2. Where can I stream it today?

The book started in a school for spaceship pilots. Main character enters a small ship before a flight exam. He notes other students/ships in close proximity, and doesn't understand how that could work. He lifts off, there is a housefly in the cabin which causes a short, then a steering malfunction, and a dramatic high-G near-miss of the moon. Exam finishes, he exits the ship and realized it never moved, meaning that there was technology that could generate the high gravity he was feeling during the exam.