SciFi Tech Talk
201 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★ - 8 ratingsSciFi Tech Talk is the podcast where we look at a movie / TV show / book / short story and the tech involved and what it says about THE FUTURE. We may go through some older material and see how much has become reality and how far we have yet to go. And new material could be looked at from the standpoint of how long we think it will take to become reality and how far from the present does it stretch the imagination.
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Episodes
SciFi Tech Talk #000051 - Brian Hall Interview
July 07, 2013 04:00 - 46 minutes - 21.5 MBBrian Hall is a writer for ReadWrite and writes about the "Smart Social Mobile Web" and how it is rapidly re-constructing markets, industries, business models and relationships around the world. And author of the book “Love in the Time of Caller ID”
SciFi Tech Talk #000050 - I Am Legend
June 30, 2013 04:00 - 40 minutes - 18.4 MBYears after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure. - imdb.com (2007)
SciFi Tech Talk #000049 - Soylent Green
June 24, 2013 04:00 - 48 minutes - 22.3 MBIn an overpopulated futuristic Earth, a New York police detective finds himself marked for murder by government agents when he gets too close to a bizarre state secret involving the origins of a revolutionary and needed new foodstuff. - imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000048 - The Running Man
June 19, 2013 04:00 - 38 minutes - 17.9 MBA wrongly-convicted man must try to survive a public execution gauntlet staged as a TV game show. - imdb.com (1987)
SciFi Tech Talk #000047 - Andromeda Strain
June 04, 2013 04:00 - 40 minutes - 18.7 MBA crack team of top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what has killed the citizens of a small town and learn how this deadly contagion can be stopped. - imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000046 - Hunger Games
May 26, 2013 04:00 - 1 hour - 27.8 MBIn a dystopian future, teens Katniss and Peeta are drafted for a televised event pitting young competitors against each other in a fight to the death. - Netflix
SciFi Tech Talk #000045 - Science Fiction vs. Fantasy
May 19, 2013 04:00 - 49 minutes - 22.8 MBThis week we did something a bit different. What separates science fiction from fantasy? Why are some movies/shows/books classified as one or another? Julie, Mike, and Jeff talk through this topic and their favorite sci-fi properties.
SciFi Tech Talk #000044 - Iron Sky
May 12, 2013 04:00 - 45 minutes - 20.9 MBThe Nazis set up a secret base on the dark side of the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018. -- imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000043 - Dredd
April 28, 2013 04:00 - 37 minutes - 17.4 MBIn a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO. -- imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000042 - Galaxy Quest
April 21, 2013 04:00 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBThe alumni cast of a cult space TV show have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help. -- imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000041 - Philip K. Dick
April 14, 2013 04:00 - 1 hour - 28.5 MBPhilip K. Dick’s ideas have influenced the development of real-life breakthroughs in everything from robotics to law enforcement. [He] is perhaps the most influential innovator in the science fiction world because of the dark view he took on technology’s impact on mankind. [He] suffered the loss of his twin sister shortly after birth and it had a pronounced effect of the rest of his life. -- The Science Channel
SciFi Tech Talk #000040 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
April 07, 2013 04:00 - 53 minutes - 24.4 MBA pair of astronauts heads to Jupiter to investigate a radio signal sent from a mysterious monolith on the moon, but their tranquil trip is endangered when their on-board computer begins acting oddly. The simple plot of director Stanley Kubrick’s inspired space adventure (co-scripted with noted science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke) belies the profound philosophical implications of this classic film, which inspires viewers to ask questions about the nature of advanced civilizations … and of...
SciFi Tech Talk #000039 - District 9
March 31, 2013 04:00 - 50 minutes - 23 MBOver twenty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National Unit (MNU), a private ...
SciFi Tech Talk #000038 - Blade Runner
March 23, 2013 04:00 - 39 minutes - 18.3 MBThe film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants – visually indistinguishable from adult humans – are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as by other "mega–manufacturers" around the world. Their use on Earth is banned and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police ...
SciFi Tech Talk #000037 - Rule 34
March 17, 2013 04:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBRule 34: If you can imagine it, there’s pornography about it on the Internet.Meet Edinburgh Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh, head of the Innovative Crimes Investigation Unit, otherwise know at the Rule 34 Squad. They monitor the Internet for potential criminal activity, analyzing trends in the extreme fringes of explicit content. And occasionally, even more disturbing patterns arise...Three ex-cons have been murdered in Germany, Italy, and Scotland. The only things they had in common were a...
SciFi Tech Talk #000036 - Men in Black
March 08, 2013 05:00 - 58 minutes - 29.2 MBAgent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of the Men in Black (M.I.B.), a secret non-government agency that polices extraterrestrial aliens seeking refuge on Earth, living normal lives in disguise as humans around New York City. Operating from a base at a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority ventilation station, they fund themselves using patents on alien technologies released to the public and maintain secrecy using neuralyzers to erase memories of alien sightings, also disguising aliens as hu...
SciFi Tech Talk #000035 - Looper
March 03, 2013 05:00 - 59 minutes - 27.8 MBIn 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self. - imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000034 - Spaceships
February 24, 2013 05:00 - 56 minutes - 26.6 MBSpaceships are a crucial part of many sci-fi stories. In this episode we talk about our favorite spaceships and the technology behind them including craft from Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and others.
SciFi Tech Talk #000033 - Ender's Game
February 15, 2013 05:00 - 56 minutes - 26.4 MBIn order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly. Is Ender the ge...
SciFi Tech Talk #000032 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
February 08, 2013 05:00 - 55 minutes - 26.1 MBThe Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is book written by Douglas Adams that has been at one time or another a book, a radio play, a tv show, a computer game and a feature film. Originally written as a trilogy it grew to 5 books and adopted the subtitle ‘an increasingly misnamed trilogy’. The story revolves around the misadventures of the human Arthur Dent and a cast of disreputable associates.
SciFi Tech Talk #000031 - Alien
February 07, 2013 05:00 - 54 minutes - 25.5 MBThe crew of a commercial deep space mining ship, investigating a suspected S.O.S., lands on a distant planet and discovers a nest of strange eggs. - imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000030 - Inception
January 25, 2013 05:00 - 37 minutes - 17.8 MBIn a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job to date: Inception. (2010) - imdb.com
SciFi Tech Talk #000029 - Legion of the Damned
January 13, 2013 05:00 - 48 minutes - 22.6 MBIn the future, the terminally ill can prolong life by surrendering their consciousness to a cybernetic life form that is then recruited into the notorious Legion of the Damned, an elite fighting unit charged with protecting humanity. (published 1993) - iTunes
SciFi Tech Talk #000028 - Minority Report
January 06, 2013 05:00 - 59 minutes - 27.9 MBMinority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia in the year 2054, where "PreCrime”, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs”. - Wikipedia
SciFi Tech Talk #000027 - Artificial Intelligence
January 01, 2013 05:00 - 51 minutes - 24.3 MBSince the dawn of man, we have tried to create things in our image. Attempts have been made through painting, sculpture and even robotics but they have always lacked the one thing that sets man apart from every other living creature, intelligence. Even though real artificial intelligence has yet to be achieved science fiction has been playing with the idea for decades. And that is the center of our discussion, sci-fi’s vision of man’s ultimate achievement or final demise.
SciFi Tech Talk #000026 - Forever War
December 23, 2012 05:00 - 52 minutes - 24.4 MBWilliam Mandella is a physics student conscripted for an elite task force in the United Nations Exploratory Force being assembled for a war against the Taurans, an alien species discovered when they apparently suddenly attacked human colonists' ships. The UNEF ground troops are sent out for reconnaissance and revenge.
SciFi Tech Talk #000025 - Iron Man
December 13, 2012 05:00 - 37 minutes - 17.7 MBTony Stark is the complete playboy who also happens to be an engineering genius. While in Afghanistan demonstrating a new missile, he's captured and wounded. His captors want him to assemble a missile for them but instead he creates an armored suit and a means to prevent his death from the shrapnel left in his chest by the attack. He uses the armored suit to escape. Back in the U.S. he announces his company will cease making weapons and he begins work on an updated armored suit only to find t...
SciFi Tech Talk #000024 - Battlestar Galactica
December 09, 2012 05:00 - 1 hour - 31.3 MBBattlestar Galactica (BSG) is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson. The series first aired as a three-hour mini-series (comprising four broadcast hours) in December 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel, and ran for four seasons thereafter, ending its run on March 20, 2009.
SciFi Tech Talk #000023 - Time Travel
December 02, 2012 05:00 - 55 minutes - 25.9 MBTime travel is travel from one distinct time to another distinct time, physically. Movement can be forward or backward and often involves some sort of device to cause the movement, i.e., a “time machine.” The time travel may take the traveler to an alternate time stream that may bear little resemblance to the traveler’s origin. Time travel is a popular theme among science fiction writers.
SciFi Tech Talk #000022 - The Matrix
November 23, 2012 05:00 - 45 minutes - 21.2 MBThe Matrix is a 1999 American science fiction action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving. It depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality or cyberspace created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer program...
SciFi Tech Talk #000021 - Starship Troopers
November 16, 2012 05:00 - 41 minutes - 19.7 MBStarship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published (in abridged form) as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November 1959, as "Starship Soldier") and published hardcover in December 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military service branch equipped with powered armor. Rico's military career progresses...
SciFi Tech Talk #000020 - Firefly/Serenity
November 11, 2012 05:00 - 47 minutes - 22.4 MBThe series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things." The show explores the lives of some people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and others who now make a living on the outskirts of ...
SciFi Tech Talk #000019 - 7th Son
November 04, 2012 04:00 - 46 minutes - 21.9 MBAs America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty … and all are identical in appearance.
SciFi Tech Talk #000018 - Arthur C. Clarke
October 26, 2012 04:00 - 51 minutes - 23.9 MBProphets of Science Fiction is a Science Channel series looking at 8 of the greatest sci-fi writers and their contributions to the art and to science itself. Among the authors in the series are Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne, Robert Heinlein and the subject of this podcast Arthur C. Clarke.Some sci-fi storytellers are content to merely predict, but Sir Arthur C. Clarke creates. The writer is single-handedly responsible for the cornerstone of modern telecommunication technology: the satellite. Clar...
SciFi Tech Talk #000017 - Fringe
October 20, 2012 04:00 - 44 minutes - 20.9 MBThe first season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on May 12, 2009. ... The first season introduces a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses unorthodox "fringe" science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteri...
SciFi Tech Talk #000016 - Quarter Share
October 13, 2012 04:00 - 49 minutes - 23.4 MBThe Golden Age of Sail has Returned - In the Year 2352 When his mother dies in a flitter crash, eighteen-year-old Ishmael Horatio Wang must find a job with the planet company or leave the system--and NerisCo isn't hiring. With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope...to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sai...
SciFi Tech Talk #000015 - The Mote in God's Eye
October 04, 2012 04:00 - 36 minutes - 17.1 MBThe Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humanity and an alien species.The book describes a complex alien civilization, the Moties. The Moties are radically different (both physically and psychologically) from humanity in ways that become more clear over the course of the book. The human characters...
SciFi Tech Talk #000014 - Stargate Continuum
September 28, 2012 04:00 - 39 minutes - 18.8 MBThis week we look at the Stargate franchise through the Continuum movie. The paradox of time travel is explored along with the technologies of multiple cultures and time periods.
SciFi Tech Talk #000013 - Logan's Run
September 21, 2012 04:00 - 39 minutes - 18.6 MBThis week's episode focuses on Logan's Run, a 1976 film that portrays a society kept in equilibrium by killing off everyone over 30. Free from responsibilities, free from consequences, free to seek pleasure at all times. Until your time's up. What happens when Logan runs from his fate and discovers a world he never knew existed.
SciFi Tech Talk #000012 - Clothing
September 14, 2012 04:00 - 49 minutes - 23.4 MBTrying the different approach to the podcast yet again this week. Julie, Jeff, and Mike discuss clothing/fashion and how it's depicted in scifi. And a bit of real science slips in a bit too.
SciFi Tech Talk #000011 - Mars
September 07, 2012 04:00 - 48 minutes - 22.9 MBTrying the different approach to the podcast yet again this week. Julie, Jeff, and Mike discuss Mars and how it's depicted in scifi. And a bit of real science slips in a bit too.
SciFi Tech Talk #000010 - Local Transport
August 25, 2012 04:00 - 37 minutes - 17.7 MBTaking a different approach to the podcast this week. Julie and Jeff are joined by Jeff Gamet to discuss the technology of "local" transportation as it is depicted in several scifi universes.
SciFi Tech Talk #000009 - Trek Nation
July 28, 2012 04:00 - 38 minutes - 17.6 MBTrek Nation is a documentary film directed by Scott Colthorp examining the positive impact that Star Trek and creator Gene Roddenberry may have had on people's lives as seen through the eyes of his son, Eugene Roddenberry, Jr. ("Rod"). It includes interviews with cast members and crew from all five Star Trek shows, as well as various fans and celebrities who were markedly influenced by the show while growing up. - Wikipedia The Tech: every Trek tech ever
SciFi Tech Talk #000008 - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
July 22, 2012 04:00 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBBuck Rogers “is the titular 20th century astronaut who goes on a space mission only to awaken 500 years later on a very different Earth, where he's chosen to aid a special defense organization because of his superior piloting skills.” -- Netflix The Tech: spaceships, cryrogenics (again), mutants, lasers, AI (Dr Theopholus), courts run by AI, sports, Olympics
SciFi Tech Talk #000007 - Dr. Who
July 15, 2012 04:00 - 54 minutes - 24.7 MB“Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord—a time travelling, humanoid alien with two hearts known as the Doctor. He explores the universe in his TARDIS—a sentient,telepathic time machine that flies through time and space. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, a common sight in 1963, when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes whil...
SciFi Tech Talk #000006 - Max Headroom
June 05, 2012 04:00 - 43 minutes - 20 MB20 minutes or 20 years into the future--take your pick for this classic, prophetic and very cool series from 1987: Max Headroom! Get a pretty dead-on look at the world of our present and probably near future, but from 20 years ago. The Tech: tasers, CCTV, instant ratings data, videoconferencing, 3D mapping
SciFi Tech Talk #000005 - 1984
May 31, 2012 04:00 - 31 minutes - 14.6 MB“Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel by George Orwell published in 1949. It is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party.[1] Life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control, accomplished with a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (Ingsoc), which is administered by a privileged Inner Party elite.[2] Yet they too are subordinated t...
SciFi Tech Talk #000004 - Metropolis
May 10, 2012 04:00 - 23 minutes - 10.9 MBIn this German silent movie from 1927, Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, has a dark underbelly where workers continually operate the machinery that keeps the city running. The privileged son of the city leader discovers its dark secret and mediates when a revolt ensues. “The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!” The revolt is fueled by an android made to look like a saintly woman, but whose mechanical version is just the opposite. The Tech: machinery, videophones, cars...
SciFi Tech Talk #000003 - Space Seed
May 01, 2012 04:00 - 31 minutes - 14.2 MBKirk and his crew find a ‘sleeper ship’ of genetically bred superhumans, led by the ruthless 20th century dictator Khan Noonian Singh, who tries to take over the ship with the help of a 23rd century archaeologist who falls in love with him. The Tech: eugenics, radio (ham signal - CQ), cryogenics, intercoms v. communicators, viewing screen in sickbay that ties into ship library tapes, hair doodads, literature (Milton), interstellar travel
SciFi Tech Talk #000002 – Press Enter to Execute
April 27, 2012 04:00 - 18 minutes - 8.4 MBStory takes place in the near future. A hitman has been making hits that have been contracted by an AI spam filter to eliminate spam by having the spammer assassinated. He’s been given instructions, information, and assistance through crowdsourcing. After figures out he’s actually working for a company, who he believes has turned on him, he kills much of their board of directors. However, he ultimately meets his end at the hands of another assassin filling a contract generated by another, com...