Jake Thomas b. 1990 (A.I., Dinocroc)
Christian Bale b. 1974 (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Prestige, Terminator Salvation, Reign of Fire)
Tony Maudsley b. 1968 (Day of the Triffids [TV], Being Human, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sleepy Hollow [1999])
Thomas McCarthy b. 1966 (2012)
Julie McCullough b. 1965 (Sharknado, 2012 Ice Age, The Blob [1988], Black Scorpion)
Alex Hyde-White b. 1959 (Babylon 5, The Fantastic Four [1994], Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica [1978])
Charles S. Dutton b. 1951 (Alien3, American Horror Story, Gothika, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Mimic, Cat’s Eye)
Gregory Benford b. 1941 (won 1981 Nebula for Timescape)
George Barr b. 1937 (illustrator)
Richard Brautigan b. 1935 died 14 September 1984 (author, In Watermelon Sugar, The Hawkline Monster)
Gene Hackman b. 1930 (Superman I through 4, Young Frankenstein)
David Wayne b, 1914 died 9 February 1995 (The Andromeda Strain, Batman [TV], Twilight Zone)
Hugh Marlowe b. 1911 died 2 May 1982 (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, World Without End)
Last year, the Picture Slot went to Christian Bale, the youngest name on the list who really counts as a movie star and this year it goes to Hugh Marlowe, the first born on this list whose career took a detour into 1950s sci-fi. It should be noted he was also in bigger budget movies like All About Eve. A clear sign of the inversion of the movie industry in the last sixty years is that movies like All About Eve - which now would be called a chick flick - were the big budget movies and sci-fi was a low budget ghetto.
I also must admit a weird moment of forgetfulness this morning during research. I saw Gene Hackman's name on imdb.com's birthday list and I thought, "No, he's never done sci-fi." I completely blanked on his days of playing Lex Luthor.
Many happy returns to the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for the memories.
Predictor: Isaac Asimov in 1964, predicting the world of 2014 in honor of the 1964 World's Fair in New York
Prediction: The situation will have been made the more serious by the advances of automation. The world of A.D. 2014 will have few routine jobs that cannot be done better by some machine than by any human being. Mankind will therefore have become largely a race of machine tenders.
Reality: There is a lot more automation in 2014 than there was in 1964, but we are not "largely a race of machine tenders". Since cost is always a factor, these days industry looks to move routine jobs to places with low wages and few health and safety regulations instead of buying machines to do the jobs.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
We get the first of our Wired Long Bets, predictions about the future were people put money on the outcome. Fun!
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
ReplyDeleteWe get the first of our Wired Long Bets, predictions about the future were people put money on the outcome. Fun!
Can I bet AGAINST Kurzweil? Or do I have to make a competing prediction? Cuz most of my predictions will end with The Zompocalypse, natch.
Mankind will therefore have become largely a race of machine tenders.
ReplyDeleteLook at how much time and money is devoted to keeping Windows systems running....
I do spend ridiculous amounts of time in front of a machine, but I justify it by reminding myself I am only rarely getting paid for it.
DeleteThe scene in Young Frankenstein between Gene Hackman as the blind hermit and Peter Boyle as the creature has got to be one of the funniest skits in all of moviedom. The timing and Boyle's expressions are priceless.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Hackman wasn't known for comedy before this, but he was amazing.
ReplyDelete"Wait! I was gonna make espresso."
Empire of the Sun (James Graham Ballard novel) and The Prestige (Christopher Priest novel) don't count as Christian Bale sf credits?
ReplyDeleteBoth authors wrote non-genre works. I'd say Empire of the Sun doesn't count and The Prestige is close, but there were two rival magician movies at the time and I blurred them together. Let me sleep on that one.
ReplyDelete