Really I just take issue with things that we think are guaranteed to happen based on current trends, set scripts on the technological stage like “GNR”. We base our opinion of how technology will develop – and even that technology will develop – on our current reality of life. But if technology will effect anything, it will effect the way we live. The more technology effects our lives, the more unpredictable technological development will become. This can range anywhere from destroying the human race, to turning us into a bunch of zombies who are engrossed in one particular development and stop progressing otherwise, to utopian society, to the realization of previously unknown intelligence and becoming “hyper-human”.

But it could also lead to nearly destroying humanity over and over, and having to constantly start again in some areas, while being able to salvage previous knowledge in other areas. Theoretically this could explain Serenity’s Universe, although, once again, its plausibility is a bit difficult.

In short, I certainly agree that anything set 50 years from now is very speculative. But I don’t agree that technology must progress as expected…not even in the next 50 years. The society we exist in now fosters technology (and fosters certain technologies more than others), but the power of technology is itself a possible destabilizing force in a society which already has many potential reasons to turn into something else, be it good or bad. If technology changes society, might it change society into one that doesn’t develop technology? Or one that develops it in a way that is totally foreign to us now?

Yes, I had heard about that, and that’s one of the reasons I like that movie. I wish more movies had the money and dedication to do it, but I have a very hard time imagining how they can film something like that in 30 second snippets.

I would love to be a set builder in a huge orbital movie set

I think we have just one movie shot in real zero G:

Apollo 13.

They built the lunar module set onboard the Zero G aircraft, the Vomit Comet, that they train astronauts with. You go up high, put the plane in a dive and get a brief period of zero G before the next climb.

But Mr. Whedon has always claimed that his stories are more about the characters than the science.

What are they in, like one really huge solar system? How many habitable planets could you have orbiting one star?

That’s the idea. In one interview Joss said something like “It’s a huge cluster of planets. You’ve never seen a cluster like this!”

While that eliminates the need for FTL, they do have artificial gravity, which I find to be just as unlikely as FTL. At one convention I asked those present if they would be interested in shooting a show in real zero gravity. Aside from the cost issue, neither actor seemed enthusiastic about it. Although the special effects guy was thrilled, “All those wires my team wouldn’t have to remove from the shots.” So, until we have access to space that’s affordable enough to shoot movies/tv in space, we’re kinda stuck with the artificial gravity. Not so with the FTL, necessarily.