One of the most interesting things that I find "dates" classic and even more modern sci-fi is the rise of the personal communications revolution.
Let's face it - even 15 years ago - did anyone at all foresee how much our lives would be changed by the use of cell phones? Not to mention the iphone?
What you have these days in the iphones and Androids of today is the Star Trek communicator and tri-corder with access to the ship's computer rolled into one. Only MORE so. The i-phone is a portable computer, position tracker, communicator the likes of which very few sci-fi authors even dreamed of. It can do all of that and more. Even Star Trek TNG and the like are now hopelessly dated by comparison.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress still holds up as a cracking good story. I reread it as recently as 18 months ago. And one of the things that struck me about the book was that all the technology held together remarkably well, save for one thing. And a younger reader would notice it and think about it instantly.
"What's all this business with the stationary phones/comm stations in the walls of the Lunar Cities? Nobody has personal communication?"
In fact, they don't. And the central premise of the story - that of the central computer Mike/Adam Selene controlling all the communications as he does either wouldn't work very well if they did, or it would change the story pretty significantly!
And so it goes. Science marches on and leaves Sci-fi in the dust sometimes.
Let's face it - even 15 years ago - did anyone at all foresee how much our lives would be changed by the use of cell phones? Not to mention the iphone?
What you have these days in the iphones and Androids of today is the Star Trek communicator and tri-corder with access to the ship's computer rolled into one. Only MORE so. The i-phone is a portable computer, position tracker, communicator the likes of which very few sci-fi authors even dreamed of. It can do all of that and more. Even Star Trek TNG and the like are now hopelessly dated by comparison.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress still holds up as a cracking good story. I reread it as recently as 18 months ago. And one of the things that struck me about the book was that all the technology held together remarkably well, save for one thing. And a younger reader would notice it and think about it instantly.
"What's all this business with the stationary phones/comm stations in the walls of the Lunar Cities? Nobody has personal communication?"
In fact, they don't. And the central premise of the story - that of the central computer Mike/Adam Selene controlling all the communications as he does either wouldn't work very well if they did, or it would change the story pretty significantly!
And so it goes. Science marches on and leaves Sci-fi in the dust sometimes.