In The Sixth Day, the main character gets the day’s news on the bathroom mirror as he shaves.
The NYT reports that a company is now selling a mirror that is connected to a wireless sensor placed outdoors.
The sensor detects changes in barometric pressure and humidity, and predicts the weather for the next 12 to 24 hours. That information is transmitted to the mirror, which displays the data as blue numbers and orange graphical icons. Also on the readout are the current temperature readings inside and outside your home, and the time.
This kind of information ubiquity will continue to advance, but this kind of standalone, single-purpose device will not be central. Instead, interoperable devices connected to the Internet (and sensors) will deliver specific subsets of information that their owners desire most, whether the current weather or news from Mongolia.
Alternate presents based on alternate pasts are outside the scope of Futuristmovies.com, strictly speaking, but I think CSA is worth mentioning, despite its reported defects.
It retells the story of the last 160 years, beginning with a Civil War in which it is
Grant who surrenders to Lee, allowing the South to rise permanently again and create a parallel America that at times deviates wildly from the historical record and, at other times, bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the world we know.
Author Karrie Jacobs notes that “the urban renewal bug that infected the Europeans and the Americans in the 20th century has been passed along to the Asians,” and is visible in China, Hong Kong, Korea, and elsewhere.
Americans and Europeans seem to have learned that they don’t want to live in the gleaming techno-city of the future, but Asians still believe in modernity. It may be up to them to build the cities of science fiction—but rising social freedom and popular input may put a stop to them in Asia as well.
Paying attention to context rather than detail, I thought the movie coming out on March 3rd was called “Ultraviolent”. Not quite. The promo material says that Ultraviolet is a
futuristic sci-fi adventure in which a new disease genetically modifies nearly an entire race of people, leaving them with enhanced speed, intelligence, and strength that makes them resemble vampires. Fear among uninfected humans leads to worldwide persecution, bringing the planet to the brink of war between the two “races.”
I take the mention of vampires as a bad sign. And we’ve seen this plot before: it sounds a lot like a combination of X-Men with Kill Bill. But, hey, it could turn out fine.