Elysium (the movie)

[SorryNotSorry]

Okay, so... I listen to things people say at these global environmental meetings, and I get that there's going to be hell to pay... and I also keep thinking back to the movie Elysium, in which the peasantry is stuck living on a polluted and depleted Earth while the elite live aboard Elysium, a manmade utopia orbiting the Earth. Something similar happens in my 2007 sci-fi novel (note that this was a couple of years before Elysium), in which the elite flee Earth to take refuge in Paradise Station, a massive orbiting sanctuary they'd built in secret during the early years of the Cold War.

 

Haters of course attacked Elysium as "a liberal piece of trash", and it's glaringly obvious why.

 

Thinking this scenario through, it wouldn't be feasible, because to survive in space would take WORK. One could always bring one's maids and butlers along to do the grunt work, but then if they decide to go on strike or revolt, the whole system woud crash.

 

What do you think?

[NickTheWriter]

I think in the movie they had robots instead of maids/butlers. And bots don't revolt, so that's probably a major component of their system. And the human security with big guns. 

[Zerο]

If they've got the technology to heal people of any condition, I highly doubt cleaning and maintenance are technical hurdles.

[coyote55]

Then too, the construction of something like Elysium or Paradise Station would have required a very large launch capability, or something like a space elevator, to exist in advance. This would then be turned toward maintaining the elitist population up there with materials and labor;  robots, or vast numbers of the peasant population conscripted to serve them. If the latter, the overlords would have to run something of a police state to prevent rebellion (there's a depressing thought).

[fuzzipueo]

1 hour ago, coyote55 said:

Then too, the construction of something like Elysium or Paradise Station would have required a very large launch capability, or something like a space elevator, to exist in advance. This would then be turned toward maintaining the elitist population up there with materials and labor;  robots, or vast numbers of the peasant population conscripted to serve them. If the latter, the overlords would have to run something of a police state to prevent rebellion (there's a depressing thought).

This is part of the scenario in the movie - they use the robots and loyal troops to run this state of affairs.

And if you don't have enough credits to pay for any medical procedure, then, well, you're SOL.

4 hours ago, Woodworker1968 said:

Thinking this scenario through, it wouldn't be feasible, because to survive in space would take WORK. One could always bring one's maids and butlers along to do the grunt work, but then if they decide to go on strike or revolt, the whole system woud crash.

 

What do you think?

All it would take is someone willing to do a bit of sabotage on the air or water system. It would be incredibly easy to bring down the whole system without much effort - a fact that seems to get overlooked by science fiction movies - heck all it would take is a piece of space debris. The biggest hurdle is overcoming the indoctrination that you are who/what you are and that you should maintain your place (a scenario so old, you can find examples throughout history) or you could end up dead.

[CaptainYesterday]

[deleted]

[God of the Forest]

4 hours ago, Woodworker1968 said:

Okay, so... I listen to things people say at these global environmental meetings, and I get that there's going to be hell to pay... and I also keep thinking back to the movie Elysium, in which the peasantry is stuck living on a polluted and depleted Earth while the elite live aboard Elysium, a manmade utopia orbiting the Earth. Something similar happens in my 2007 sci-fi novel (note that this was a couple of years before Elysium), in which the elite flee Earth to take refuge in Paradise Station, a massive orbiting sanctuary they'd built in secret during the early years of the Cold War.

 

Haters of course attacked Elysium as "a liberal piece of trash", and it's glaringly obvious why.

 

Thinking this scenario through, it wouldn't be feasible, because to survive in space would take WORK. One could always bring one's maids and butlers along to do the grunt work, but then if they decide to go on strike or revolt, the whole system woud crash.

 

What do you think?

  Since when has feasibility ever stopped sci-fi? lol if we stopped to think about that we wouldn't have Stargate... *blissful sigh* Stargate 

[SorryNotSorry]

Well, one huge drawback, if the thing was fully robotized, is that as a member of the elite, it would be awfully hard for me to feel superior to a robot if it has no sense of self.

[Yatogami]

I think the movie was a very feasible "Possibility". IT doesn't stray from normal human behavior, and exemplifies just how expendable the average person is. Power and money really is everything. No one is worth anything. This hasn't changed since humans have been around, and as I have always said. There will always be those at the top, and those at the bottom. No matter what kind of world you live in. 

[SorryNotSorry]

On May 15, 2017 at 10:08 PM, Maou-sama said:

I think the movie was a very feasible "Possibility". IT doesn't stray from normal human behavior, and exemplifies just how expendable the average person is. Power and money really is everything. No one is worth anything. This hasn't changed since humans have been around, and as I have always said. There will always be those at the top, and those at the bottom. No matter what kind of world you live in. 

True, but as John Maynard Keynes said, in the end we're all dead anyway.

 

And caste lines in the US can be crossed, as long as a newly minted member of the nouveau riche is careful not to step on any other wealthy toes.

[J. van Deijck]

oh, Elysium. me likes this movie.

 

don't you think it's actually possible to happen in the future?

 

On 16.5.2017 at 7:08 AM, Yato God of Tofu said:

I think the movie was a very feasible "Possibility". IT doesn't stray from normal human behavior, and exemplifies just how expendable the average person is. Power and money really is everything. No one is worth anything. This hasn't changed since humans have been around, and as I have always said. There will always be those at the top, and those at the bottom. No matter what kind of world you live in. 

nothing else needs to be said.

[SorryNotSorry]

18 hours ago, alpha decay said:

oh, Elysium. me likes this movie.

 

don't you think it's actually possible to happen in the future?

Not really. It would be self-defeating.

[The Joker]

It seems to me that it will be economically impossible to ever really make a major push into space to begin with. Also there are some physical limitations that technology will never be able to overcome. Such as truly simulating earth-like gravity in a compact spacecraft (rotational craft aside). So even if there is a relatively large push into space, it won't be like what we're imagining in popular culture nowadays. It will be more out of necessity, and things won't be as comfortable, and it will likely be a one way trip for very very large structures (leaving Earth in an extinction scenario).

[SorryNotSorry]

9 hours ago, The Joker said:

It seems to me that it will be economically impossible to ever really make a major push into space to begin with. Also there are some physical limitations that technology will never be able to overcome. Such as truly simulating earth-like gravity in a compact spacecraft (rotational craft aside). So even if there is a relatively large push into space, it won't be like what we're imagining in popular culture nowadays. It will be more out of necessity, and things won't be as comfortable, and it will likely be a one way trip for very very large structures (leaving Earth in an extinction scenario).

True, but one of my major points about such an undertaking is that one of the things that makes an elite an elite, is a feeling of superiority over everyone else. Surviving in space is hard work, not exactly the kind of work someone can fob off onto a bot or a butler.