I love scifi ideas but I can't be assed to wade through all the crappy books that are written around them. What I would like is a database of scifi ideas that I can look up by keyword, subject, author etc.

I love the idea that there could be a ring world but I dont want to wade through a whole book to find out about the idea.

I bet you 10 billion post singularity dollars that within a month of the creation of a freely accessible database like this there will be some huge jump iin technology like someone will come up with faster than light travel by associating two random ideas that were formerly hidden in long scifi novels.

Is there already a database out there like this?

Of course I am a communist.
-- JesusHChrist, May 14 2005

Inventions and Ideas from Science Fiction Books and Movies http://technovelgy.com/index.htm
Explore the wide variety of inventions and ideas of science fiction writers - over 800 are available on Technovelgy (that's tek-novel-gee!). [doomsayer, May 14 2005]

The descriptive language components http://tvtropes.org...Main/ScienceFiction
[FlyingToaster, Aug 18 2013]

The Science Fiction Encylopedia http://sfe3.org/index.php
On line version of a publication that has existed for a long time. [DrBob, Aug 21 2013]

Altshuller's Register of Sci-Fi Ideas and Situations mentioned in this bio http://www.trizgrou...altshuller-bio.html
[JesusHChrist, Jan 29 2016]

Gully Foil https://shankles.ba...album/gully-foil-ep
[not_morrison_rm, Feb 10 2016]

Been there, done that ? Been_20there_2c_20done_20that_3f
[normzone, Feb 13 2016]

There's a book called The Science of Science Fiction by Peter Nichols which covers a lot of this ground, including the author's assessment of the actual feasibility or likelihood of some science fiction effects or contraptions ever actually becoming fact. I couldn't find it at Amazon, but there's an ebay auction for this book that ends 1.9 days from .... now.
-- Soterios, May 14 2005


I'd like a version that condenses the premise. Star Wars: Everybody fights this guy wearing a black helmet. Star Trek: These guys explore the universe and aliens kill the crew members in red shirts. Ship's doctor tells the captain they're dead. Dr Who: This guy walks around. Apparently he's a doctor or something. Moby Dick: While not science fiction, a fish goes nuts and kills everybody. War and Peace: Concludes that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism while a pissy little runt Frenchman runs around breaking things.
-- doctorremulac3, May 14 2005


Star Trek: Jim gets a shag, Spock nearly smiles and Bones declares someone is dead.
-- DenholmRicshaw, May 14 2005


[JezusHChrist], I am a communist also.+
-- zeno, May 15 2005


Thousands of well-written stories, simply requiring the patience to absorb them. Ten times as many poorly written stories, just waiting to sadden you.

For me, the written word is my primary form of entertainment. Photos and movies follow. Different people have different preferred intake modes.

The technological influences are one aspect - the real story lies in how the technology influences the way people react. That would be a much harder thing to sum up in a database.
-- normzone, May 15 2005


I'm sure I saw that idea in an SF story.
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 18 2013


The key thing about Moby Dick is the fish is not nuts.
-- bungston, Aug 18 2013


As Moby Dick has already consumed part of the loony Ahab, the whale would have to be labelled "May contain (part of a) nut"
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 20 2013


Do we know that Moby Dick actually consumed the leg? From my (extremely hazy) recollection I only thought we were told that Ahab had lost his leg to the whale. My assumption was that he had done this as part of some extravagant bet. You know the sort of thing...

Ahab: [slamming his tankard down on the bar of a New England alehouse] "By god, Moby Dick, I'll bet you my right leg that I can beat you in a race from one side of the 'lantic ocean to the other, and I'll give you a two day head start to boot! We start from Boston harbour at noon tomorrow!"

[Four days later, becalmed in mid Ocean, Ahab stands on the poop deck of his ship, shaking his fist ineffectually in the general direction of Europe]

Ahab: "Curse you Moby Dick! I'll have my vengeance & spit in your eye too!"

[The ship's carpenter appears from below decks carrying a large saw and a bottle of brandy. Ahab snatches the bottle & takes a healthy swig]

Ahab: "OK man, let's get on with it!"
[Fade to black with sound of sawing].
-- DrBob, Aug 21 2013


You guys are mixing them up with that alligator that ate the hand of Captain Hook.

I wonder if Peter Pan ever made use of that fighting style (chop piece off opponent and throw it to fierce animals) at other points in his immortal career?
-- bungston, Jan 29 2016


f the three books I've last read, two of them had the "Tiger Tiger Gully Foyle* dropping back into his own past and giving somewhat cryptic advice to his earlier self" bit.

* Not to be confused with Gully Foil, which I thought was baking foil, but it apparently music. Link of a sort.
-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 10 2016


"Nightfall": Night falls.
-- smendler, Feb 13 2016



random, halfbakery