With a POD of June 25, 1968 (the date of the publication of Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, the idea is to help create an ATL that serves as an homage to the 1968 novel and the 1982 film. The trick is to not to be held to the constraints of the film or novels, but it should match the mood and feel. This means space colonization, androids, massive environmental damage, flying cars, and more Asian pop culture than you can shake a stick at....
Blade Running ATL: A Collaborative TL with Electric Sheep
- Thread starter Mr_ Bondoc
- Start date
May 4, 1979: "Blade Runner" movement is detailed by William S. Burroughs is used to describe the illicit medical underground in New York City...
Any thoughts on different presidents in the ATL? Also, the film alludes to the idea that Canada remained environmentally unharmed compared to the United States. One fan theory claims China and/or Japan was impacted by meteors, in order to explain the changes in demographics for Los Angeles in the movie...
President Thomas C. Lynch (D-CA) is running for re-election in 1972. His platform can be summed up as War that year: War on drugs, War on Pornography, War on Guns, etc. Hopefully that gives you something to work with for the ATL...
Phillip K. Dick Novel mention a Nuclear War that make Earth nearly uninhabitable.
That is very important POD, it let to colonization of Mars and to rise new religion Mercerism.
On Androids
a realistic version of this would be Cloning of suiting person to repopulate Nations after War
That is very important POD, it let to colonization of Mars and to rise new religion Mercerism.
On Androids
a realistic version of this would be Cloning of suiting person to repopulate Nations after War
That could be a great place to begin, but let's see if we can use the real names that were alluded to. Often Dick was alluding to Richard Nixon. This could mean Nixon with the "War on Drugs" in 1970.
Maybe the 1973 Arab-Israeli War completely collapsed, with the Nixon Administration overreaction...
Frequently not always literally. Remember there was the novel Radio Free Albemuth which had President Fremont as essentially, Nixon but more so. Also consider that one of the more subtle themes that critics have picked up on is the idea that various other historical entities like the Roman Empire never really ended. They just continued on in different forms across ATLs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Invasion
But then how do you get the sort of high tech, hyper globalized world you were talking about earlier?
Fair enough, but it would seem fair to guess that based on the year yhat the book was published, the president is either based on Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, or Richard Nixon, all of whom were in the national eye at the time....
Starting in 1976, there wete rumors of cloning in Brazil and Argentina. This would seem to flag an advanced biotechnology sector. Maybe the Dyna-Soar orbital bomber was approved in c. 1962-1968. This would mean that an American presence in space would be present even after a nuclear war. As for the hyper-globalization, consider that a mass migration of Asian residents could be a result of disaster. Maybe the Sino-Soviet border conflict erupted in war in c. 1976,...
Just some ideas...
Almost all of those would fit, although again the challenge is containing the damage enough to not severely impact the growth of technology. You could have *biological* warfare, pollution or even natural blight viruses accounting for some of the changes. Also some of the predictions put forward by the "Zero Growth" crowd in the 1970s would fit. But again that would imply technology just wasn't able to pull off something our "Green revolution" in the ATL.
about Cloning
the Cell nucleus cloning happen first in 1996 with Sheep Dolly
before that there was embryo cloning, here a very early embryo is disjointed in single cells, each start to growing them self into a Embryo.
This technic was discover already in 1970s in combination with In vitro fertilisation and you can have clones in 1977
The Nuclear War
what you need is a atomic conflict who not destroy Civilization, so a Global nuclear is no go for this TL
like Mr_ Bondoc point out the Sino-Soviet border conflict erupted in war is good base for limited nuclear conflict
that include with nuclear winter scenario and we got dark and dirty sky from movie version.
On Space Flight
with Earth ravage from effect of nuclear conflict, Mars become very interesting real-estate
you don't need Dyna-Soar orbital bomber
what you need is very heavy lift rocket to get Colony equipment and colonist to Mars
like Boeing MLLV with payload of 3.5 million lb. or 1587 tons in low orbit.
because the world is already radioaktive contaminated
they could use ORION Nuclear Puls engine with ground launch that bring 8.8 million lb. or 4000 tons in earth orbit.
the Cell nucleus cloning happen first in 1996 with Sheep Dolly
before that there was embryo cloning, here a very early embryo is disjointed in single cells, each start to growing them self into a Embryo.
This technic was discover already in 1970s in combination with In vitro fertilisation and you can have clones in 1977
The Nuclear War
what you need is a atomic conflict who not destroy Civilization, so a Global nuclear is no go for this TL
like Mr_ Bondoc point out the Sino-Soviet border conflict erupted in war is good base for limited nuclear conflict
that include with nuclear winter scenario and we got dark and dirty sky from movie version.
On Space Flight
with Earth ravage from effect of nuclear conflict, Mars become very interesting real-estate
you don't need Dyna-Soar orbital bomber
what you need is very heavy lift rocket to get Colony equipment and colonist to Mars
like Boeing MLLV with payload of 3.5 million lb. or 1587 tons in low orbit.
because the world is already radioaktive contaminated
they could use ORION Nuclear Puls engine with ground launch that bring 8.8 million lb. or 4000 tons in earth orbit.
Good points but I don't see how you get that dramatic of an improvement in genetic engineering with a POD of no later than 1968. Even something more optimistic like the plowshare scenario I don't think can realistically get the job done. I think you would need sort of a "gene race" starting in the 1950s at latest. Also changes to avert the more crackpot ideas like Lysenkoism that wasted a lot of time and resources on complete dead ends in our world. Basically this is less cyberpunk, and more of a bio-punk ATL.
intrinsic what i mention in post 14# is actually Reproductive technology, not genetic engineering in principle.
but you could produce simpler biological version "Replicants", not the genetic engineered biodroid from Movie or the high tech androids from Novel.
That is very complex technology still not perfected and Artificial Intelligence research is to intercalate.
on flying Cars
in 1957 the US army wanted flying Air-Jeeps
Several company build working Prototype
Piasecki (Model 59) VZ-8P Airgeep
but begin 1960s the Pentagon declared "Flying Jeep concept was unsuitable for the modern battlefield", and concentrated on the development of conventional helicopters.
had they not, the Air-jeep could have put in service in US Military, later also on the Civilian market as Aircar. at last Piasecki had that plan.
Some other bits that were constantly in the background was the fact that some of the technology didn't move as quickly. Consider that they still had payphone. While it is true that the phones had visual capability, it could be a sign that cellular phones didn't takeoff....
That I can definitely buy. Although with the flying cars that would require earlier automation to keep them from crashing into everything...
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/5-reasons-you-dont-want-flying-car.htm#page=1
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/5-reasons-you-dont-want-flying-car.htm#page=1
Also consider that some defunct companies somehow thrived in the ATL, you had Pan-Am and Atari featured prominently in the film.
As for the different religions, I am guessing that they are seen as the backlash to traditional religion caused by the nuclear war. Consider how 9/11 changed many people's thoughts on Islam and Christianity across the globe,....
True but in retrospect the fact that they're *visual* pay phones is what really doesn't make sense. I could buy landlines still being a thing if the infrastructure for cell phones has been damaged by disaster or is otherwise unreliable. Plenty of rural areas in our U.S. are still suffering from dead zones and full of people that can't actually get anything better than dial up internet even now....