2013-48674
STS-THY
Reaction Paper: Futurama
Futurama,
for me, is one of the best sci-fi cartoons (I consider cartoons as animated
series different from anime :P). As a usual sci-fi cartoon, Futurama portrayed one of the most common form of science fiction, time travelling and the futuristic setting from its maker’s mind. It started
with its very first episode, the Space Pilot 3000, where Fry froze in a
cryogenic tube and was defrosted a thousand years later.
This is
actually the first time I’ve really pondered about this episode of Futurama,
especially it’s “time travelling” concept. Was it really time travelling? Yes,
Futurama dealt with time-travelling within its general plot but for me, time
travelling was not portrayed in this episode rather it was mixed cryogenics and
biotechnology. In this episode, this mixed fields of science lead to the
futuristic technology of preserving bodies “and lives” of organisms for a long
period of time, and in this episode, a thousand years. This technology is definitely different from
what we believe to be time travelling, which is moving between different points
in time, to the past or to the future or warping time.
The
technology portrayed in this episode is known as the cryopreservation. This
technology is actually being used right now, mostly in the field of medicine. Cryopreservation
of our time, though, is still not as advance as portrayed in the pilot episode.
Right now, we could only preserve some tissues or cell types.
The
futuristic setting of Futurama proved futuristic science and technology was
involved. It has always been fascinating to the little me how the creators
viewed future. In this case, Matt Groening viewed future as having us live in
an extremely advanced / futuristic metropolis (New New York’s setting) with
robots / androids, aliens, animals and fellow humans, advanced science and
technology portrayed in the flying vehicles, spaceships, mutated animals, Bender,
means of transportation, architecture of the buildings and such.
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