John Scalzi writes about why Hollywood always gets the future wrong and offers several examples. The upshot is that science fiction is not about the future, but is about the present. In other words, if you are looking at a science fiction movie from 20 years ago that is supposedly set in 2010 then don't be surprised that the movie looks more like the time it was made than today.

I wonder if Scalzi saw this list of the sci-fi years that weren't. It's a collection of films that were set in futures that are now past. For example, Escape from New York was set in 1988. Twenty-two years later, New York has yet to be transformed into a penal colony.

One of the films mentioned is Blade Runner, which is actually set in 2026. Some of the events portrayed could come to pass, butw e've haven't returned to the moon since 1972 so the offworld colonies of that movie are looking highly doubtful.

Someone recently sent me a link to this letter from Philip K. Dick that recounts his reaction to his first exposure to the movie that was based on the book he wrote, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

While we're second-guessing movies, how about this follow-up list from Wired of 10 unanswered geeky questions about science fiction movies?

One question not asked in that list, but answered here, is why does HAL sing Daisy Bell in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of those movies that clearly got it wrong when predicting the future.

Once you've pondered those, head over to this site to stream some good, old-fashioned sci-fi B movies.

The news that Star Trek veteran Brannon Braga has cut a deal with Fox to create new shows has some fans buzzing.

Braga has his supporters in Trekdom,but a lot of fans feel that the show lost its direction under his watch so they are predictable in their disdain for the announcement.

There are no details about whether the deal is to create science fiction shows, but if you read between the lines it seems that is the direction they are headed.

Another TV series which is in development is an adaptation of Gordon Dickson's Dorsai books. There are no specifics on the production company's website about where the show would actually air, but it looks like they're pitching it to SyFy.

An even better basis for a TV show would be one derived from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic books. Director Matthew Vaughn has said he'd like to create such a show for HBO, but I think the quote from him is more wishful thinking than anything.

Undersea science fiction seems to go in and out of fashion. I've always had a soft spot for it, perhaps because it's an underappreciated niche in the genre. Series that I am fond of are the Undersea books by Jack Williamson's and Frederik Pohl as well as Peter Watts Rifters books.

I'm not the only one who likes these books, but if they feature talking dolphins, then count out this reader who absolutely hates the concept of intelligent dolphins. He offers a list of offending examples which he calls quasi-comprehensive, yet doesn't include as famous a series as the Uplift books by David Brin which features spaceships piloted by dolpin astronauts. Or would they be more properly called cetaceonauts?

Scientists and science fiction writers like to wonder whether life exists in extreme environments in the icy waters beneath the surface of outer moons of our solar system such as Europa or Enceladus, but they can find examples much closer to home. Just the other day, researchers found shrimp and squid living 600 feet below Antarctic ice sheets in a region where they expected to find little more than microbes yet these higher life forms were thriving.

It just goes to show you that our own undersea world is as mysterious to us as outer space and is an excellent theme for science fiction writers.

If you believe some observers, the recent spate of cancellations of genre shows on TV is proof that the genre is dying out on television, but shows are always being cancelled and there are always new ones to replace them. This article looks at some of the genre shows that are in the pipeline.

Okay, maybe upon closer examination calling many of those shows science fiction is a stretch, but there are clearly some that qualify.

The news isn't all bad for fans of science fiction on the boob tube. Fringe has been renewed for another season and there are even new episodes of Futurama on the way.

And fans of Doctor Who are salivating at the prospect that Neil Gaiman will be writing an episode for the seminal series.

Scientists have been scanning the heavens for signs of alien life for 50 years now and there's no sign that anyone is out there. Some are starting to wonder if it is a waste of time while supporters say we've only begun to search a tiny fraction of the universe.

The guy who started it all, Frank Drake, is still around and has ambitious plans to continue his mission to seek out new life and civilizations, no matter how quixotic it might seem.

Drake, and others, say that one of the reasons we may not be detecting any radio signals and why no one may detect ours is that we're gradually switching over to digital forms of communication which don't propagate into outer space.

Our best bet for finding life, albeit not of the intelligent variety, remains in our own solar system. The usual suspects for such discoveries are Mars, Titan and Europa, but a new candidate is getting some attention and that's Saturn's moon Enceladus. Sounds like a world that's ready for the Ben Bova treatment!

Michael Moorcock is one science fiction writer who is no stranger to music, having had an association with the pyschedelic band Hawkwind in the 1960s. He recently offered a list of the music he listens to while writing and it is as eclectic as his own stories.

There are other examples of music and science fiction crossing over. IO9 wrote recently about the sort of science-fiction themed background music that was penned in the 60s and 70s that made its way into countless TV shows and movies. It was avante-garde stuff then and it almost sounds contemporary today.

Even today, science fiction continues to inspire musicians. like this band which cites The Prisoner as its biggest influence.

On that note, I'll sign off with this link to an online Prisoner graphic novel that was created to coincide with the recent AMC remake.

Authors who support giving away free, electronic copies of their books have said that it helps generate sales of physical copies of their books and now there's a study that supports that view, although it's interesting to note that the study found that when science-fiction publisher Tor gave away books, it actually hurt sales.

I've always said that once electronic book readers become more popular and easier to use, that giveaway model is going to collapse. I suspect those science-fiction readers are early adopters of book-reading devices and are more than content to have electronic versions of books over physical copies. The aforementioned article theorized that the Tor giveaways were not successful because the electronic books were only given away for a short period of time and it wasn't long enough to have an effect on book sales.

Science fiction author Ben Bova once wrote a novel predicting the electronic book market. He points out that it was meant to be a satire of the publishing industry at the time he wrote it, but is amazed at how prophetic he was.

Just to give you an idea of how electronic books are hitting a tipping point, there are now more e-book apps for the Apple iPhone than there are games.

Meanwhile, Samsung has entered the e-book reader fray with its own device and it has partnered with Barnes & Noble in the U.S. in an effort to help sell it.

There's no word if it will be available here in Canada, but if the government ever lifted its draconian Canadian ownership rules for bookstores, we might have B&N stores here and some actual competition.

There is no shortage of online communities for science fiction fans, but the folks behind MyOuterSpace.com think that the star power of Captain Kirk can make them stand out from the crowd.

Perhaps it will, but it's a crowded field and I know that I'm not interested in "friending" William Shatner. I don't know how many people will be siphoned away from such sites as Facebook or MySpace, but I'm sure some will be.

Starting an online community takes a lot of work, but technical know-how is not the biggest barrier to entry. With network-building sites like Ning, you can very quickly create a social network of your own centred on any topic like the International Space Art Network did.

The internet is allowing all sorts of fan communities to thrive and we are seeing some fascinating social experiments, such as this attempt to  create a fan-funded science fiction film.

I'm sure James Cameron is bummed out that his movie Avatar didn't win an Oscar last night, but he's probably more annoyed at the steady stream of people who want to sue him for allegedly stealing their ideas for the script.

I suppose the sheer number of such allegations is proof that the plot is far from original and possibly one of the reasons it didn't grab the big prize, although it did get some recognition with wins for technical categories at the Academy Awards.

The latest person to sue Cameron is a Vancouver restaurateur who sent his script to several movie studios, including Cameron's.

Someone in China also took Cameron to court for the same reason, but the court overturned the lawsuit. I'm sure we'll see even more suits as the movie continues to rake in the dough.

As for the Avatar sequel, don't call it Avatar 2, says Cameron. For reasons that are obvious to anyone who has seen the movie, the word avatar no longer makes sense in a follow-up story.

Cameron's next project is to find a director for a remake he's written of the classic 60s film, Fantastic Voyage. It will be cool if that one is filmed in 3-D.

Even if neither Avatar or District 9 win the Academy Award for best picture, the one thing their nomination has done is to elevate the profile of science fiction among mainstream movie-goers.

That's got to be a good thing as it means even more science fiction movies will get made. The hope is that they will be as high quality as Avatar and District 9. Don't be worried that Hollywood is unleashing a Space Invaders movie on us soon. They'll always be crap like that.

It's possible that more mainstream movie directors might give their hand at helming science fiction films in coming months and years. Of course, that's nothing new. There have been other examples of big-name directors who have made sci-fi, although their success has been mixed.

As Oscar night approaches, it seems less likely that Avatar will win the big prize as there has been a torrent of backlash against the film. This article is a prime example. Considering the weird voting mechanism for this year's movie, there's a chance that a dark horse like District 9 could end up winning it, despite the steep odds.

And if you were wondering why the Na'Vi women have boobs, James Cameron explained it to a journalist who asked. It's because the audience for the movie is human. Duh.