Futurama: On Future and Science

By: Langsa Tuguinay, 2013-62888

           Futurama, an American adult animated science sitcom created by Matt Groening, was first aired on March 28, 1996 on Fox. Its first episode, "Space Pilot 3000" was about a pizza delivery boy named Philip Fry who fell into an open cryonic tube while on duty and was frozen for a hundred years. One century later, he is defrosted and awakes into a "new" New York City where everything appears to be more technological and high-tech.

              While watching this episode, I would say that their take on the future and science is pretty much clear. This episode shows the viewers a more industrialized prospect of the future where life is made much easier by machines and where people could befriend robots and where robots could experience emotions. This case is seen when Philip Fry made friends with Bender, a suicidal robot. Another thing is, this episode shows the viewers a future where chips can now be the determinant of someone's career. This can imply that a person can instantly have the profession he/she want to so long as the right chip is implanted in him/her.

               Moving on, I should also say that this episode has tackled the idea of time travelling pretty well. This is because the "machine" that they used is believably a "could-be" time machine. However, one thing that they missed about this idea is that time travelling should not involve a normal rate of time. In this episode's case, it is seen that Philip Fry was trapped in the tube for a 100 years and they have also added the things that happened in that span of 100 years. Isn't it that hypothetically, things that happens when a person time travels is that the traveler does not get to experience the intervening period? I guess this movie has left out this particular issue.
               To wrap it up, I enjoyed watching the first episode of Futurama. Honestly, when I came home after our STS class,  I watched some of the episodes from its first season. That;s how interess