29 Comments

Off the top of my head I can’t think of a nano or movie but your post did make me think of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage one of whose stars was the ever lovely Raquel Welch. It was about miniaturizing a team of doctors/scientists and injecting them into the human beings bloodstream to travel to the brain and fix a blood clot. It’s one of my favorite sci-fi movies from my childhood.

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Fantastic Voyage is an excellent callout, Donna! I was on the fence about mentioning it, but I felt like it was more important to relate my own personal history/relationship with nanotech, and the piece was starting to get a little long.

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Oops...not nano or...nanobot

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Nov 10, 2023
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Such a cool way to encourage imagination.

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I remember that at Disneyland also-it was so cool!

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Michael Crichton book Prey. Swarms of nanobots as humanoids.

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I'm going to go low here and say that the first time I ever heard of Feynman was on Big Bang Theory. LOL

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It's never too late to get into Feynman! Let me know if you're interested in reading or watching more of him.

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Nanotechnology has always fascinated me, and when you think about it we have natural bio-nanotech of sorts all over our bodies in the form microbes.

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Absolutely. We're just copying nature, once again!

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I loved it, yes go watch it!

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Thanks! I feel obligated, given that my gym shares the same name (Revolution BJJ).

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If I remember correctly, Michael Crichton's novel "Prey" involved a nanobot swarm. Unfortunately it went wild as the researchers working with it lost control and people died. I listened to the audiobook and yipes. That was chilling.

On the other side, the most recent nanotech in the movies I can think of is Iron Man in Infinity War battling the Black Order, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian in the first instance, Thanos himself afterwards.

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Great callouts, Michael. I really enjoy seeing some of the more positive stuff in media (as opposed to the doom and gloom, which is... let's face it: entertaining as hell)!

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This is true, and I admit, I do enjoy a good disaster movie; that said, it's also fun watching the good guys win once in a while. (and I may have seen Infinity War a few times, which is why that example leapt to mind.

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In fairness, all those Marvel movies were incredible. I felt like all those nerd-years were vindicated!

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YES. (and I'm more of a Batman guy anyway, but they really were!)

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How would you rank the live-action Batmans over time? or maybe that's something to expand into a piece. I feel like it would be easy to nerd out over this for a while.

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Ooh, that's a tough question. First off, one has to acknowledge the genius of the late Kevin Conroy of the animated series even before we get to the live action; I mean, he developed the whole different-voice trope for Bruce and the Bat in the beginning, and he was so brilliant at the work. Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker could stand up against any and all of the live-action movies, no question.

As to the live-action, though, and I admit I'm behind as I haven't seen the Affleck or Pattinson portrayals in full yet, so far I love the Nolan trilogy. I'm not sure if I could articulate why, but I particularly like The Dark Knight Rises. Maybe because of the allusions to A Tale of Two Cities, I don't know. But in any event, after that, I think Keaton did a good job under the circumstances, Val Kilmer less so, and I don't like to acknowledge that Batman and Robin exists.

I have seen a clip of Ben Affleck as Batman, briefly, and judging by that one clip, he has the glare down. It's the moment when he's sheltering the child from debris during the battle in Metropolis during the events of Man of Steel, and he looks up towards where Superman and Zod are fighting, and he has the "I am vengeance, I am the night" glare. That's key for me.

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Revolution on NBC was about nanobots that decide to deny humans electricity, forcing them to live with mid-19th century technology.

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Nice one! Have you seen it/would you recommend?

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Hey Andrew, I am publishing serial fiction here on Substack, and while the story isn’t pure sci-fi, the still to be written last part has a very nanite twist and is very different from the usual destructive cliche’s...would love to pick your brain on how ‘realistic’ my ideas are. Would you be in for some collaboration?

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Hey Bertus! I'm not sure how much help I can be, but if you can shoot me an email, let's talk.

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Thanks, I’ll send you a short version of the idea....

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My brain functions fine without nanobots. [Disclaimer: this was typed by a nanobot.] I also like Feynman. Unique mind. As for that horrid remake of the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, the nanobot won't let me comment.

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Nov 10, 2023
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Very good callout, and this one came up when I was doing research earlier (mainly just to be sure I got my facts straight). I was on the fence about including it, like with Fantastic Voyage and even Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. All three of these were amazing at the time.

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