Famous, Famous, Fictional: Difference between revisions

When several examples of something are being listed in [[Speculative Fiction]], a couple of them will be from our time (or timeline if it's [[Alternate History]]), and the final one will be one from the future (or post-divergence [[Alternate History]]).

The most common variant is to list famous scientists, [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]], Kepler, [[Dichter and Denker|Heisenberg]], [[Leonardo Dada Vinci|Da VinciLeonardo]] being quite popular, followed, finally, by a scientist from the future. Occasionally their inventions are also listed: Newton's mechanics, Einstein's relativity, [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Zefram Cochrane]]'s warp drive.

Usually the trope serves only to remind us that it is, in fact, the future and people haven't stopped thinking and discovering things in between our time and story's setting. It would be odd if there hasn't been any new discoveries or geniuses worth mentioning, especially if the story involves something like [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]. When someone or something we already know is used as such, then author is just making a point: say, if [[Stephen Hawking|Hawking]] is mentioned, that means people of the future in that verse think he is a genius equal to Newton and Einstein, meaning that readers also should.

'''Extremely''' prone to [[Rule of Three]] -- meaning—meaning we go far enough to the future to see a new example but not far enough to not remember those we know currently. It is much harder to find an example which doesn't follow a "present, present, future" (or for added symbolism, "past, present, future") scheme. When there is a long list of examples, expect a third of them to be from the future. Particularly when the work is from the 1950s or 1960s, the third future example will often have a East Asian (or less commonly African or Indian) name, indicative of the the idea that these parts of the world would have a bigger part to play in the future in what at the time were still considered mostly European- and American-dominated fields like the sciences.

A variation occurs when it's alternate reality: say, when someone mentions [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Bonaparte]] and [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]] as world dominators who failed, it means that in this reality the changing event is somewhere between mid XVII and early XX, which made Stalin and not [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] start [[WWII]].

* ''[[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey|Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey]]'' opens with Rufus bringing important historical figures to the future as guest lecturers for his class, including historical figures from [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].

{{quote| '''Centauri:''' Alex! Alex! You're walking away from history! History, Alex! Did Chris Columbus stay home? Nooooo. What if the Wright Brothers thought that only birds should fly? And did Galoka think that the Ulus were too ugly to save? <br />

'''Alex:''' Who's Galoka?<br />

{{quote| '''Charles Hatton:''' Today you stood shoulder to shoulder with Columbus discovering America. Armstrong stepping on the moon, Brubaker landing on Mars.}}

* An example that may not even be found anymore, but when the ''[[Starship Troopers (Filmfilm)|Starship Troopers]]'' film was released, the accompanying website which contained a lot of character bios and historical information listed the Mobile Infantry alongside historically [[Elites Are More Glamorous|prestigious military units]] such as [[The Knights Templar]], [[Poles With Poleaxes|the Winged Hussars]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and the Navy Seals]].

* It happens a lot in ''[[Ender's Game]]'' and ''Speaker For The Dead''.

* In [[David Brin]]'s ''[[Uplift]]'' saga, it is mentioned that, as any animal may possibly become intelligent at some point in the future, making species extinct is a serious crime in galaxy, akin to genocide. Humanity managed to clear up their biology and history textbooks to prevent aliens from knowing what they did to lamantines, dodos and ''orang-outangs''.

* ''[[This Perfect Day]]'' by Ira Levin has a nursery rhyme paying tribute to the four people who are considered the spiritual forefathers of the society in which the book is set. The pattern of the rhyme requires four names, so there's two past people and two future people:

{{quote| Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei <br />

* Used a few times in works by [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]:

* In the third ''[[War Against the Chtorr]]'' book by David Gerrold, "The screams got louder, sounding like Auschwitz, Hiroshima or Show Low"

* There's a bit in a ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' novel, where Lister realised he's returned to Earth when he sees Mount Rushmore. The faces are Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and [[Rushmore Refacement|"possibly America's greatest President, Elaine Salinger"]].

* From the ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' universe:

** ''[[Star Trek II: theThe Wrath of Khan (Film)|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' was formerly the [[Trope Namer]].

{{quote| '''David:''' Well, don't have kittens. Genesis is going to work. They'll remember you in one breath with Newton, Einstein, Surak. }}

** ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "Whom Gods Destroy".

{{quote| '''Garth:''' All the others before me have failed. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan, Krotus! All of them are dust! But I will triumph! I will make the ultimate conquest! }}

** An inversion on ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' occurs in the original series episode "The Savage Curtain," where a battle between good and evil has "good" represented by Vulcan sage Surak, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and [[Abraham Lincoln]]. Evil, in turn, is represented by future warlord Colonel Green, [[Mad Scientist]] Zora, the Klingon warrior Kahless, and [[Genghis Khan]].

** The novels get in on this too. From the [[Star Trek Deep Space Nine Relaunch]]: "He had learned all he could about Earth's eminent explorers -- Leif Eriksson, Ferdinand Magellan, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Neil Armstrong, [[Star Trek: Enterprise (TV)|Jonathan Archer]]..."

** In one episode of [[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Next Generation]], Picard lists (only) two infamous men in history: [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Star Trek II: theThe Wrath of Khan (Film)|Khan Singh]].

** In another [[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|TNG]] episode Picard mentions [[World War II|Pearl Harbor]] and [[Noodle Incident|Station Salem One]] as stages for bloody preambles to war.

** An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', "The Muse", an alien named Onaya lists artists she's "influenced" over the centuries such as Catullus, [[John Keats]], and Phineas Tarbolde. This is also a [[Continuity Nod]] since Tarbolde was mentioned in an episode of the original series.

** Also from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', in "If Wishes Were Horses", Benjamin and Jake Sisko play holographic baseball with all the greats, like Tris Speaker, Ted Williams, and Buck Bokai.

** In the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "Court Martial", [[Simple Country Lawyer]] Samuel Cogley invokes [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]], the Codes of Hammarubi and [[Byzantine Empire|Justinian]], the [[Magna Carta]], the U.S. [[Constitution]], the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies, and the Statutes of Alpha III.

{{quote| '''Sheridan''': When we've had wars back home sometimes one side would leave a few areas of enemy territory undamaged. That way you'd get maximum results when you finally hit them with something big. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, San Diego...}}

* * This is #5 of ''[[Cracked (Website).com|Cracked]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_17392_6-sci-fi-movie-conventions-that-need-to-die.html 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die)], the example being "Newton, Einstein, [[Star Trek II: theThe Wrath of Khan (Film)|Sulak]]".

** Prof. Farnsworth lists his influences as Leonardo Da Vinci, Copernicus, Euclid and Braino.

[[Category:Famous, Famous, Fictional]]