May the Fourth Influences Reading and Technology
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day by showing where science fiction and technology intersect
Chattanooga, TN – While some might head in to this weekend excited to celebrate Mexican Independence Day and spend time at their favorite taco place, there’s another holiday that we here at Tech Byte didn’t want to overlook. Widely known as May the Fourth or Star Wars day, this year it will also be free comic book day. We are going to make the jump to hyperspace today and see where science fiction and technology have crossed paths.
Science fiction novels as old as the 1930s had space pirates fighting with cold plasma swords. The idea of this technology would take shape in the 1950s when the Plasma Torch and Plasma cutter were invented. This idea that everyone our age dreamed of wouldn’t make its big screen debut until the late 70s.
Unfortunately for everyone my age, this technology doesn’t exist in real life but there is a professor at Texas A&M that believes this science fiction novelty item could be achieved.
Since you can’t have a REAL light saber, our friends at Vaders Sabers loaned us a Dark Saber Replica and it is a close to the real thing as you can get. It has LED lights in the blade, it sounds exactly like they do in that galaxy far, far away and you can even make the blaster deflect sound. You can also change the sounds, colors, and languages. It comes with a flash drive to connect to a PC for any software updates or anything else. The handle is solid metal so this is the ultimate piece for a collector or a cosplayer that needs a piece as close to the real thing as you can get.
While many people celebrate the worlds most beloved science fiction saga, May the Fourth is also known as Free Comic Day. This idea was launched in 2002 in order to get comics in the hands of people and encourage them to read. Comic books allow people to read between the lines, draw conclusions and can help young children learn inference by studying the pictures.
According to local business owner Henry Flood of Epikos Comics and Games “books like comics let kids explore genres and learn what they lave and that they may actually like the process of reading. Hopefully when they branch out in to more text-heavy narratives they do so with enthusiasm.”
You can join the numerous celebrities that read comics as well as former presidents that enjoy. “You get to read some amazing new stories that are being tested a lot of times on Free Comic Day. Then you know I think it’s more for than just for us though,” says Flood. “You think about it’s for the next generation to come through and pick up something and read. I’ve always said you know reading leads to imagination. Imagination leads to the next inventions like these Sabers and everything that that science fiction brings along with it.”
Science fiction has influenced technology we use every day in numerous ways that you may not even realize. Henry tells us “You know you have your tricorder, that is our communication devices like cell phones. Sick Bay on a lot of the naval ships and stuff now represent what sick bay looked like on Star Trek right? Unfortunately we don’t have you know flying ships like the X-Wing and Tie fighters yet and I don’t think that’s in our lifetime unfortunately. Also like your self-driving cars that that’s not quite completely perfected yet but we’re getting really close to it which reminds me a lot of like the Jetson’s. We’re not floating just yet but you know you got yourself driving cars that’s coming out of Science Fiction stuff.”
No matter how you celebrate May the Fourth, you can trust Vaders Sabers to make sure you look the part. Also make sure to take your family out to your local comic shop and help get them interested in reading and using their imagination. You just never know what might inspire the next great movie, comic, or the next invention that might change the world.
