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The dream-like photography in the 2005 film "The Girl from Monday" is anchored in real-world locations in Manhattan and Jersey City.

The modern science-fiction film is synonymous with CGI wizardry, clever gadgets, and elaborate sets. While those are some of our favorite things, it's all too easy to lose sight of the human story among the whooshing, 'sploding, and transforming.

One way to focus on the people is to place them in an all-too-familiar future that looks a lot like now. There's a fascinating strand of sci-fi cinema that does just that, with auteurs such as Traffaut, Godard, and Kubrick creating the future by filming in real locations.

Science fiction has a slippery definition, but for this article Robert Heinlein's definition is spot on: "realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present." Architecture provides suitably futuristic locations for many sci-fi films: the famous Bradbury Building at 304 South Broadway, Los Angeles, is an atmospheric location for Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner," while the dramatic Dallas City Hall, at 1500 Marilla, acted as the headquarters of evil corporation OCP in RoboCop.

Some films use such locations more extensively, both to evoke an unfamiliar future and to connect the themes of the film with the world we live in. The effect is often disconcerting and lends itself to the dystopic. We've highlighted the films that deliberately make as much use of existing buildings as possible.

Read more of The future is now: Sci-fi films in real locations at Crave UK.

On Steven Spielberg's rumored social network, maybe you can discuss whether that ghost was really a ghost or just the creepy old caretaker from the abandoned amusement park.

(Credit: Hanna-Barbera)

Who wants to believe? TechCrunch reported Monday night that Steven Spielberg is developing a new social network where people can talk about their encounters with the paranormal and extraterrestrial.

Spielberg, creator of sci-fi classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Men in Black, and the War of the Worlds remake a few years ago, is reportedly himself a believer in paranormal phenomena. In creating a social network for fellow enthusiasts as well as people who claim to have encountered the otherworldly, Spielberg is tapping into a lifelong passion.

But its exact ties to tech and entertainment are unclear. "The project may have originally been associated with Yahoo but the project was killed off before launch," TechCrunch's Michael Arrington wrote. "But if our sources are right, the idea has lived on and a team in Los Angeles is working to launch it in the next few months."

Here's another theory: What if this is in conjunction with some kind of upcoming Spielberg project, a sort of uber-viral meta-campaign along the lines of the HBO Voyeur Project? (Whatever happened to that, anyway?)

Popular Mechanics has compiled a lovingly researched gallery of all the Terminator models, from the original Schwarzenegger model to the present-day, and even speculating into the future of the television and film series. Carefully cataloged according to model number, chronological sequence, nanoscale composition, special skills, and fighting techniques, as well as fairly sophisticated cross-references to historical works of science fiction, this might go down as the definitive listing.

Ah, it all makes me nostalgic...not.

As much as I loved the first two movies back in the day, as much as I played the video game, I just can't get excited about the new Terminator series on TV. It's because my beliefs about the future are so deeply inhabited by Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck, Adama, and No. 6 that the Sarah Connor scenario seems like...science fiction.

But for those of you who remain true to the cause, which one would win in a fight? Check out the exhaustively researched photos at Popular Mechanics and see if they stack up against your picks: The toughest, smartest, best Terminators of all time

"Bree" is no more.

In the "season finale" of the Web series "Lonelygirl15," which was broadcast in a well-publicized event on Friday on the MySpaceTV platform, the cute teenage protagonist met her death at the hands of a religious cult's sacrifice. A dramatic, soap-opera worthy exit indeed--especially considering that Lonelygirl15's videos were mundane enough at first to fool scores of viewers into thinking they were the real Webcam diaries of a flesh-and-blood teenager.

Lonelygirl15 was exposed as an actress last September, but the video series continued and grew increasingly elaborate. Leading lady Jessica Rose, 20, has since gone on to several movie roles and a regular spot on the ABC Family Channel sitcom Greek, but had continued to play Bree in the meantime.

The video series was occasionally maligned for being cheesy and melodramatic, but at the same time, the production team's tactics--guerrilla filming style, use of multiple platforms and social-networking sites, and interaction with a highly engaged viewer community--was also hailed as an influential step in the evolution of Internet video fiction. Unfortunately for the team behind Lonelygirl15, it may be somewhat telling that most people seem to have learned about Bree's death from blog posts on Monday--it didn't exactly create an online uproar outside of the series' loyal viewer community (some of whom refer to it as "Lonelycrack" on the official Web site). But even though Bree's out, it's apparently not the end of Lonelygirl. A British spinoff, "KateModern," has already started, and there's a chance that future Lonelygirls may appear as well. The final episode, after all, alluded to more young girls being pursued by the same cult. We've e-mailed representatives from the series' small production company and will update this post if they comment.

Fake Steve Jobs unmasked, and now this? What a weekend.

UPDATE (7:34 PM PT): A correction was made to this post. Greek is on ABC Family, not the Disney Channel.

I was reading an article the other day that mentioned Neal Stephenson's ground-breaking novel, Snow Crash, and I started thinking that surely, a lot of science fiction has at least partially inspired some of the technology we use every day.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash inspired 3D virtual worlds

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So I got to the office and started researching sci-fi that had a hand in future technology or science. And, sure enough. There's a ton of it.

The result? My package, The sci-fi effect on high tech, which ran on CNET News.com on Friday.

In the package, I discuss the technology inspired by Snow Crash, as well as William Gibson's Neuromancer, Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Minority Report, and several others.

But now, we want to hear from you. We'd love to hear other examples of great sci-fi that inspired technology or science or other innovation. So please post your ideas into TalkBack. And please, know when you do that I didn't omit your favorite example because I don't care. We had a limited amount of space, and besides, I wanted to give you the chance to speak up yourself.

(Credit: Thingamababy.com)

An e-mail exchange with another Craver yesterday, for one reason or another, led to my embarrassing revelation that photos exist of me at a very young age wearing a pair of big, fake fennec fox ears. It's embarrassing, yes, but after reading this post on Geekologie I realized that things could be much, much worse. The poor little munchkin in this photo will have to deal for the rest of his or her life with the fact that there exists visual evidence that he or she used to get pushed around in a Star Wars stroller. To be more specific, an AT-AT Imperial Walker stroller.

You (thankfully) can't buy this piece of kiddie fandom anywhere; it was apparently modded specifically for the Star Wars Celebration IV convention in Los Angeles last month. And, I admit, whoever did the modding sure did make it resemble one of those AT-ATs. But seriously. Think about the baby, and I don't mean "think about the possibility that putting him in an Imperial-themed stroller will make him turn out evil." I'm talking social acceptance here. Wait till this picture surfaces when the kid's in junior high!

Also note the extensive tattoos on the dude pushing the stroller. Something tells me there are probably some Jedi symbols in there. Hey, maybe it's the same guy with the X-wing mailbox.

In effort to broaden its thinking about terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security is tapping into the thinking of a group of science fiction authors called Sigma, according to USA Today.

"We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science fiction writers clearly inform the debate," said department spokesman Christopher Kelly.

Science fiction authors are often prone to flights of extreme fancy, but they can be good prognosticators. Indeed, in the novel Footfall, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the government assembles a group of science fiction writers to seek their counsel about an alien invasion. Pournelle and Niven are in the group.

According to USA Today, author Greg Bear said the group brainstorms about methods of attack and prevention as well as the governmental and social responses to attacks.

Sigma's motto is "science fiction in the national interest," and authors must have a doctorate in a technical field to join.

A screenshot from 'Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager

(Credit: Blame Society Productions)

We've got a gallery over at CNET News.com of some of our favorite 'Star Wars' pop culture homages over the past few decades, from Spaceballs to Lost. In case you stepped in late, today's the 30th anniversary of the original A New Hope release--seriously, has it really been that long? Talk about timeless.

Click here to see the rest of the gallery.

P.S.: What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?