Originally posted by nimbus006
Read "Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku.It's a great book that goes into detail regarding many of the subjects being discussed here.
Most of the advancements portrayed in these movies (Star Trek, Star Wars etc...) don't break the laws of Physics, and therefore aren't impossible to achieve.
However, as someone already pointed out, by the time humans can attain said technology and the energy required to produce it, we will be FAR removed from this planet.
True, a lot of the stuff mentioned in Star Trek/Wars is theoretically possible, but the idea of controlling the length of a light beam: impossible. You can't controll light like that, the "saber" would need a cut of point at the top, rendering it useless as a sword, since swords stab...