Mystery Tiles From Around the World

puppetman writes "The Kansas City Star has an interesting story about Toynbee Tiles. They show up embedded in streets, and can be found in the US (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Aberdeen, Edgewood, Washington, etc), Chile, Argentina and Brazil. They are made of "epoxy or super hard plastic that's actually inlaid in the asphalt itself." The tiles invariably state, "Toynbee Ideas in Kubrick's 2001 Resurrect Dead On Planet Jupiter". Sometimes there are secondary tiles that request people make more while others are of a more paranoid slant. Toynbee was a religious historian who believed that "well-being of a civilization depends on its ability to respond successfully to challenges, human and environmental". There is even a Ray Bradbury book, The Toynbee Convector. Toynbee.net has a link to a Usenet posting where someone ask's Kubrick's daughter if the man himself knew of the tiles. To date, the origin of the tiles are a mystery. Any /.'ers able to provide the location of additional tiles, or perhaps clues for solving the mystery?"

Comments

Interesting.

[Randolpho]

So, where are all the tiles? Who knows, but it sounds like a fun thing to geocache for. :)

Re:Interesting.

[Ligur]

here you go:
Geocache

I've seen some of those

[JCCyC]

But only in the early 80's. Since the quality and durability of pavement here in Brazil is approximately the same as chicken crap, streets get paved and repaved every decade or so. They're long gone.

a big AAAAAHHHHHH

[johnpaul191]

i have seen those here, in Philadelphia, for a long time (i guess since the 80's?) and kind of like the author i never understood them, but once the light turned green, i got on my way and totally forgot about them.

i honestly could not tell you where they are, but after seeing the picture it came back. i don't remember what the local ones say but the style of text in the same and the size of the tiles and whatnot.

for people in Philly, i am 99% sure there is one in a crosswalk on South street maybe around 4th and south? i guess when the /. effect wears off you can look up your town's documented tiles.

This suggests it's the old guy

[siskbc]

If no more of these are appearing, maybe it is the old (now dead) guy in the article. He published an article about resurrecting dead on Jupiter, and he lived in philly where these first appeared.