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Tales of the Future Past
atlacatl writes "One of the coolest sites I've been to: Tales of the Future Past -
It tells the story (In pictures) of the predictions of the new millenium, early in the 20th century. I had forgotten the web was actually fun and interesting - use at your own risk."
I had forgotten the web was fun and interesting
/. will do that to you.
Hanging out at
"In the future, far too many people will make posts with jokes about the Slashdot Effect."
This sig is only here so people stop skipping the last lines of my posts.
This is one of the great things about digging through old stacks of National Geo. Especially issues from the '50s and earlier. My Grandmother had tons of them and I would sit for hours looking at the diagrams of the moon base that was going to have been built by the '80s.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
So, settle on you jetpack, hitch up you blaster, and tune in the videotron as we tour Future Past!
Dig that futuristic spelling!
> STILL no flying cars
I dunno. Those SUVs get some pretty decent air when the roll over.
It's always interesting to analyze predictions of the future (made in the past) and see how reality differs. There's usually some assumption that seemed to make sense at the time, but turned out to be wrong over time. Then look at our current predictions about the future and ask whether we're still making those assumptions, or whether we're making different, newer assumptions that will turn out to be equally wrong. Excellent reality check.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
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There is actually a travelling smithsonian exhibit going across the country to smaller communities on this ery subject. You read read about it here, it is currently in Rexburg, Idaho.
Pffft. "...looking at the diagrams of the moon base..."
C'mon admit it, you were ogling the african girls in their native state of undress.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
...David Sarnoff, RCA President, Predicts "Television will Carry the Mail".
Actually he wasn't too far off, eh?
Lets see what don't we have. Flying cars? Yup got those just need some obscene amount of cash + piolts lisecense to get one. http://www.moller.com/skycar/ Hover boards? Got those too,although their more surf board than skate board sized, and with a large engine hanging on the back. Still not cheap. http://www.futurehorizons.net/hoverboard.htm Thos cool screens that take up the whole wall. Got those too, provided you can afford it. http://www.superscreen.com/ Video phones. Got those, not too expensive but most people just don't care about them. Won't bother posting a link every knows about these. OK so where still missing our space elevator, can't have everything I guess.
The 1936 movie of HG Wells' Shape of Things to Come is good for this sort of thing. Captures that 30s "futuristic" look perfectly.
Da Blog
The images are doctored/faked. Check out the ferris whell of death, the picture of the magazine cover it was printed on says more about it can be read on page 666. Too many other mistakes to mention, looks like someone was looking for some /. attention
Do what I do, and read the "old news" section instead of the front page.
That's a neat trick since this is still the most recent article and you've managed to post a comment on it long before it got to the old news section.
Jason
ProfQuotes
http://leela.lasthome.net/www.davidszondy.com/futu re/
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
More on Brasilia's depressing architecture here.
The Army reading list
"I can slashdot that webserver in nine posts..."
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"Slashdot that website!"
Persons of a "certain age" will remember that game show. I sure don't!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This could have been a great website, featuring what people thought the future would look like, comparing it to what it ended up looking like, and featuring some analysis as to why the discrepancies occured, or at the very least some surmises.
It's not easy telling the future, and I doubt very many of the magazine scans and "future" products were meant to be authoritarian "this is what it WILL look like" presentations. Rather, they were "hey, wouldn't it be neat if we could have this in the future?" With that view this could actually have been an inspiration to help develop what we already don't have. Instead it was turned into a poorly written "ha ha, what stupid ideas"-fest.
What's the use of even putting up this website when all it is doing is slam those who try to have some sort of vision?
--I am Sun Tzu of the Borg. Resistance is feudal.
The fact that I was most interested in the moon base and not so much the naked natives probably explains a lot now that I think about it.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
It was a good and decent website who brought joy to many. With it's passing it shall be missed. Let us all join hands and pray for it's resurrection with the adding of bandwith or mirrors. Amen.
But we may be making the same mistake. More power was the biggest deal until about 1970. Then smaller became the big deal. But this doesn't mean that smaller is going to rule forever. In particular, our predictions of nanotech and biotech may be just as naive as the predictions the site laughs at.
So what will the future really be? I don't know. Maybe "more connected" is going to be the next big area.
You forget the operative word. Basic, fundamental investigation is where all the neato cool interesting stuff comes from. We have no idea what that stuff will be, but it will come, if we are prepared to let people continue their research.
Just think what the world would be like if the Powers That Were had told Messrs. Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen to quit messing with those ridiculous bits of germanium, that crazy chemistry and that silly quantum theory (none of which has any application anyway, you know) and work with something real, like better tubes.
...laura