Teich's Tech Tidbit
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NOTE: If you came to this page via a Google image search for a picture of George W. Bush, you can find it here. But instead, why not stay around and explore this site? It's a lot more interesting than that picture. As science fiction writer and visionary Arthur C. Clarke once said, "The future isn't what it used to be." What will the future be like? Ask a typical citizen of a modern nation this question and he or she is certain to describe a world that is different from today. Technology will probably be a major factor in the imagined future, a positive influence for some, a negative one for others. Most of us spend a good deal of time thinking about the future--planning for our careers, our families, our retirement, and thinking about what kind of world we and the people and nations around us are creating. It was not always this way, and, in fact, in some parts of the world, it still isn't. Were you to ask this question of a person in a traditional, pre-modern society, they might shrug and tell you that the future will probably be pretty much like the present. And they could well be right. In modern society, many common ideas, particularly those involving technology, come from science fiction. Others come from advertising--especially from companies that would like us to buy into their vision of the future--or from scientists and engineers touting their discoveries and inventions. To some extent, the images of the future that we carry around with us influence our actions and thus help to shape the future. At the same time, they reflect the values and social context of the society from which they come. Those images have changed considerably in my lifetime, even in the lifetime of my book, Technology and the Future. The flavor of these changes was captured wonderfully in a Smithsonian Institution exhibit entitled, "Yesterday's Tomorrows" (see below). Pictures and some text from the exhibit, which is currently traveling around the United States on a tour of 150 small towns, are available online, as are a wide range of other web resources that can help provide an understanding of how our visions of the future have changed. |
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Yesterday's Tomorrows--home page for the Smithsonian exhibit on past visions of the American future. The exhibit, which opened in Washington, DC, in 1984, was extremely popular--so popular, in fact, that 17 years later, in 2001, a traveling version set out on a five-year tour of 150 small towns in 25 states. Buy Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan, Yesterday's Tomorrows from Amazon.com. Created as the catalog for the exhibition, this highly-readable book features more than 150 illustrations from pulp science fiction magazines, corporate magazine ads, world's fairs, and architectural drawings. It's one of my favorite futurist books. (Johns Hopkins University Press, paperback, $18.87) Avis Berman, "In a New Times Square, a Wink at Futures Past," The New York Times (Sept. 1, 2002). Unveiling the "Times Square Subway Mural," by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, a 6-foot-high, 53-foot-long panel that revisits the history of New York transportation. Riffs on the notion that technology would solve all of our urban problems. See, also, a photo of the mural and one of Lichtenstein working on it on the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation site. "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Futures From Sci-Fi's Past 35 Years," by Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice (December 24 - 30, 2003). Film review. The Jetsons. A long-lived American television cartoon program that premiered in 1962 and portrayed a future family with the same degree of realism that The Flintstones showed life in prehistoric times (i.e., not much). "Yesterday's Future," an album by blues-rock band D. Saxmo. Reviewed by Bryan Baker, Sept. 29, 2000). Yesterday's Tomorrows: Writing, Research, and Science Fiction Studies. Schedule and syllabus for English 101, Section 6, Tulane University. 2001: The History of the Future (CHS H202 Section 5, Spring 2001). A course at Clemson University taught by Prof. Pamela Mack. Using the predictions in the film 2001 as a point of departure, the course seeks to understand "What do we expect technology to do for us and how much can it really deliver?" Yesterday's Tomorrows: An Exhibition of Futuristic Utopias in Comic Strips. At the Finnish National Gallery (Helsinki, Finland), August-October 2000. "Yesterday's Tomorrows," a Canadian Broadcasting Company radio program. Site includes illustrations, a reading list, and a list of music. Back to the Future via World's Fairs -- Teich's Tech Tidbit of the Week, January 10, 2000. 1984 by George Orwell -- a searchable online version. Full text of the famous 1948 novel portraying a dystopian future in a totalitarian society. (Netscape users beware - may crash your browser). Jules Verne: An Author Before His Time? In the Un-Museum. Profile of the 19th century novelist whose works included submarines, flying machines, skyscrapers and even the moon landing, long before they were actually invented. All of Yesterday's Tomorrows. A site devoted to alternative history--i.e., speculation on such questions as what would North America be like if the South had won the Civil War. Yesterday's Tomorrows: 1968-1998. A symposium in honor of Reason magazine's 30th anniversary. An interesting look at "books that got the future right--and wrong." Focuses on politics and society rather than technology. The U.S. government's "National Y2K Clearinghouse."
The worldwide computer disaster that wasn't.
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*Updated version of a tidbit originally posted December 23, 2002
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