7 January 2013

Birthdays

Jeremy Renner b. 1971
Mark Allen Shepherd b. 1961  (Morn on Deep Space Nine)

1967: Flying cars powered by four fan like rotors will be available to the public.

Predictor: the July 1957 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Ahh, doesn't it feel a little better now? The air seems cleaner, food tastes better, the birds are singing in tune.

Flying cars. It's almost like being in love.

For the early part of this year, Monday predictions will belong to the magazines. Most of these magazine predictions will come from Popular Mechanics and Omni. Popular Mechanics is still in print, but Omni is long gone. In 2009, Popular Mechanics published a book of their future predictions made before 1969 titled The Wonderful Future That Never Was.

Here is a link to an Internet slideshow from the book.

Here is a link to the Amazon page where you can buy it. 

I will be scavenging the Omni Future Almanac ruthlessly since it is out of print, but the Popular Mechanics book is in print - available in paperback as well - so all I'm going to do is pull pictures and dates from it and write my own text. If you love antique futurism, you should get a copy of this book for your own bad self. Every time I use a picture, there will be a link to purchase. I haven't been in touch with the authors, I'm doing this on my own because I think it's the right thing to do.

There are also some terrific pictures with no exact date attached to them which I will be using for the monthly splash graphic, the position just under the blog title now occupied by the illustration by Syd Mead, loved by all sentient beings, from the storyboards for Blade Runner. For example, the 1940s "cars of the future" are both fat and sleek at the same time. Great stuff.

Reality: It is the express policy of this blog never to discuss reality and flying cars at the same time. So it is written and so it shall be. Amen.


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! Robert A. Heinlein boldly tells us of his visions from 1950 about... the year 2000!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!