Birthdays
Dakota Fanning b. 1994
Kelly Macdonald b. 1976
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry b. 1932 died 12/18/2008
I love Kelly Macdonald's work, but most of it is not in the sci-fi genre. Ms. Roddenberry, on the other hand, did little else but work on sci-fi TV shows, so she earns a photo.
Predictor: Leo Cherne (Executive Director, Research Institute of America)
Everyone has access to free power created by solar, atomic energy will be widespread...
The average American will have a 24 hour work week, 6 hours a day four days a week...
Predictor: Hubert J. Schlafly (engineer)
Systematic information will be in a form instantly available for response to remote inquiry...
By 2001, we may be in the dot and dash stage of the electrical transmission of solid matter.
Reality: Solar power is not in the universal access phase and atomic power had some big setbacks. People don't have 24 hour work weeks, except those unlucky bastards working at companies trying to deny them access to health care, so Dr. Cherne lays a big goose egg.
Mr. Schlafly on the other hand gives a pretty good description of the Internet in the statement I underlined. He doesn't say exactly how it will take place and the word "computer" is nowhere to be found, but that isn't surprising. 1956 is akin to the Dark Ages when it comes to computers. As for the electrical transmission of matter, we are a long way away from replicators, but maybe we could count 3D printers as the early starting point, "the dot and dash" stage as Schlafly puts it.
Just don't expect one to give you "Earl Grey tea, hot" anytime soon. Just sayin'.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! The editor of Radio & Television News gets a lot of stuff wrong and a UN delegate from the Philippines gets a lot of stuff right.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
he would have been closer had he said 24 hour work DAYS rather than weeks.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of amazing that continuation of the gains forced by the labor movement were thought to be a given, even knowing that the titans of industry were still working to stem and reverse them.
ReplyDeleteZombie R., I agree it is remarkable, but remember what sway the Democrats had in Congress and that all the grumbling rich people did had little effect on the stupendous upper marginal tax rates.
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before, though not on this blog, Orwell's dystopia was based on Stalinist Soviet Union and Ayn Rand's slippery slope to Hell On Earth was grounded in Eisenhower era America. There's a reason why people with taste know that one of these writers is a true star or 20th Century literature and the other is a colossal hack.
kinda OT, but when I was a teen, I saw Ms. Barrett-Roddenberry's husband give a talk and introduce a Star Trek blooper reel in Madison. So long ago, it was before there was serious talk of a movie!
ReplyDeleteHe made a crack about DeForest Kelley grabbing her boobs during an 'attack' scene where they were bouncing back and forth.