Jaimie Alexander b. 1984
Aaron Eckhart b. 1968
Yet another Whole Lotta Pretty day in the birthdays, and yet another heterosexual male choice on my part for the lead photo. Ms. Alexander's best known work in genre is as the goddess Sif in Thor.
The puppy looks a little pre-occupied. Maybe he just saw a squirrel.
In the year 2000!
Prediction: Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision. [In 1980 he observes that the likelihood that phones tied into home computers will accomplish the second sentence, and will eventually enable 3-dimensional holovision and stereo speech.]
Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in 1950 and 1980
Reality: Old Sensible Bob makes a comeback this week, especially the 1950 version. Predicting miniaturization in 1950 takes some doing. His 1980 "improvements" are more along the lines of Ridiculous Bob, as hologram technology is really hard and stereo speech is both expensive and close to useless in a cell phone, since the two speakers would be inches apart.
Regular readers will realize I don't love Grumpy Old Bob, but I do recognize that he is generally an optimist, except for his 1947 essay where he was sure Hap Arnold was right and no one would listen and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! Regular correspondent Leo Lincourt pointed out that Heinlein went through a nasty divorce in the late 1940s from a woman who was an alcoholic, and after getting disentangled his writing became much more optimistic.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! Wednesday is John Elfreth Watkins Day, that mid-week pick me up all serious students of antique futurism anticipate eagerly.
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!
Hmmm. Starting to suspect that the failure of Heinlein's 1947 prediction had as much an effect on his future works as working for Upton Sinclair and running for office did.
ReplyDeleteAn optimist wouldn't have worn that one jacket. Color blind, maybe, but optimist, never.
ReplyDeleteAlso, his later works show an ambivalent attitude towards women, at best.
At least he liked cats. Or was that just in his books?
Heinlein was so prolific that you can find something he wrote to fit any mood or theory. Has anybody ever written more science fiction than he did?
ReplyDeleteAsimov?
ReplyDeleteBradley? Although Bradley usually said he didn't write science fiction.
Although it may be said, in light of McDonald's, that VOLUME does not result in quality, or even relevance.
However, I still respect his willingness to wear that jacket, and be photographed wearing it. You can't say he didn't anticipate the ability for future generations to be able to view it and marvel, can you?
Dear Zombie: I think you mean Bradbury.
ReplyDeleteGuys writing science fiction didn't get paid much and they wrote A LOT. Asimov is probably the king in terms of number of titles, but guys like L. Ron Hubbard in terms of number of pages could even make Stephen King look like a slacker hobbyist.
you're right, of course. Where the hell did I get Bradley? I'm going to blame Clown Heinlein.
Delete