Birthdays
Camilla Belle b. 1986 (10,000 BC, The Lost World: Jurassic Park)
Sting b. 1951 (Dune)
Persis Khambatta b. 1948 died 8/18/1998 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Avery Brooks b. 1948 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Vernor Vinge b. 1944
(won 1993 Hugo for A Fire on the Deep)
(won 2000 Hugo for A Deepness in the Sky)
(won 2007 Hugo for Rainbow's End)
Jack Finney b. 1911 died 14 November 1995 (author, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Alex Raymond b. 1909 died 6 September 1956 (artist, Flash Gordon)
Willy Ley b. 1906 died 24 June 1969 (author, Adventure in Space)
I always like to see a mix of authors and actors on the birthday list. Since Stephen Collins got the Picture Slot yesterday, it is only fair Persis Khambatta gets it today. Of all the writers, I remember we had some of Willy Ley's non-fiction about rockets in the house when I was a kid.
Many happy returns of the day to all the living on the list.
Prediction: ...[A]lcohol, as a beverage, must inevitably disappear. Not only because the price of intoxicants is an unproductive expenditure (and we shall have to be more and more thrifty as time goes on) but because the nerves of the new age would never stand them, must all alcoholic beverages be regarded as destined to obsolescence: and the legislative aspect of this question must presently be touched upon.
I think it quite likely that when alcohol is gone, the nerves of the future may find it necessary to place the sale of tea and of coffee under restrictions similar to those at present inflicted upon the trade in alcohol…
Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published 1905
Reality: Hey, buddy, I gotcher future nerves right here. A lot of futurists from this era think alcohol will be frowned upon in the bright, shining age to come, but I haven't run across many who think coffee and tea need to be controlled. As for thrift, I'm personally happy to do without a car, cable TV and a cell phone, but my budget definitely has room for some wine and India pale ale.
Looking one day ahead.... INTO THE FUTURE!
Yet another prediction from H.G. Wells about the 20th Century, bleak but not entirely wrong.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
there's always been a peculiarly strong streak of Calvinism in America. Of course, goobers like this DID manage to get alcohol made illegal. Which managed to create organized crime who supplied the inevitable black market that arose. The massive amounts of cash resulted in violence and crime...
ReplyDeleteIn Milwaukee, the breweries switched to selling brewing equipment, supplies, and brews that were low enough to not qualify as alcoholic. Also, "mineral water" that served for the home brewing operations that were in the basements of every third house. It has been said that rather than the brewery neighborhoods smelling like fermenting yeast, EVERY neighborhood smelled like fermenting yeast. The police were encouraged to look (errr, smell) the other way, through providing them with the occasional growler.
And, of course, drug prohibition has been even MORE successful.
I particularly liked TNG's idea of synthehol, admitting that humans like to get kind of twisted, but that the big advance will be allowing for instant dismissal of the effects, and no hangovers. If you don't have a hangover, how can you judge how good a time you had last night?
It should be noted that Russell was a Brit writing from London. The banning of alcohol will be predicted again on this blog, but it's very odd for someone from this era to think there would be strict regulation of the sale of coffee. (Charles II banned coffeehouses in 1675, but that's way, way back.)
DeleteAsimov thinking that sunshine and natural ventilation were things to be avoided is also anachronistic, but only off by decades instead of centuries.