10 August 2015

Birthdays
Ah-sung Ko b. 1992 (Snowpiercer, The Host)
Lucas Till b. 1990 (X-Men: Days of Future Past, All Superheroes Must Die, X-Men: First Class, Battle Los Angeles, Dance of the Dead)
Brendon Thwaites b. 1989 (Maleficent, The Signal, Oculus)
Nicole Taylor b. 1983 (Insatiable)
Devon Aoki b. 1982 (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead, Mutant Chronicles, Sin City)
Roxanne McKee b. 1980 (Dominion, The Legend of Hercules, Game of Thrones)
Pua Magasive b. 1980 (30 Days of Night, Power Rangers)
JoAnna Garcia Swisher b. 1979 (Once Upon a Time, The Astronaut Wives Club, From the Earth to the Moon, SeaQuest 2032, Superboy)
Leo Fitzpatrick b. 1978 (Carnivale)
Joanna Bacalso b. 1976 (Lost Girl, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Forever Knight)
Rick Otto b. 1973 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Teen Wolf [TV], The Walking Dead, Dollhouse, Phantoms)
Thor Van Lingen b. 1973 (Return of the Living Dead II)
Justin Theroux b. 1971 (The Leftovers)
Claudia Christian b. 1965 (Runestone, Grimm, Starhyke, The Haunting of Hell House, Babylon 5, Highlander [TV], Lancelot: Guardian of Time, Space Rangers, Quantum Leap, The Hidden)
Eric Thal b. 1965 (The Puppet Masters)
Beverly Randolph b. 1964 (The Return of the Living Dead)
Suzanne Collins b. 1962 (author, The Hunger Games)
Antonio Banderas b. 1960 (Automata, Spy Kids 1, 2 and 3, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles)
Rosanna Arquette b. 1959 (Eastwick)
Don Swayze b. 1958 (Blood Type, True Blood, Charmed, Carnivale, Tremors [TV], The X Files, Lois & Clark, Beach Babes from Beyond)
Rick Overton b. 1954 (True Blood, COPS: Skyrim, Cloverfield, The Astronaut Farmer, Lost, Eight Legged Freaks, Charmed, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Lois & Clark, Groundhog Day, The Rocketeer, Earth Girls Are Easy, Traxx, Willow, Amazing Stories)
Diane Venora b. 1952 (Little Hercules in 3-D, Threshold, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, Wolfen)
Kate O’Mara b. 1939 died 30 March 2014 (Doctor Who, The Horror of Frankenstein, The Vampire Lovers)
Murray Melvin b. 1932 (Torchwood, Starhunter, Alice in Wonderland [1999 TV])
Lynn Cohen b. 1933 (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
Martha Hyer b. 1924 died May 31 2014 (Bewitched, First Men in the Moon, Mistress of the World, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars)
Rhonda Fleming b. 1923 (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)
Jeff Corey b. 1914 died 16 August 2002 (Charmed, Brimstone, Perversions of Science, Babylon 5, Beauty and the Beast, War of the Worlds [1988], Starman, Faerie Tales Theatre, Manimal, The Powers of Matthew Star, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, The Outer Limits, Superman and the Mole-Men, The Next Voice You Hear…, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
Noah Beery Jr b. 1913 died 1 November 1994 (Mysterious Two, Beyond Witch Mountain, The Six million Dollar Man, The Immortal, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Rocketship X-M)
Richard Reeves b. 1912 died 17 March 1967 (Mr. Terrific, I Dream of Jeannie, Billy the Kid Versus Dracula, The Addams Family, Batman, The Munsters, My Favorite Martian, Adventures of Superman, Target Earth)
Curt Siodmak b. 1902 died 2 September 2000 (author, Donovan’s Brain)
Jack Haley b. 1898 died 6 June 1979 (The Wizard of Oz)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Regular readers know the drill. I like iconic and I don't want to repeat myself except under remarkable circumstances. Early Picture Slotters were Claudia Christian from Babylon 5 and the great Oh That Guy Jeff Corey. In a just world, Ah-Sung Ko would be iconic from The Host and Snowpiercer, but that's just my imagination, running away with me.

Jack Haley as The Tin Man is iconic. It may be really old school, but that is completely beside the point.

2. Spot the Canadians! Roxanne McKee is Canadian, but being on Game of Thrones could easily send even the most experienced Canadian spotter off the scent. Joanna Bacalso is a little easier to spot.

3. Nepotism FTW and MST3K. Noah Beery Jr is the son of Noah Beery Sr and the nephew of Wallace Beery. He was also in Rocketship X-M, which means we have an MST3k connection Rosanna Arquette is part of the multi-generational Arquette clan.

4. And special birthday wishes to... Rhonda Fleming turns 92 today. She is not The Gal at the Door because some folks younger than her are already gone, but I wanted to send my best wishes because Miss Fleming is tied with Maureen O'Hara as the prettiest redhead ever. Cristina Hendricks is the most Va-Va-voomy redhead ever, tied with Jessica Rabbit.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, especially Miss Rhonda Fleming, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in The Door Into Summer, serialized in 1956, published as a novel in 1957

Prediction: Denver had become the national capital after the Six Weeks War.

Reality: Yet another causal prediction of a nuclear war from 1950s science fiction. Folks who remember earlier Heinlein predictions might recall he was asked by some folks to actually predict stuff, apart from the predictions he wrote in his fiction. He went from "We're all doomed!" to "Things will be okay."in the space of a couple years in the 1940s. Regular reader Leo Lincourt, much more a Heinlein scholar than I am, suggests his change of mood might have to do with divorcing a wife who made him miserable and then marrying another woman who made him happy.
 
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We get the last prediction from our 1930s commie John Langdon-Davies. He hasn't been quite as much fun to mock as FroMo-2030, Paul Ehrlich or Ray Kurzweil, but he has been wrong just about as often.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

12 February 2015

Birthdays
Sam Webb b. 1997 (Transcendence, Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer)
Jennifer Stone b. 1993 (Deadtime Stories, Wizards of Waverly Place)
Afshan Azad b. 1988 (Harry Potter)
Anna Hopkins b. 1987 (Lost Girl, Arrow, Stephen King’s Dead Zone)
Clare-Hope Ashitey b. 1987 (Children of Men)
Valorie Curry b. 1986 (Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2)
Sam Kennard b. 1982 (The Dark Knight Rises)
Enver Gjokaj b. 1980 (Agent Carter, Extant, Witches of East End, The Walking Dead, Marvel’s The Avengers, Dollhouse)
Christina Ricci b. 1980 (After.Life, Speed Racer, The Gathering, Sleepy Hollow [movie], Casper, Addams Family, Addams Family Values)
Sarah Lancaster b. 1980 (Witches of East End, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Jesse Spencer b. 1979 (Time Trax)
Michael Bower b. 1975 (Wishcraft, Dark Angel, Evolution, Dude, Where’s My Car?, The X Files, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, Weird Science [TV], Tales from the Crypt)
Lisa Brenner b. 1974 (The Librarian)
Darren Aronofsky b. 1969 (director, The Fountain, Pi)
Josh Brolin b. 1968 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Men in Black 3, Jonah Hex, Planet Terror, Hollow Man, Mimic)
Lochlyn Munro b. 1966 (Tomorrowland, Arrow, Lost Girl, Mysterious Island [2012], Infection: The Invasion Begins, Xtinction: Predator X, Smallville, Andromeda, Dead Like Me, Freddy vs. Jason, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Dracula 2000, Charmed, Welcome to Paradox, Dead Man on Campus, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Sliders, Highlander [TV], Needful Things, The Girl from Mars)
David Joseph Steinberg b. 1965 died 16 March 2010 (Transylmania, Charmed, Willow)
Alex Meneses b. 1965 (Amanda and the Alien)
Christine Elise b. 1965 (Charmed, Escape from Mars, Body Snatchers, Child’s Play 2)
Raphael Sbarge b. 1964 (Once Upon a Time, No Ordinary Family, Heroes, Dollhouse, Journeyman, Threshold, Charmed, Dark Skies, Independence Day, Star Trek: Voyager, SeaQuest 2032, Carnosaur, The Hidden II, Quantum Leap, Monsters, Werewolf, My Science Project)
John Michael Higgins b. 1963 (Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Blade: Trinity, Bicentennial Man, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids [TV], From the Earth to the Moon, Weird Science [TV], Vampire’s Kiss)
Sigrid Thornton b. 1959 (Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Trapped in Space)
Fraser Clarke Heston b. 1955 (director, Needful Things)
Zach Grenier b. 1954 (RoboCop [2014], Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Star Trek: Enterprise, The X Files)
Simon MacCorkindale b. 1952 died 14 October 2010 (Relic Hunter, Dark Realm, The Dinosaur Hunter, Earth: Final Conflict, Poltergeist: The Legacy [TV], Wing Commander, NightMan, Manimal, The Sword and the Sorceror, Hammer House of Horror, Quatermass)
Larry Joshua b. 1952 (Lost, Spider-Man, The X Files, Conan, War of the Worlds [TV])
Michael Ironside b. 1950 (Turbo Kid, Extraterrestrial, Ice Soldiers, Meltdown on the Ice Planet, X-Men: First Class, Smallville, Lake Placid 3, Terminator Salvation, Mutants, Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, Ignition, Mindstorm, Starship Troopers, SeaQuest 2032, Highlander II: the Quickening, Total Recall, Watchers, V, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, Scanners)
Robin Thomas Grossman b. 1949 (Pacific Rim, Clockstoppers, Halloweentown I & II)
Ray Kurzweil b. 1948 (author, The Age of Spiritual Machines, The Singularity is Near)
Maud Adams b. 1945 (Rollerball)
David Seltzer b. 1940 (screenwriter, Prophecy, The Omen, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Hellstrom Chronicle)
Richard Lynch b. 1940 died 19 June 2012 (The Lords of Salem, Halloween [2007], Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy, The Mummy’s Kiss, Charmed, Highlander [TV], Necromicon: Book of Dead, Star Trek: Next Generation, Merlin, Super Force, Alligator II: the Mutation, Invasion Force, Manimal, The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Phoenix, Werewolf, The Barbarians, Automan, Battlestar Galactica, Vampire, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Bionic Woman)
Ralph Bates b. 1940 died 27 March 1991 (Moonbase 3, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Lust for a Vampire, The Horror of Frankenstein, Taste the Blood of Dracula)
Joe Don Baker b. 1936 (Mars Attacks!, Congo, Leonard Part 6)
Paul Shenar b. 1936 died 11 October 1989 (Logan’s Run [TV], Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, Gemini Man, The Invisible Man [TV])
Annette Crosbie b. 1934 (Into the Woods, Doctor Who, Hawk the Slayer, The Slipper and the Rose)
Lincoln Kilpatrick b. 1932 died 18 May 2004 (Fortress, The Greatest American Hero, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Six Million Dollar Man, Soylent Green, The Omega Man)
H.M. Wynant b. 1927 (The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, Trail of the Screaming Forehead, SeaQuest 2032, Solar Crisis, Earthbound, Future Cop, The Six Million Dollar Man, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Batman, Twilight Zone, Men Into Space)
Forrest Tucker b. 1919 died 25 October 1986 (The Bionic Woman, The Ghost Busters [TV], The Crawling Eye, The Cosmic Monster, The Abominable Snowman)
Lorne Greene b. 1915 died 11 September 1987 (Battlestar Galactica)
Wallace Ford b. 1898 died 11 June 1966 (Harvey, The Ape Man, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Hand)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. A long list today and several names stand out. I used Michael Ironside from Starship Troopers in the Picture Slot previously, but there are plenty of good choices, so no repeats this year. From oldest to youngest, the best candidates are Lorne Greene from Battlestar Galactica, Simon McCorkindale from Manimal, Enver Gjokaj from several of his TV shows and Clare-Hope Ashitey as the pregnant woman from Children of Men, but instead I went with Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams. She has grown into an attractive woman, so I have no qualms about using the fabulous babe label here.

2. Nepotism FTW. Josh Brolin has been in so many big budget productions, he no longer has to be introduced as James Brolin's kid. Fraser Clarke Heston on the other hand... he's still Charlton Heston's son and without much chance of equaling or eclipsing his dad's career.

3. A list honeycombed with Canadians. Lochlyn Munro has a very typical Canadian resume, Anna Hopkins is a little harder to detect. But unless you make a hobby of knowing who was born in Canada, you wouldn't be able to guess Lorne Greene and Michael Ironside.

4. MST3K. The Crawling Eye with Forrest Tucker was the very first movie that got the MST3K treatment. While it's not a genre production, Joe Don Baker in Mitchell is a very well-known episode.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 
 

Predictor: David Sarnoff, chairman of RCA, 1955

Prediction: “I do not hesitate to forecast that atomic batteries will be commonplace long before 1980. It can be taken for granted that before that date, ships, aircraft, locomotives and even automobiles will be atomically fueled.”

Reality: The first nuclear powered submarine was launched in 1954 and the whole Atoms for Peace thing was in full swing when Sarnoff made this prediction. The 1970s did see the start of nuclear powered aircraft carriers, but other than governmental customers, atomic power for moving vehicles didn't pan out.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another visit from H.G. Wells with a prediction that doesn't make him look like a racist scumbag.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

14 November 2013

 Birthdays
Chris Demetral b. 1976 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne)
Dana Snyder b. 1973 (Venture Brothers)
Josh Duhamel b. 1972 (Transformers)
Patrick Warburton b. 1964 (The Tick, The Venture Brothers)
Paul McGann b. 1959 (8th Doctor, Alien 3)
Gary Grubbs b. 1949 (Angel, The X Files)
Kathleen Hughes b. 1928 (It Came From Outer Space, Cult of the Cobra)
William Stieg b. 1907 died 3 October 2003 (author, Shrek)

There's a great Scream Queen publicity still of Kathleen Hughes I might put in the Picture Slot next year, but this year... Brock Samson. Besides the Venture Brothers, my next favorite role on the list is Gary Grubbs as Fred Burkle's dad Roger on Angel.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov in 1964, asked to predict 2014 on the occasion of the World's Fair in New York.

Prediction: An experimental fusion-power plant or two will already exist in 2014. Large solar-power stations will also be in operation in a number of desert and semi-desert areas -- Arizona, the Negev, Kazakhstan. In the more crowded, but cloudy and smoggy areas, solar power will be less practical. An exhibit at the 2014 fair will show models of power stations in space, collecting sunlight by means of huge parabolic focusing devices and radiating the energy thus collected down to earth.

Reality: Fusion is one of those things that is always just a few years in the future. Solar power works better at a small scale, like panels on a roof. As for heat rays from outer space, that sounds like a big screw-up waiting to happen if the geosynchronous satellite got a little out of whack. Still, this is much better work than his underground suburbs and hovercraft.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A new feature is going to take over the regular Friday chores... predictions from TED talks!

Do you get the feeling they are going to suck? Oh, regular reader, you are way ahead of me.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

8 November 2013

Birthdays
Magda Apanowicz b. 1985 (Caprica, Continuum, Kyle XY)
Chris Rankin b. 1983 (Harry Potter)
Azura Skye b.1981 (Buffy)
Parker Posey b. 1968 (Blade: Trinity, Superman Returns)
Phil Fondacaro b.1958 (Troll, Willow)
Ben Bova b.1932 (editor, Analog, Omni)
Bram Stoker b.1847 died 20 April 1912 (Dracula)

In terms of genre, the big star on this list is Bram Stoker, but since the blog is titled This Day In Science Fiction, the Picture Slot is given to the prolific Ben Bova.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list.

Prediction: In 2009, Cadillac showed this experimental design for a car run on a thorium powered turbine which needs eight grams of fuel in a century.

Predictor: Cadillac Automobile Company.

Reality: Okay, I didn't just fall of the turnip truck. I know these experimental designs shown at car shows are made just to look pretty, but DAMN this thing is pretty.
 

Here's a prettified cutaway view from the top of the drive train. Thorium is safer than a lot of other nuclear fuels, but it's still inside a car and cars get into accidents. Tow truck driving would have to come with hazmat training.

Still. Damn.

To paraphrase agents Doe and Holder from The Venture Brothers:

"If that car were a woman, I'd marry her."

"And I'd jeopardize our friendship to sleep with your hot wife."

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's Saturday, so we get a visit from our prognosticators from 1893.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

1 October 2013

Birthdays
Stephen Collins b. 1947 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Richard Corben b. 1940 (Illustrator)
Richard Harris b. 1930 died 10/25/2002 (Harry Potter)

A short list of birthdays today, but we get both a Star Trek and a Harry Potter hit. No disrespect to Mr. Collins, but when I saw the first Star Trek, I knew the new characters were just going to be in the way, no matter how pretty they were.

Many happy returns to Mr. Collins and Mr. Corben, and may Richard Harris never be forgotten.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov, predicting life in 2014 as part of the 1964 World's Fair in New York

Prediction: There is an underground house at the fair which is a sign of the future. if its windows are not polarized, they can nevertheless alter the "scenery" by changes in lighting.

Suburban houses underground, with easily controlled temperature, free from the vicissitudes of weather, with air cleaned and light controlled, should be fairly common. At the New York World's Fair of 2014, General Motors' "Futurama" may well display vistas of underground cities complete with light- forced vegetable gardens. The surface, G.M. will argue, will be given over to large-scale agriculture, grazing and parklands, with less space wasted on actual human occupancy.

Reality: Subterranean suburbia is not the world we live in. Here in California, it's something of a rarity for new housing structures to even have basements.

The fear of overpopulation was a major sci-fi theme in the mid 20th Century. When we had three billion people on earth, even trying to think about seven billion felt overwhelming. Now we are over seven billion and if you are the sort of person who has time to read a silly science fiction blog each day (and thank you for doing so), our fears of overcrowding and deprivation haven't come true. In the United States and other developed nations, we made decisions such that our air and water quality are somewhat better than they were in the 1960s.

But we are the species that burns the world to stay warm, and in the 20th Century, we became so clever that we could burn the world to stay cool as well. The billions of more people are not faced with mass starvation as a constant threat, but instead the most scientifically plausible problem we face today is that we are changing the climate with our addiction to petroleum.

Maybe our worst fears for the future will not be as bad as we think. I certainly hope that's the case. But among the reasons that a planet with seven billion people is not a Soylent Green hellhole is that politicians from across the ideological spectrum came together to clean the environment. In the United States, that's not possible with the new version of the Republican Party, a weird mutant mixture of avarice and intolerance and fear, with each of those character flaws seen as the highest virtues.

This month's splash illustration

Every month, I change the small picture at the top of the blog. This month I took a slice of the atomic blimp picture from the 1956 Mechanix Illustrated that I used as a prediction back in August.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Wednesday means more predictions from T. Baron Russell.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

26 August 2013

Birthdays
Chris Pine b. 1980 (Star Trek re-boot)
Yvette Vickers b. 1928 died 2010 (Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, Attack of the Giant Leeches)

Ms. Vickers gets the Picture Slot not only for being The Cute Girl but also for having a more compelling bio that the new Captain Kirk. She was a starlet in Hollywood, she posed for Playboy in 1959, she worked steadily until about 1963. Her last claim to fame is that her body was found mummified in her home in 2011 and it was assumed from the state of decomposition that she might have been there a year before it was found.

Many happy returns to Mr. Pine at least.

 

Prediction: A nuclear powered blimp to advertise the safe uses of atomic energy

Predictor: Mechanix Illustrated, published March 1956

Reality: Using the quote from last week, nuclear energy is safe unless you do something monumentally stupid. A nuclear blimp is monumentally stupid.

Problem #1: It would have to be huge. Dirigibles are lighter than air because of counterbalance and you would need a massive amount of counterbalancing helium to make up for a fully shielded nuclear reactor. It's hard to know how far away the ship below is supposed to be, but making the airship as big as a battleship is probably about right.

Problem #2: High winds. Blimps aren't as weather dependent as old sailing ships used to be, but even keeping something as big as this tethered to the ground in a serious wind storm would be a very risky proposition. The six appendages at the bottom look like pontoons, so if water landings are intended, add "choppy seas" as a related co-problem.

Problem #3: Public relations. The public was nervous about nukes, which were definitely "new fangled" and reeked of Progress! The scientists knew what was best for us and would take us into the bold new future, kicking and screaming if need be. Link this idea to dirigibles, whose most famous public moment was the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg.

These are three very good answers to the question "Why don't we build an Atoms for Peace dirigible?"

Note: this is yet another example of nuclear powered transportation from an article on io9.com that was suggested by regular reader Zombie Rotten McDonald, and so I give thanks to him.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Robert A. Heinlein with a scientific prediction, though he wasn't actually a scientist.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

19 August 2013

Birthdays 
Ahmed Best b. 1973 (Star Wars, voice of J** J** B****)
Jonathan Frakes b. 1952 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Diana Muldaur b. 1938 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Gene Roddenberry b. 1921 died 10/24/1991(Star Trek)

The choice for today's Picture Slot seems pretty cut and dried. Since there is zero chance I would choose the youngest person on the list due to his unfortunate role (not really his fault, always blame the writers and director first), since the other three people on the list are there because of Star Trek, Roddenberry is obviously trump.

Many happy returns to the living.

Movies released
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World In 4D released 2011

Prediction: In 1958, Ford releases the first plans to build a nuclear powered car called the Nucleon.

Reality: Yes! The company that brought you the Edsel and would soon be making both the Maverick and the Pinto was going to make a sporty little two seater with a turbine engine fueled by a nuclear reactor. As you can guess from this mock-up, the engine was in the rear and there was at least two feet of shielding between the nuclear reaction and the passengers.

Also, you can tell this is the 1958 version and not the 1962 because of the fins.

What about a rear end collision? Oh, pish tush, those things NEVER happen.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to say I am not 100% opposed to nuclear energy. It can be made safe and with thorium reactors, the nuclear waste storage problem can be minimized due to recycling. As I read once, nuclear energy is safe unless you do something monumentally stupid.

The Ford Nucleon was monumentally stupid.

Thanks to loyal reader Zombie Rotten McDonald for finding a link to nuclear powered transportation over on io9.com.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Last week, we had Robert A. Heinlein disenfranchising young people. Tomorrow, the young get their revenge on the old.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!