13 January 2014

Birthdays
Liam Hemsworth b. 1990 (The Hunger Games, Knowing)
Orlando Bloom b. 1977 (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Patrick Dempsey b. 1966 (Transformers, Enchanted, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [1997], Outbreak)
Bill Bailey b. 1965 (Doctor Who, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Spaced, Nanny McPhee)
Richard Moll b. 1943 (Smallville, Galaxis, Babylon 5, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Highlander [TV], Wicked Stepmother, House [1986], Caveman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
William B. Davis b. 1938 (Continuum, Caprica, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Smallville, Andromeda, It (TV Mini-series))
Billy Gray b. 1938 (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Navy vs. the Night Monsters)
Ron Goulart b. 1933 (writer, Flash Gordon, TekWar, Vampirella)
Gregory Walcott b. 1928 (Plan 9 from Outer Space)
Osa Massen b. 1916 died 2 January 2006 (Rocketship X-M, Cry of the Werewolf)
Jeff Morrow b. 1907 died 26 December 1993 (Twilight Zone, Octaman, This Island Earth, The Giant Claw, Kronos, The Creature Walks Among Us)
Clark Ashton Smith b. 1893 died 14 August 1961 (author, Hyperborea, The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis)

Plenty of choices for the Picture Slot today, but I don't have to justify using The Smoking Man this year. He's plenty iconic.

Explanation of a few names is in order. Poor Gregory Walcott had a long career mainly in Westerns, but he is top bill in Plan 9 from Outer Space, so he's here. Lovely Osa Massen only did two genre roles, but one of them was immortalized on Mystery Science Theater 3000 with one of my favorite riffs from Joel Hodgson "Well, thank you, Mister White Male Reality!" Bill Bailey is a British comedian, Richard Moll was Bull Shannon on Night Court, Billy Gray was Bud on Father Knows Best, Jeff Morrow got stuck in multiple 1950s monster movies, Ron Goulart is the ghost writer of William Shatner's TekWar, and Clark Ashton Smith, who was an artist and sculptor as well as a writer, is considered one of the "big three" of the pulp magazine Weird Tales, along with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, and to the dead, please don't rise from the grave, and yes, I'm talking to you, Clark Ashton Smith!

 

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982

Prediction: By 1994, perfection of the room-temperature superconducting chip will make possible the first wristwatch computer with a larger capacity than a 64K memory. The device will be able to handle all the computing functions of a tabletop home microcomputers. Instead of depending on typed input or a video screen, the device will accept and impart information through vocal instructions in English.

Reality: I've been running into a lot of predictions about wearable technology in my research, but this one thought it would be here much earlier than most. (I'm not counting Dick Tracy, since we didn't get exact dates.) Of course, we now have ads for wrist phones playing on TV nearly non-stop, so this prediction is off by two decades.

I did have to smile at "a larger capacity than a 64K memory". And I'm personally holding out for a phone that accepts instructions in Klingon. I don't want just any goofball hacking into it.

Back to reality for a moment, the wrist phones look cool in the ads, but what is their actual advantage over the phones available now? It's obvious the screen is way smaller and where exactly is the input? I'm now a grumpy old fart and no longer an early adopter, but I'm smelling the faintest whiff of Segway on this latest tech wave. I've been wrong before, but we will see a year from now whether the wrist phones and Google glass and the other first generation "wearable tech" really catches on or this is "ooh, virtual reality!" all over again.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tuesdays for the next few months will belong to predictions about 2009 from Ray Kurzweil's 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

12 January 2014

Birthdays
Will Rothhaar b. 1987 (Battle Los Angeles, Buffy, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Kaja Foglio b. 1970 (illustrator, Girl Genius)
David Mitchell b. 1979 (author, Cloud Atlas)
Oliver Platt b. 1960 (X-Men: First Class, 2012, Bicentennial Man, Lake Placid, Tall Tale)
Rockne S. O'Bannon b. 1955 (writer, Farscape, V, Alien Nation, Revolution, Twilight Zone [1986])
Kirstie Alley b. 1951 (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Village of the Damned)
John Lasseter b. 1957 (director, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Cars, Cars 2)
Haruki Murakami b. 1949 (author, 1Q84, Sputnik Sweetheart)
Geoffrey Hoyle b. 1942 (author, 2010: Living in the Future)
Jack London b. 1876 died 22 November 1916 (author, The Iron Heel)

One of those rare birthday lists when writers and artists outnumber actors. The Picture Slot goes to Kirstie Alley as Saavik. At the risk of sounding sexist, I can still look at old pictures and think "Wait, Kirstie Alley was a Vulcan? Now hang on... KIM CATRALL WAS A VULCAN? Now you are just pulling my leg."

One name I want to introduce is Geoffrey Hoyle, son of Sir Fred Hoyle who wrote sci-fi with his dad. (Not to be confused with the British performer Geoff Hoyle, known for his work in The Lion King and a founder of the San Francisco group The Pickle Family Circus.) In 1972, Geoffrey Hoyle wrote a children's book entitled 2010: Living in the Future. It's out of print, but I've found a copy online, so Hoyle is going to be a regular weekly contributor to the prediction section over the next few months.

Many happy returns to all the living on our list, and to Jack London, thanks for predicting exact dates in The Iron Heel.

Prediction: On 12 January 1992, the HAL 9000 becomes operational

Predictor: Arthur C. Clarke in the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, repeated in the book 2010. (pedantic note: In Clarke's novelization of the original screenplay, the date is 12 January 1997.)

Reality: I don't intend the blog to become a greatest hits collection, so as a general rule I won't be repeating every prediction that has an exact date on its anniversary. But some science fiction characters are iconic and HAL 9000 certainly qualifies. Most sci-fi before the microprocessor revolution of the early 1970s either ignores computers or doesn't realize how quickly they will become so big a part of people's lives, and for that Clarke a lot of credit for coming up with HAL in the late 1960s. Instead of underestimating the importance of computers, he writes about computer technology that wasn't actually possible by the 1990s. It's not the first instance of "our creations are going to take over" in science fiction. Rossum's Universal Robots works with that theme in 1920. But 2001 is a major milestone in science fiction being taken seriously by Hollywood, and the theme of a computer takeover of humanity is continued in later works like Colossus: The Forbin Project, WarGames and the Terminator movies and TV shows, among many others. Just like Richard Matheson's I Am Legend deserves props as the start of the Zombie Apocalypse movement, Arthur C. Clarke's HAL 9000 is a major early influence in the Cyber Apocalypse movement.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Monday means OMNI Future Almanac, still one of my favorite sources to delve into, more beloved for boldness than for accuracy.

Wait... I should make that MUCH more beloved for boldness.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

11 January 2014

 Birthdays
Marc Blucas b. 1972 (They, Buffy)
Amanda Peet b. 1972 (2012, Gulliver’s Travels, The X Files)
Konstantin Khabenskiy b. 1972 (Night Watch, Day Watch, World War Z, Wanted)
Kyle Richards b. 1969 (Halloween, The Watcher in the Woods)
Shelly Sweeney b. 1966 (Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla)
Melanie Hill b. 1962 (Merlin, Stardust, From Hell)
Felix Silla b. 1937 (Batman Returns, Spaceballs, Star Trek, Return of the Jedi, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Brood, Battlestar Galactica, Demon Seed, Planet of the Apes, The Addams Family)
Rod Taylor b. 1930 (The Time Machine, Colossus and the Amazon Queen, Twilight Zone, World Without End)
Jerome Bixby b. 1923 died 28 April 1998 (writer, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Fantastic Voyage, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Man From Earth)
Robert C. O’Brien b. 1918 died 5 March 1973 (writer, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH)

Not a lot of huge stars on today's list. The most familiar faces might be Amanda Peet for younger folks and Rod Taylor for the geezers, but the Picture Slot goes to Felix Silla, a little person actor who spent most of his career stuck inside costumes, most notably Twiki on Buck Rogers and Cousin Itt on The Addams Family. Jerome Bixby wrote the story for It's a Good Life on Twilight Zone and the episodes Day of the Dove, Requiem for Methuselah, By Any Other Name and Mirror, Mirror on the original series of Star Trek.

Many happy returns of the day to living on today's list and to Jerome Bixby and Robert C. O'Brien, thanks for the memories.

Predictor: H. Walter Webb (1852-1900), Vice President, New York Central Railway, making his predictions for the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exposition held in Chicago

Prediction:  "I have no doubt that early in the 20th Century, trains will be running regularly at an average of 60 mile per hour… there will be a number of trains on some of the greater roads whose schedule time will call for as much as 100 miles per hour… a traveler in the early in the next century will be able to have breakfast in New York City and his evening dinner in Chicago.”

Reality:  Not by AMTRAK. The fastest trip is the Lake Shore Limited at 19 hours and 13 minutes and it runs from New York at 3:40 pm and arrives at 9:45 in the morning.

In 1893, the railroads had a stranglehold on long distance travel even greater than the fossil fuel companies' stranglehold on cheap energy today. Webb doesn't speculate about how trains will have competition from other inventions and I would be very surprised if he did. It is remarkable and disappointing how completely America gave up on major railroad innovation in the 20th Century and that the truly modern rail systems are in Europe and Japan now. Just as remarkable and disappointing is how industrial innovation in this field is now such a contentious political issue, with conservatives treating high speed trains as an evil liberal plot.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

I don't always repeat a prediction from the same day last year, but when I do... it's usually an important plot point.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

10 January 2014

 Birthdays
Alex Meraz b. 1985 (Twilight Saga)
Trini Alvarado b. 1967 (Fringe, The Frighteners)
Fran Walsh b. 1959 (screenwriter, The Frighteners, Lord of the Rings, King Kong [2005], The Hobbit)
James Lapine b. 1949 (playwright, Into the Woods)
Jeff Jones b. 1944 died 19 May 2011 (artist)
William Sanderson b. 1944 (True Blood, Jumanji [TV], Babylon 5, Blade Runner, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone [1988])
Walter Hill b. 1942 (producer, Alien series, Tales from the Crypt [TV], Bordello of Blood, Prometheus)
Douglas Hickox b. 1929 died 25 July 1988 (director, The Giant Behemoth, Theatre of Blood)
Ray Bolger b. 1904 died 15 January 1987 (Wizard of Oz, Babes in Toyland, Battlestar Galactica)

Okay, my first "Geez, I'm old!" moment of the morning. William Sanderson is 70. The biggest name on the list might very well be Ray Bolger, who has very few screen credits given his screen career lasted sixty years. I'm pretty sure he put food on the table with his work on stage.

Many happy returns to the living on the list, and to those who have died, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: Jared Diamond at the TED Talks in 2003

Predictions: Solomon Islands will lose all logging in 2004 and the Philippines will lose theirs by 2008.

Reality: According to Wikipedia, there is still logging in the Solomon Islands and the Philippines, though there are restrictions and illegal logging is a problem.

As you may know, the people who give TED talks aren't paid, but instead are trying to get publicity for books. His book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed came out in 2005, so this talk was a little early. He also said Nepal, Colombia and Indonesia were close to collapse, but he didn't give dates. I'm no expert on any of these countries, but looking at their GDP numbers online, all of them did have bad years early this century, but all of them have snapped out of their problems and are showing reasonable growth.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another prediction from 1893, and yet again it deals with the industry everyone cared about, railroads.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

9 January 2014

 Birthdays
Nina Dobrev b. 1989 (The Vampire Diaries, Never Cry Werewolf)
David Ellison b. 1983 (producer, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
Julia Dietze b. 1981 (Iron Sky)
Patrick Sabongui b. 1975 (Almost Human, Arrow, Warm Bodies, Sucker Punch, TRON: Legacy, Stargate: Atlantis, Caprica, The Cabin in the Woods)
Marco Sanchez b. 1970 (Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, Dollhouse, Star Trek: Enterprise, SeaQuest 2032)
Rhoda Griffis b. 1965 (The Hunger Games)
Joseph Culp b. 1963 (Cyxork 7, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Apollo 13, The Fantastic Four [1994])
Anthony Harrison b. 1961 (Fringe, Supernatural, Aliens vs, Predator: Requiem, The 4400, Smallville, White Noise, Dead Like Me, The Core. Strange World, The Sixth Day, The X-Files)
Imelda Staunton b. 1956 (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Psychoville)
J. K. Simmons b. 1955 (Spider-Man, Jennifer’s Body)
Vincent Grass b. 1949 (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian)
Susannah York b. 1939 died 15 January 2011 (Superman)
Paul Mantee b. 1931 died 7 November 2013 (Apollo 13, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Logan’s Run [TV], The Six Million Dollar Man, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Invaders, The Time Tunnel, Batman, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)
Algis Budrys b. 1931 died 9 June 2008 (author, The Falling Torch, Rogue Moon, Who?)
Lee Van Cleef b. 1925 died 16 December 1989 (Escape from New York, Twilight Zone, It Conquered the World, Space Patrol, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms)
Karel Capek b. 1890 died 25 December 1938 (author, Rossum’s Universal Robots)

A long birthday list today with some well-known names - Imelda Staunton, J.K. Simmons, Susannah York, Lee Van Cleef - but most of them are better known for work outside of genre. The two actors best known for sci-fi are probably Paul Mantee, who starred in the now largely forgotten Robinson Crusoe on Mars and Julia Dietze, a German actress whose best known role in an English production is as the Nazi babe in Iron Sky. The Picture Slot goes to a poster from a production of Karel Capek's 1920 play Rossum's Universal Robots, which is the origin of the word we use so commonly today, which derives from the Czech word for "slave labor".

Many happy returns to all the living on our list, and to actors Paul Mantee and Lee Van Cleef and authors Algis Burdys and Karel Capek, thanks for the memories.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov in 1964, predicting the year 2014 in honor of the World's Fair being held in New York

Prediction: Ordinary agriculture will keep up with great difficulty and there will be "farms" turning to the more efficient micro-organisms. Processed yeast and algae products will be available in a variety of flavors. The 2014 fair will feature an Algae Bar at which "mock-turkey" and "pseudo-steak" will be served. It won't be bad at all (if you can dig up those premium prices), but there will be considerable psychological resistance to such an innovation.

Reality:  A lot of people online have discovered Asimov's predictions and are publishing some or all of them, and a lot of the commentary is along the lines of "ooh, wow, look how good this was."

Meh.

Again, this was a very popular view in sci-fi that food production was not going to keep up with population and that we'd have to rely on algae or yeast or eating insects just to produce enough calories. The reality is that we are doing a better job of feeding the 7 billion people alive today than we did feeding the 3.3 billion people alive in 1964, changing the basics of our diet very little, with the exceptions of sriracha (YAY!) and Tofurky (BOO!). That said, there are concerns that we have pushed agricultural production too hard, notably with antibiotics, pesticides and genetic modification. Time will tell if something like bee colony collapse or some other screw-up will put a serious strain on the food supply.

Cheerful bastid, ain't I?

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

TED talks! Fabulous stuff just around the corner! Wait... did we pass the corner? I must have missed it.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

8 January 2014

Birthdays
Freddie Stroma b. 1987 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
Rachel Nichols b. 1980 (Continuum, Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Amityville Horror)
Sarah Polley b. 1979 (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, eXistenZ, Dawn of the Dead, Mr. Nobody)
Amber Benson b. 1977 (Buffy, Gryphon, Supernatural)
Michelle Forbes b. 1965 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Escape from L.A., Battlestar Galactica, True Blood)
John McTiernan b. 1951 (Director, Predator, Last Action Hero, Rollerball [2002])
David Bowie b. 1947 (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Labyrinth, The Hunger)
Terry Brooks b. 1944 (Shannara series)
Yvette Mimieux b. 1942 (The Time Machine, The Black Hole, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm)
Joan Freeman b. 1942 (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Death Moon, Project U.F.O., Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits, Panic in the Year Zero!)
Boris Vallejo b. 1941 (graphic artist)
Roy Kinnear b. 1934 died 20 September 1988 (The Avengers[TV], Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland[1972], Blakes 7)
Kerwin Mathews b. 1926 died 5 July 2007 (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Jack the Giant Killer, Octaman, Battle Beneath the Earth, The Boy who Cried Werewolf, Nightmare in Blood)
Jose Ferrer b. 1912 died 26 January 1992 (Dune, The Swarm, Dracula’s Dog, The Amazing Captain Nemo, Exo-Man, The Sentinel)
William Hartnell b. 1908 died 23 April 1975 (Doctor Who)
Gene Roth b. 1903 died 19 July 1976 (Twilight Zone, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Earth vs. the Spider, She Demons, Zombies of Mora Tau, Red Planet Mars, Mysterious Island [1951])

This is a heck of a birthday list. Sci-fi and fantasy from the 1950s to the 2010s is represented. We have the first Doctor Who, one of Ray Harryhausen's favorite leading men, a bona fide rock star, a great comic actor in Roy Kinnear and a whole of actresses younger than I am who qualify for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot. In Jose Ferrer, we have a respected actor whose later career took a turn into the cheese, not unlike the beloved Vincent Price. Our "Oh, That Guy!" representative is Gene Roth, a tall actor who lasted a long time in the business and in later years played cops, military officers and judges a lot. But the slot goes to the lovely Yvette Mimieux, best known in genre for he work in The Time Machine.

To the living, many happy returns of the day and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 

Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published 1905

Prediction: And one thing which the intelligently-elected Parliaments of the new age will assuredly discover is this principle : that it is not good for the State that any one man, or any one associated body of men, should possess an inordinate amount of wealth.

Reality: Well, this presents a problem. It isn't good for the state to have plutocrats, but since Russell specifically requires "intelligently-elected Parliaments", we are very unlikely to see this prediction tested in our lifetimes.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another visit from Isaac Asimov making his forecast for 2014 from 1964.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

7 January 2014

 Birthdays
Robert Sheehan b. 1988 (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Misfits, Season of the Witch)
Lyndsy Fonseca b. 1987 (Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2)
Lauren Cohan b. 1982 (The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural)
Jeremy Renner b. 1971 (The Avengers, Thor, 28 Weeks Later, Angel)
David Yost b. 1969 (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
Nicolas Cage b. 1964 (National Treasure, Kick-Ass, Ghost Rider, Season of the Witch, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Vampire’s Kiss)
Mark Allen Shepherd b. 1961 (Deep Space Nine)
Robert Longo b. 1953 (director, Johnny Mnemonic)
Erin Gray b. 1950 (The Guild, Nuclear Hurricane, Jason Goes to Hell, Superboy, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
Terry Moore b. 1929 (Mighty Joe Young [1949 and 1998], Death Dimension, Batman)
William Peter Blatty b. 1928 (author, The Exorcist)Gene L. Coon b. 1924 died 8 July 1973 (writer, Star Trek)
Vincent Gardenia b. 1920 died 9 December 1992 (Little Shop of Horrors [1986], The Twilight Zone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Alan Napier b. 1903 died 8 August 1988 (Batman, Twilight Zone, Premature Burial, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Island of Lost Women, The Mole People, The Invisible Man Returns, Cat People)

Interesting birthday list today. Jeremy Renner got the Picture Slot last year, so I was thinking about how to mix it up this year. Both Erin Gray and Lauren Cohan would be well-known faces and meet the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot criteria, and I was surprised at how much work Alan Napier did in genre. As for Nicolas Cage, sadly when you think about his over-acting, it's almost always in genre, which is sad because he did good work early in his career. But instead, I went with Star Trek and a character who never spoke on screen, though Quark often says Morn never shuts up. It should also be mentioned that writer Gene L. Coon is credited with the creation of the Klingons, the Prime Directive and Khan Noonien Singh.

Many happy returns of the day to the living on our list, and to Gene L. Coon, Vincent Gardenia and Alan Napier, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come, published 1933

Prediction: From May 1955 to November 1956, a worldwide epidemic of maculated fever kills half the world's population.

Reality: And with this, we bid a fond farewell to The Shape of Things to Come. Wells makes up a disease which is supposed to exist in baboons and gives it a name which was previously used to discuss typhus.

The reason the book is famously "prophetic" is that he predicted war in Europe starting in 1940 between the Germans and Poles and that the United States and Japan would also be combatants in a separate war in the 1940s. Other than that, the book gets a hell of a lot of stuff wrong and his attitude toward non-Englishmen - most especially the Americans and Irish - is exceedingly prejudiced. As of next Tuesday, we will get a new regular, Ray Kurzweil, making predictions about 2009 in his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We hear from our Wednesday regular T. Baron Russell, not always accurate but a hell of a lot more cheery than Herbert George Wells.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!