2 January 2014

 Birthdays
Kate Bosworth b. 1983 (Superman Returns)
David Gyasi b. 1980 (Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight Rises, Doctor Who, Torchwood)
Dax Shepard b. 1975 (Idiocracy, Zathura: A Space Adventure)
Lucy Davis b. 1973 (Shaun of the Dead)
Taye Diggs b. 1971 (Equilibrium, House on Haunted Hill)
Evan Parke b. 1968 (American Horror Story, King Kong, Charmed, Planet of the Apes [2001])
Cuba Gooding jr. (Hardwired, The Devil’s Tomb, What Dreams May Come, Outbreak)
Tia Carrere b. 1967 (Warehouse 13, Relic Hunter, Kull the Conqueror, Quantum Leap, Zombie Nightmare)
Deborah Watling b. 1948 (Doctor Who, H.G. Wells Invisible Man [1959])
Charles Beaumont b. 1929 died 21 February 1967 (writer, Queen of Outer Space, Burn, Witch, Burn, Premature Burial, Twilight Zone, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Masque of the Red Death)
Jason Evers b. 1922 died 13 March 2005 (The Bionic Woman, The Fantastic Journey, Escape for the Planet of the Apes, The Illustrated Man, Star Trek, The Invaders, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die)
Isaac Asimov b. 1920 (or not) died 4/6/1992 (definitely)
(won 1973 Nebula and Hugo for The Gods Themselves)
(won 1983 Hugo for Foundation’s Edge)

Long birthday list today, a lot of actors from recent genre TV and films. A short explanation of the names of people born in the first half of the 20th Century. Deborah Watling was a companion to the Second Doctor (Patrck Troughton), Jason Evers' role on Star Trek was as the balding guy who was jealous of Kirk when he was accelerated in Blink of an Eye, one of the many episodes where aliens wore shiny costumes. Charles Beaumont was a very prolific writer who died at the age of 38 and the guy in the Picture Slot needs no introduction.

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

Predictor: Isaac Asimov in 1964, predicting the world of 2014

Prediction: In 2014, there is every likelihood that the world population will be 6,500,000,000 and the population of the United States will be 350,000,000. Boston-to-Washington, the most crowded area of its size on the earth, will have become a single city with a population of over 40,000,000.

Population pressure will force increasing penetration of desert and polar areas. Most surprising and, in some ways, heartening, 2014 will see a good beginning made in the colonization of the continental shelves. Underwater housing will have its attractions to those who like water sports, and will undoubtedly encourage the more efficient exploitation of ocean resources, both food and mineral. General Motors shows, in its 1964 exhibit, the model of an underwater hotel of what might be called mouth-watering luxury. The 2014 World's Fair will have exhibits showing cities in the deep sea with bathyscaphe liners carrying men and supplies across and into the abyss.

Reality:  Along with nuclear war, overpopulation was one of the two great worries of futurists in the mid 20th Century. The first didn't happen, at least not yet, and the second did happen, but not exactly in the way people thought it would. Asimov undershot the world population, now estimated at 7.1 billion, and overestimated the United States, now at about 317,300,000. This is because the growth rate has been less than exponential in industrialized nations and is finally slowing in the developing world as well. Boston-to-Washington is not a single city and the population of the top ten cities in that stretch combined does not add up to 20,000,000. The most crowded areas on earth of that size are likely in India or China.

I'll give Asimov a point for increasing penetration of desert areas. The so-called Sun Belt in the United States is mostly desert. In the past 50 years, Albuquerque doubled, Phoenix tripled and Las Vegas has nine times more people than it did in the 1960s, even more if you count its suburbs, which barely existed back in the day.

But then there's the polar and continental shelf stuff. Not so much, Isaac.

I rate this one at about 30% to 40%. Not a passing grade.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

TED Talks! Movers! Shakers! Completely inaccurate pinheads!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

11 October 2013

Birthdays
Michelle Trachtenberg b. 1985 (Buffy)
Matt Bomer b. 1977 (In Time)
Claudia Black b. 1972 (Farscape, Pitch Black)
Stephen Moyer b. 1969 (True Blood)
Michael J. Nelson (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Tim Choate (Babylon 5) b. 1954 died 24 September 2004
David Morse b. 1953 (Contact, World War Z)

An all actor list of birthdays, and most of these actors are best known for TV work. Once again, we have a Babylon 5 actor who died before the age of 60. Tim Choate played Zathras and his character was not mentioned in the main credits. The other four late actors, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, Michael O'Hare and Richard Biggs, were main credit actors.

And so I repeat, a very unlucky show. More than that, it's hard to find it in re-runs or streaming online, so for a younger generation it's considered obscure. That's a shame. It was one of the first sci-fi shows with a long story arc, and it made the Star Trek franchise step up it's game.

Well, that's enough ruing the fate of a 1990s TV show. Many happy returns of the day to the living actors on the list.
 

Songs of the Future!

Prediction: 
The machine that we built
Would never save us that's what they say
That's why they ain't comin' with us today
And they also said it's impossible
For a man to live and breathe underwater…

Predictor: Jimi Hendrix, from the song 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be), recorded in 1968

Reality: Wait. Jimi Hendrix is going to become Ethel Merman? That's... disturbing.

Wait. Scratch that. Misunderstanding. My bad.

They said it was impossible for a man to live and breathe underwater in 1968 and 45 years later... well, they are still saying it.

Nice guitar solo, though.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tomorrow, we will hear another voice from 1893 predict the 20th Century, this time looking at the possibility for a truly American theater experience.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

21 June 2013

Movies released
Minority Report released, 2002

I know it's Tom Cruise, but it's also Steven Speilberg and Philip K. Dick, so I don't that bad saying I actually liked Minority Report, though it did feel like it could have ended thirty minutes earlier than it did. The world looked both futuristic and a little run down, which adds to the realism.

The action is supposed to take place in 2054, which is too far into the future for me to consider it to be verifiable or falsifiable.
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction: People in diving suits will ride giant mutant sea horses for entertainment.

Predictor: French postcards published in 1900

Reality: In a recent comment thread, I said that John Elfreth Watkins was good but tended to be on the cautious side, and his record is better than the later sci-fi writers who are making predictions decades later about 2000 because of his caution and not being enamored of space travel like Clarke, Niven and Heinlein. Space travel didn't exist and did not even look like an option in 1900, and Watkins was not a fiction writer who enjoyed flights of fancy.

I could compare him to the French and German postcards, who are making predictions from 1900 about 2000.

Watkins whips them like red-headed stepchildren.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We get a look at a racist's future wet dream.

No, I'm not talking about Paula Deen on a sugar and butter rush.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

14 June 2013

 Birthdays
Daryl Sabara b. 1992 (Spy Kids, John Carter)
Iain Glen b. 1961 (Resident Evil, Game of Thrones, Lara Croft)

Glen is one of those good/lucky British actors who has just kept working and working. I first noticed him in a couple of underrated non-genre movies from 1990, Mountains of the Moon and Rosencrantz & Guilderstern Are Dead.

Many happy returns to both of these fine fellows.

Movies released
X-Men released, 2001

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Fashionable people will travel in wood and glass submarines to view the wonderful variety of marine creatures.

Predictor: Postcards produced by Hildebrands' German Chocolate in the early 1900s

Reality: Submarines tend to be metal for a reason. Being completely water tight is not optional.

Still, the German chocolate postcards are among the favorite things I found doing the research for this blog, a close second behind my man crush John Elfreth Watkins. I love how many of their predictions are about the wonderful things people will be able to do in their leisure time in the future.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The first prediction from the fiction of James Blish.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

22 March 2013

Birthdays
Matthew Modine b. 1959
William Shatner b. 1931

Mr. Modine has done a lot of work, very little of it in genre films, but he was in The Dark Knight Rises. Mr. Shatner, of course, is best remembered for his work on T.J. Hooker.

I kid. I'm a kidder.

Many happy returns to both gentlemen.
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Humans living underwater will "fish" for seabirds, setting bait on the surface of the water and then dragging the creatures down until they suffocate.


Predictor: French postcards published in 1900

Reality: We are not living underwater for the most part, what with our lungs being built to extract oxygen for the air instead of the water. As for fishing for seabirds, the hook in the food would have to pierce through the bird's bill, not an easy task. More than that, if this actually worked it would be an extremely cruel way to kill these poor creatures, dragging them underwater until they drown.

Of course, it is just as cruel to kill a fish using similar methods. In fishing's defense, let me say that lots of fish make mighty good eating. I've read enough Patrick O'Brian novels to know that except for mutton birds, most seabirds are way too lean and stringy and not worth killing for food.

All of this is the roundabout way of saying we have another example of the French being jerks.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

We got some Snake Plissken last weekend and now we are going back for seconds, this time escaping from Los Angeles instead of New York.
 
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

10 January 2013

In the year 2000!

Prediction: "In the world of the future, we will not be the only intelligent creatures. On of the coming techniques will be what we might call bio-engineering, the development of intelligent and useful servants among the other animals on this planet, particularly the great apes, the dolphins and whales.

"It's a scandal that pre-historic man tamed all the domesticated animals we have today. We haven't added one in the past five thousand years. With our current understanding of animal psychology and genetics, we could certainly solve the servant problem with the help of the monkey kingdom.

"Of course, our super-chimpanzees would start forming trade unions and we'd be right back where we started."

Predictor: Arthur C. Clarke on the 1964 BBC TV show Horizon.

Accuracy: Well, some monkeys are used as helper creatures for people who do not have the use of their arms, but the great apes have not been pulling their weight so far and we aren't doing much in the way of actual bio-engineering, other than making siamese cats much uglier. There is also the United States Navy Marine Mammal Program, but if you can trust Wikipedia, the Navy has decided it would be more humane to turn the mine detection business over to aquatic robots.

And as much as I might like old ACC, his quip about super-chimp trade unions smacks of the condescending attitude of that less talented futurist Newt Gingrich.

Birthday

Fran Walsh b. 1959

Ms. Walsh is a screenwriter and partner of director Peter Jackson.








Looking one day... INTO THE FUTURE! Friday is Antique Postcard Day! We will discover why predictions about life in a hundred years is a terrific way to sell chocolates to Germans.

Or maybe not.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!

4 January 2013

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Underwater vehicles are pulled by whales

Predictor: French postcards from the 1900 Paris Exhibition


Accuracy: Not good. A lot of predictions of what the future should look like are going to get the label "Humans to nature: Be our bitch" Most of these predictions will also have the label "Nature to humans: BITCH, PLEASE".

But when you think of it, putting harnesses on whales and making them swim where we want to go isn't nearly as cruel as killing them for meat and oil we don't really need.

Explanation for the young people: There was a time in the distant past when porn was scarce and difficult to obtain. (No, really. You can look it up or maybe ask your grandpa.) Back in those days, "French postcards" meant "pictures of nekkid wimmens". But in fact not all French postcards were smutty. Some were made for people whose unquenchable thirst was not for the dirty pictures and tingly feelings down there, but instead for knowledge of the future and the tingly feelings IN THE BRAIN! 

Fridays will be Antique Postcard Day. Besides these French postcards from the 1900 Paris Exhibition, there are also German postcards from the same era predicting THE YEAR 2000 distributed by a chocolate maker.

What does chocolate have to do with the future? I have no idea.

Looking ahead one day... INTO THE FUTURE! Our first prediction with an exact date, a date important in the history of time travel.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!