Mork calling orson… come in orson…. you stole my jet pack punk!

Well ladies and gents young and old big and small, lets again take a look back into our past as they try to predict our future. And there are so many things to choose from thanks to the brilliant folks over at Popular Mechanics and this little work of fiction the wonderful future that never was… things that im pretty sure without this book would be forever forgotten to history and we would not have the fortune to ask one very important question….. What the hell were we thinking?!?!
From flying cars, to jet packs, extra light weight housing, cities covered by a massive dome to the skyscraper and faster automobiles one has to admit that our ancestors were definitely creative. So what goodies have I chosen to look at today im sure we are all dying to know. So class please open your text to chapter two, we will be looking at the following pages 54, 62, and 66 and yes there will be a pop quiz at the end of today lesson.

Yes im looking at two of our favorite things food and clothing. The predictions on pg. 54 are mostly focused on clothing made from everything including asbestos that can be cleaned by fire, aluminum that will provide added durability, and last but not least clothing made from petroleum as we will have so much of it available. Page 62 offers us the idea that our milk and butter will one day be made from kerosene and …AND! Will be served in either a pill or concentrated form. And finally pg. 66 brings an idea to combat the possible future food shortage of the future by creating synthetic foods from coal and fats from petroleum.

 

Now when we look at these wonderfully imaginative idea’s does anyone else sit and ask themselves if our ancestors were just a little bit suicidal. Now im not being negative or saying that these were bad ideas but I have a little issue with wearing and eating things that burn. I am also not saying that they were unaware of the use for these items to produce heat and fire, but I think the logic was a little off somewhere. But what these things do tell us is that they were looking for ways to make our lives that much easier, it would be fantastic not to have to wash clothing but to run it through the fire just as it would be to not have to slave over a hot stove/oven in order to put a meal on the table or churn butter (if anyone was still doing that).

 

But then again lets think about this are we not too doing the same thing? Looking for ways to make our lives that much easier…. I mean we still think its possible to live on other planets who’s to say that 100 years from now we might be looked at just as crazy for this thought or the constant push to go faster than ever before. However the one thing that we haven’t quite gotten (that other countries seem to) is the idea to build UP instead of out. We did have this idea once I think we called it New York but I really don’t know what happened after that. So in short in the past there were the excitement of possibility and now its more or less the recognition of it all… and the betterment of man in there somewhere. 

Here endeth the lesson (just because i kinda love Sean Connery)

 

No such thing as aliens, that was a weather balloon... a very oddly shaped weather balloon....

Well cats and kittens it’s that time again… what’s that you say? No it’s not time to go back to the future… well maybe it is. Looking at the displays from the ’39 world’s fair we are again reminded of a simpler time before modern horror films, before reality that the 9-5 was going to be the bane of your existence and no matter what you did you’re still stuck but hey you can always dream right? No this was a time when ‘merica still used its imagination, before we became a bitter world dominating society and strove to be the innovators in technology…. Yes, before the cold war paranoia.

But we can see the beginning of or the infant stages of American infatuation with science fiction in this great exhibition. The thought that by today we would all be living like the jetsons (before the concept of the jetsons was there) going to work in flying cars, having robots ding almost everything for us all to make our lives that much more simple in the end. But one thing that stuck out the most was the power of corporate America at the fair, take a gander around the fair complex the various little mini cities and you will find corporations that are still around today but the most interesting was in the transportation district... And surely a sign of where the country was heading. As you look at the layout map so you don’t get lost you see that the rail industry is represented, as well as the aviation industry but the main centerpiece were the big two Ford and Chevrolet. Right smack in the middle the largest venues in this space. And yes maybe this is because the automobile was taking new forms, getting bigger and better and going faster. Gone were the days of the model T and a max speed of 15 miles an hour, as president van buren one said of the rail system surely humans were not meant to travel as such speeds. But travel we did and faster we went until today we have the bullet train and cars capable of hitting over 200 miles an hour in seconds.

 

But this by no means is the only example I offer you dear reader, in the midst of this wonder land if you look ever so closely you will see almost a mini version of a united world. The UN on created on these fair grounds, many of the prominent countries and even some not so prominent each having a little building in the city, to represent or introduce even their culture their people. Signs of world unification when hostilities in Europe were raging under the Nazi regime here we could at least pretend there was some harmony.

Yes the fair gave us hope that one day we would be living in an easy society where life was easy travel took hours instead of days and clothing was made from something other than wool or cotton (like petroleum or some form of plastic based material that held up better than any natural material in use) we would always have a view of nature because our homes would be made from glass…. But then the concept of there still being nature to admire is one which I personally am highly jealous of as today we have paved over most of the natural beauty that surrounds us.  

At the same time that we are imagining this wonderful harmonious world we were also preparing for one which at any point in time we could be taken over and made into a slave race by those who were far more technologically advanced than we…. Yes my darling followers I am talking about the ever menacing space aliens. Which at the time we had no actual visual concept of what they could possibly look like just that they were most certainly evil.

 

Let’s look at Mr. Wells fantastic story of invasion, the one that caused such a panic… here we have to ask ourselves why this fictional story caused such uproar at the time. Yes it is well known that this was a time of fire side chats with Franklin instead of zoning out to the latest reality TV show but there was a warning.  And yet panic ensured people left their homes to stare at the sky to get a glimpse of the invader ships which never came… because they were not real. By failing to listen to the end they failed to realize that what they were hearing was nothing more than fiction. But yet I cannot fault them totally… as the broadcast was presented as just another regular radio program with music to be enjoyed and news interruptions when necessary.

Nothing in the program was fact as there was no scientific evidence to state that alien life existed, just simple speculation and a great imagination. I mean we could only really assume that the aliens have heat rays of death and can annihilate an entire town in seconds. But then from there let’s look where we went with it, because the idea of invasion didn’t just die off like a bad joke. We took it further until we have the television series V, movies like the cone heads and the alien series but also comedies like Doctor Who and Red Dwarf (thanks England) somehow we found humor, love, and of course fear in our thoughts of alien life even the realization that they could easily look just like us. And I think we are a little more comfortable with that thought than with the giant green monsters with huge eyes and no mouths.

But I’ll leave you with this, as you may have noticed this posting is littered with little lewd images of the future from French artist Jean-Marc Cote from 1900and his ideas of life in the year 2000. As we look at the whole series of work one realized that he really wasn’t that far off on some of his ideas. The one which sticks out most being the idea of video calling which we now know as Skype. So I leave you with those and a link to more of his visual delicacies and i also leave you with this 30 second re-enactent of war of the worlds.... performed by bunnies... That’s all for this week darlings as I have so much time and so little to do…

Wait.

 Strike that, reverse it.
 

Relevent link for this course

So i happened upon this link while searching for this weeks entertainment and thought it was rather relative for this current endeavor we are on in our class. Hope you enjoy it, ill follow up with my post for the week momentarily. covers the 1870's to the 1990's Paleo Future (original site) and also
the new new new site Paleo Future (Smithsonian Blog)

but enough about this sweety darling.

here is a picture of proper use of the Olympic torch according to Absolutely Fabulous

random side note regarding last weeks post

so when i originally posted the title  about doctor who i had not heard that the new season would have an episode involving dinosaurs (in fact this past weekend). needless to say i was thrilled

though i have to ask as i read over the post from last week is anyone else somewhat disappointed that they never rebuilt the crystal palace after the fire in 36? i have always been fascinated by the stories of the structure and wish it was still able to be seen today but then again i have a soft spot for thing of the 19th C especially the Victorians.... (mostly mens clothing styles though and no not in a steam punk way)

oh well thats enough rambling for one night have a good week i leave you with this brilliant it of graffiti art depicting the one and one the amazing Billie Holiday

I bet doctor who knows what the dinosaurs looked like

 

Then: 1850-1950 (ish)

Well kats and kitn’s lets have a talk about those oh so fabulous creatures we have come to know as dinosaurs, or as I like to think those things I am ever so grateful that were not inhabiting the earth at the same time as early man.

One has to try and think what the best way to tell this story would be as where this starts is a fantastic time of discovery especially when it comes to scientific advances. You see not only were we digging up Egypt and claiming all the little countries that “weren’t as advanced” (or as Eddie Izzard likes to say through a cunning use of flags) but also dinosaur bones had been discovered.

What to make of these giant….. things? There was nothing really new about them as bones had been being discovered for centuries but now we were starting to put them together (if scattered) and getting a picture of what was. As we look at the pictures of the representations offered at the crystal palace expo in 1854 we can see the transition away from dragons and into a possible reptile of some kind I mean the term dinosaur was less than 20 years old in terms of use to describe these things. So when it comes to making a visual representation of something that no one understands what do you do?

You make art.

And that’s pretty much the case of what Richard Owen did for the expo, he created an idea based on the bare minimum that was presented to him. But isn’t that how most artistic ideas begin a spark of creativity and free reign to just go with it. I mean its like the cysteine chapel or any religious rendition of biblical figures…. Basically we re-create what we know to be fact. So these creatures came to resemble those that remained in a seriously larger form (dogs, pigs, lizards, snakes, birds). Let’s not forget that that in this time period things advanced and realizations were made (like the originals were a little off) but it wasn’t until the later half of the 20^th century that we began to realize that the dinosaurs we had come to recognize as correct were also still off.

So knowing this why do we still continue to be awed by these things? because they are the originals that started it all.

 

Now: 1951-Present

Even looking at the paintings of Charles Knight we can see how the idea of what these things looked like was changing comparing his earlier portraits to those later in his life. From skin to height to color we were gaining new understandings as more and more information (fossils) were being discovered. The problem however was that sometimes these bones just happen to sorta kinda belong to the wrong creature. And so my fine feathered friends its pretty safe to say that what we grew up with (well more likely myself our instructor and anyone else born before 1985) was also more than likely inaccurate.

Thanks to technology as well as discoveries of fossils in lava or amber we are given a much more realistic glimpse as to what these creatures may have actually looked like. Some may have actually been feathered or covered in a short fur, others may have been smooth skinned. Dinosaurs are like the prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box (if they even still do that) you just never know what it is.

We have come to have a love affair with these creatures even to the point of forcing our children to love them by making them toys, cartoons, and insisting that they go on the annual field trip to the museums. We have turned them from something that we know could easily kill us into something that could be a pet and sing us lullabies when we go to sleep. For me personally I have never really been a fan of them, sure they are great and historical but they are dead and while its great to rediscover them its not so great to try and bring them back to life. I don’t know about you but I really don’t want to be dinner or step in the mess one would make in the front yard.

Quickly Giles, We have so much time and so little to do… strike that. Reverse it.

I rush full excitement into the museum; grateful to find Giles has gotten my message and come in early. I can see that he is annoyed, but its no matter today will be the day! Today we must prepare as we have a new piece arriving within the hour.

So much to do! So much to do! The placard, have I ordered the placard… wait has it come in? Retrieve the pamphlets from the printer, No! First decide the information that needs to be in them and have them printed! Find the extra barrier ropes, the lights! Oh lorde someone check the lights, we can’t have anything go wrong today or we will never be ready.
.
Finally Giles stops me just long enough to ask "WHAT is all the fuss about?!?!"

His timing could not have been more perfect as at that very moment our newest prize is delivered.

"Ah! This boy is what the quote un-quote fuss is about."

I walk hurriedly over to the portrait now leaning against the wall. It is still carefully wrapped with saran wrap and a very thin piece of plywood placed carefully over the canvas; taking scissors in hand we remove this last bit of protection to reveal our newest treasure.

“Um, ok… so what is the fuss about exactly?” Giles stares looking confused.

I look at him with slight bewilderment has he no concept of science and its importance to us historically? As we stand a moment in silence his expression remains unchanged and i begin thinking of the best way to rectify the situation before finally remembering the pamphlets.

“Giles I have a project for you and I know that you will be the best person to get this done on time as we need it before the exhibit opening tomorrow. I need you to gather information on Jedidiah Morse, which is the man in the center of the portrait; your findings will be used by the tour guides when explaining the piece. ”

With a yes ma’am Giles sets off on his task and I begin to finalize the other remaining task.

-LATER THAT DAY-

 Shortly after two that afternoon Giles returns to my office carrying several pages of notes, impressed I take them and begin to review his findings.

“Well done, you have found some great information here. Definitely give the year and where he was born, that he was the father of Samuel Morse (the telegraph), and that he was a pastor.” Pausing to rifle through the pages “But his importance to science and history was his contribution to education, so let’s also include that he published his first book on geography (Geography made easy) while teaching at a school for women in 1784 and that he followed it with American Geography in 1789 which is the publication that earned him the title “Father of American Geography. I think that should be plenty.”

Giles nods but I can tell he does not fully agree with my decision.

“Well what about his appointment by the secretary of war to study the native populations, or his views on the Illuminati, contributions to the Dobson’s encyclopedia, and his beliefs on civilizing and converting the native people?”

 Obviously pleased at his new found interest in the subject I smile “You see now why i chose this piece, in it represents much of what you have found in your research here. His wife representing the girls he taught. His sons, all of which went on to be highly successful and contribute to to the advancement of our society listening intently as he shares his vast knowledge. yes all of the things you have said are also very important, but remember we have to keep the tours within a certain time limit."

Giles give a nod again satisfied for the moment

“Great now get this information to the printers also find a good cover photo we can use.”

good day Heir Einstein!

Oh my dear Mr. Einstein with that interesting little smirk you seem to always have,

Where have you gone in times when things seem that chaos is all we have ever really known? No need to explain sir, of course we already know the answer... you’re a little dead at the moment. But that’s ok. despite everything that you have done and given us in the great world of science you are unfortunately remembered for the most destructive creation known to man and therefore the beginning much of the tension facing he world today. Yes it’s sad i know but there are many of us who choose not to remember you in this way, like me i tend to prefer those images of a young Einstein, or those where its obvious that you are finding great amusement in whatever activity you are undertaking at the moment that image was captured.

But i also cannot deny how your crazy seemingly all over the place hair contribute to the "mad scientist" image embraced by those captivated with sci-fi. You know the images, much like watching Frankenstein the scientist dashing around wild eyed in his lab before finding a great discovery and crying out its alive!!!!! Yes my dear dear Mr. Einstein you and all your brilliance are associated with this image.

But let’s get back to you, in those moments captured so long ago... where it seems that you are at your happiest moments. And maybe that’s it, maybe you are because while we know there is always a great form of joy in doing that which you love be it science or mathematics or drawing we all need a break of some form. we need that moment where we can just be. Where being a child or at least childlike is the answer a moment of serenity, an escape from reality. What this tells me is that even though you remained dedicated to your work, your art you recognize the need to have a moment where you can just breathe. Because its not always about being serious, if we all walked around with this stern serious look on our faces then we might as well all dress in gray and change our names to Al followed by a series of numbers making us no different from the people that sit around me at this bar as i write this.

what you tell us in these oh so candid moments is that science though time consuming can and at times is something to be enjoyed. And that though it is a serious field of study that without it i would not be able to sit at this moment and write these words we would still be banging away on the typewriters that you yourself may have used. it reminds us today that science and the continued exploration thereof are necessary. and really let’s just be honest you look like you were probably a pretty fun guy when you weren't busy discovering something for the betterment of humanity.

so for those of us who remember that your greatest and most tragic discovery was not meant to be the complete and utter destruction of all mankind or a method of constant tension among nations, thank you for still having the drive (even after it was taken over by the government and turned into a weapon of war). Thank you for having the drive to discover something for the good of man and not the glory.