Looking back into the future

Future Living narrows its focus to the personal level, from the Dymaxion Home, to Robot Dogs (well, at least that one came to pass), to the office of 1972 - complete with its "Radio Business Controller." Future War illustrates that humor can be found even on the battlefield - as with the "Gyro-Electric Destroyer." (Think tin cans with gun slits hanging inside a rolling ferris wheel.) Atomic Power reminds us of a time when people looked forward to the imminent arrival of nuclear-powered cars (imagine the consequences of a 10-car pile up), and Future Space offers early predictions of orbital exploration - including a launch method that involved being flung from an appropriately large flywheel.

Future Flight includes another eventually-correct prediction (in this case, the 'flying wing'), while a page dedicated to Atomic Bomber Aircraft ("Atomic" in this case referring to the power source rather than the payload) includes a link to a 2004 Popular Mechanics article reviving the concept of nuclear-powered flight. Future Driving shows that some 'ahead of their time' creations (such as the 1955 Ford Futura) only need a bit of time and tweaking to find their niche (as the 1966 Batmobile). Finally, Tales looks back at Hugo Gernsback - inventor, publisher, and originator of the term "science fiction."

As a private endeavor, Tales of Future Past is subsidized with advertising along the edges of the browser windows, but they're unobtrusive, and there are no pop-ups to distract you from your surfing. Perhaps for the same reason, and with concerns about exceeding the site's bandwidth, images have no links to full-screen versions - though most of the magazine covers are adequately sized. A more vexing problem is the site's navigation. While sub-topic indexes have a back (or in this case, "up") button to incrementally retrace your steps, there is no site navigation bar. And the "home" link takes surfers to the page that hosts Tales, rather than Tales' own home page. You might want to bookmark your starting point and keep it handy for the duration of your visit.

Futurist Jim Dator (really, that's his name) once declared that "any useful statement about the future should seem ridiculous." Well, it's certainly the case that much here seems ridiculous, so perhaps we should wait another 50 years or so before passing judgment. Regardless of their current or eventual accuracy, the Tales of Future Past have undeniable entertainment value.

Tales of Future Past can be found at http://www.davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm.

And if the whole, 'Wasn't the Future Wonderful' concept appeals to you, a similarly-themed site, reviewed in this space way back in 2001, has a new interface and more content. So if you'd like to learn more about Smell-O-Vision, or a 1959 experiment in delivering mail via rocket (not door-to-door, fortunately), drop by the - dare we say it - 'new and improved' http://www.retrofuture.com/.

Page: 1 | 2