like any science kid in the 60's (now known as a "geek*"), i had a fascination with what the future might be like. flying cars, picture phones and men on the moon, sure ... but there'd be other stuff too. i'd think about it, talk about it. play with toys about it. i thought it was amazing and thrilling and scary and so, so very cool. i couldn't believe that i'd actually live to see the 21st century.
well, i live there now. and, not surprisingly, it's both more and less than i was expecting.
the whole purpose of this 'blog is to write about the future from the point of view of the past, the past from the point of view of the future, and the future from where we pen at the moment.
i'll be joined on here by my good friend, d4rw1n. a close friend of my brother's growing up, he's now a power international trade lawyer in washington DC. together we've trod the deserts of rajasthan, danced to kraftwerk and eaten the very best in cheap oysters. he heard about my idea and it struck a chord. d4rw1n's an analyst and a titan ... i'm extremely interested to hear what he has to say.
we'll be updating this sporadically, but continually.
(side note: i've always called this idea, "i live in the future," but some spudnut has locked that blogspot address without updating it so i've settled for this name instead.)
if you'd like to contribute a piece, either as a one-off, or as an ongoing member, please let me know. we'd love to have you play along.
before you go, consider this: right this very moment is the youngest you'll ever be for the rest of your life.
(and ask yourself this question, is the comment above tangential to the topic as a whole? or is your answer far more sinister than that.)
welcome to the future vitrine. i hope you enjoy the view.
*a term that, in the past, was more of an answer to a trivia question than anything else -- it referred to carnies that would bite the heads off of chickens in sideshows.
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I thought of this 'blog when I read this article yesterday; do your vitrines have any of this stuff in them?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_14207868
To the point of looking at the future from the past (and seeing how past events have impacted the future):
ReplyDeleteWe recently borrowed a DVD collection from the library for our kids to watch. It originally aired on BBC in the 1970’s – I had never seen it before, but my husband had, and found it fascinating then.
It is is James Burke’s Collections 1:
http://www.amazon.com/Connections-1-5-Disc-Set/dp/B000NJVY3U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263619663&sr=1-1
I just saw my first installment of the program this evening, and I am awe-struck by how inventions and events of the past shaped the world we lived in when the show was produced. Water-powered machinery and mapping of the stars contributed to the eventual modern (at the time) punch card system for running computers! I explained to my kids that some of their relatives came through Ellis Island (where the first punch-card system was used in the late 1800’s to tabulate immigrants to the US), and that I did computer programming in college with a punch card system just like they showed on the program.
My daughter, who is wiki-savvy and has an email address through school at age 11, scoffed at the comment by Mr. Burke: “Most people see computers as sophisticated adding machines”.
Who knew in 1975 that my family would have three computers in our home today, enabling us to communicate with people across the globe, instantaneously, for free, with the use of a QWERTY keyboard?