Although "Astroboy" is no longer being broadcast on Cartoon Network, the
Adult Swim website still has episodes on its video page. Hurray for the
technology of video streaming!
Come to think of it, "Astroboy" provides some interesting insights on
technology. Osamu Tezuka created Astroboy in the 1950's, but the story
takes place in the year 2000. Like many pop-culture forecasts for this
decade, "Astroboy" was too optimistic about some inventions. For
example, in the year 2007 we still don't have magnetically suspended
automobiles. There are some trains that use this technology, however, so
Tezuka demonstrated some clairvoyance.
Some of the most important inventions to our current age were not
forecast by any of the futuristic tales from decades past. Inventions in
this category include, well, the internet and video streaming. Or should
I say, *most* futuristic fiction did not forecast the internet. I recall
seeing at least two 1960's cartoons that depicted future newspapers as
appearing on a TV screen. One was "The Jetsons", the Hanna-Barbera
follow-up to "The Flintstones". Yup, "The Jetsons" may be silly, and
intentionally so, but it did turn out to be accurate about some aspects
of the future in spite of itself.
The other 1960's cartoon with a newspaper on a TV screen was a black and
white Anime series (sorry I cannot recall which one). But at any rate,
there were cartoons that were at least bold enough to forecast the day
when on-line newspapers would replace the dead tree editions.
Now if we can only find a twentieth century cartoon that predicted the
Nintendo Wii ...
--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"
"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Wizard from "Tooter Turtle"
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