On Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:52:37 -0500, "Frank J. Lhota"
<FrankLho.NOSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>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 im****tant 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 internet ... Asimov's Multivac, which predicted a computer
over Niagra Falls using the water for both power and cooling,
and connected to everywhere via TELEX.
Gerrold's _When Harley Was One_ included the idea of a National
Data Bank.
As for a decentralized computer system, I'm not seeing anything
before Christopher Stasheff's _The Warlock In Spite of Himself_
(1969) - but that was idea that nearly everyone in a (democratic)
Galactic civilization would have an AI information manager.
-Galen
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