[PREV - PRIMITIVE_FUTURES]    [TOP]

JAM

                                             July 13, 2021

It's an old bit among
science fiction writers:
                                                   I picked up on this
  Okay, maybe you could predict the car,           in my extensive reading
  but could you predict the traffic jam?           about the world of
                                                   Science Fiction circa
                                                   the mid-seventies, you
Landing on the moon was a                          could call it a
widely discussed possibility,                      challenge posed to
but the actual event turned out                    "futurists" in general.
to a widely shared collective
activity: it was broadcast live                     There's a good deal of
on television.                                      waffling about whether SF
                                                    writers try to "predict the
The old vision of isolated                          future"-- they almost
explorers stiking out on their own                  invariably deny it, but when
was obviated by modern-- circa                      they get one right you
1969-- communications technology.                   definitely hear about it.


   Imagining hand-held portable
   communications devices was
   pretty easy-- Chester Gould
   had his cops running around
   with "wrist radios" way back
   when.

   Thinking about what it's like
   when everybody has gadgets
   like that, that's a trickier
   problem.







--------
[NEXT - PRIMITIVE_MODERNS]