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Available
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Library's review
Indeholder "Introduction", "1. Our Bodies, Ourselves", "2. Getting There", "3. Scarcity and Other Disasters", "4. Space: Still the Final Frontier", "5. Nuclear Fusion, Weather Control, and Other Technical Marvels", "6. Home Sweet Home", "7. Living, Loving, Earning, and Learning", "8. A Global
Forfatteren mindes sine yngre dage (han er fra 1969) og forudsigelser om flyvende biler og helikoptere i baghaven. Han kigger på mere seriøst mente forudsigelser og finder også her absurde ting, som han underholder læseren med.
Kapitel 1 fortæller om feberfantasier om at forlænge levetiden på den ene eller anden måde.
Kapitel 2 er jetturbinebiler, flyvende biler og hovercraftbiler.
Kapitel 3 er mangel på olie/vand/mad osv.
Kapitel 4 er rumrejser, der aldrig rigtig har rykket siden månerejserne.
Kapitel 5 er fusion, der er lige om hjørnet om 20 år hele tiden og kontrol med vejret, men det var nu ikke så let.
Kapitel 6 er underlige ideer om hvordan vi vil bo og mere eller mindre forkerte gæt på hvor store eller små byer bliver.
Kapitel 7 handler mest om arbejdstid, men helt uden refleksioner over hvorfor 40 timer skulle være et helligt tal.
Kapitel 8 handler om mange gæt på sovjet/USA/Kina som har været helt galt på den.
Kapitel 9 er dommedagsprofetier og fx Jehovas vidner er svære at tage alvorligt efter læsningen. Johannes åbenbaring bliver også analyseret og formentlig var antikrist romerriget og det må jo siges at være besejret.
Til sidst er der et kapitel med Condorset og Jules Verne, som har ramt meget præcist selv med et par hundrede års afstand.
Desværre ser bogen ud til at have været sjovere at skrive end at læse.
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Perspective: Domestic and International Politics", "9. The World Will End ... Pretty Soon", "Afterword", "Acknowledgements".Forfatteren mindes sine yngre dage (han er fra 1969) og forudsigelser om flyvende biler og helikoptere i baghaven. Han kigger på mere seriøst mente forudsigelser og finder også her absurde ting, som han underholder læseren med.
Kapitel 1 fortæller om feberfantasier om at forlænge levetiden på den ene eller anden måde.
Kapitel 2 er jetturbinebiler, flyvende biler og hovercraftbiler.
Kapitel 3 er mangel på olie/vand/mad osv.
Kapitel 4 er rumrejser, der aldrig rigtig har rykket siden månerejserne.
Kapitel 5 er fusion, der er lige om hjørnet om 20 år hele tiden og kontrol med vejret, men det var nu ikke så let.
Kapitel 6 er underlige ideer om hvordan vi vil bo og mere eller mindre forkerte gæt på hvor store eller små byer bliver.
Kapitel 7 handler mest om arbejdstid, men helt uden refleksioner over hvorfor 40 timer skulle være et helligt tal.
Kapitel 8 handler om mange gæt på sovjet/USA/Kina som har været helt galt på den.
Kapitel 9 er dommedagsprofetier og fx Jehovas vidner er svære at tage alvorligt efter læsningen. Johannes åbenbaring bliver også analyseret og formentlig var antikrist romerriget og det må jo siges at være besejret.
Til sidst er der et kapitel med Condorset og Jules Verne, som har ramt meget præcist selv med et par hundrede års afstand.
Desværre ser bogen ud til at have været sjovere at skrive end at læse.
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Publication
New York : Harper, c2009.
Description
A delightful mixture of science fiction, utopian vision, and just plain crazy ideas, Your Flying Car Awaits is a hilarious and insightful compendium of the most outrageous and completely ridiculous predictions of the 20th Century. Award-winning journalist Paul Milo's collection of "Robot Butlers, Lunar Vacations, and Other Dead-Wrong Predictions of the Twentieth Century" is true history on the lighter side, a must for fans of Ken Davis and his bestselling Don't Know Much About® series as well as the popular Darwin Awards books. For an unforgettable journey back through the misguided scientific mindset of the previous century, climb aboard--Your Flying Car Awaits!
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member bragan
The cover copy on this book, not to mention the title, seems to promise a light-hearted, gently mocking look at popular 20th century ideas about the future in which we currently reside. This is somewhat misleading, as it actually deals in a more-or-less thoughtful fashion with carefully considered
Opinions on how well it succeeds at this may vary; I know my own opinion varied considerably as I read. The initial section, which covers biology and medicine, didn't impress me very much. Its focus on the reality rather than prediction disappointed me a little, since it covered a lot of ground I was already familiar with. It also seemed to me that the author was dealing with some complex subjects (such as genetic engineering and human cloning) in a rather cursory fashion, and there were even a few statements which were scientifically iffy. The later sections were generally more satisfying, though, with the exception of an oddly out-of-place chapter on religious End Times predictions. Particularly interesting were the parts that focused on domestic and social issues, as those provided some worthwhile (albeit still not terribly deep) discussions comparing the assumptions and expectations of the previous and current generations.
Should you ever happen to find yourself in possession of a time machine and an urge to jump back fifty years or so and mess with the timeline by telling people about what's to come, you could do a lot worse than to bring a few copies of this book with you. The reactions should be highly interesting. Otherwise, it's a decent enough read if you don't go into it expecting either lots of laughs or lots of analysis.
For the record, though, I don't think it ever even mentions robot butlers.
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but ultimately incorrect suggestions made by serious futurists, and often spends more time tracing the ways in which trends and technologies actually did develop than on what people expected to happen.Opinions on how well it succeeds at this may vary; I know my own opinion varied considerably as I read. The initial section, which covers biology and medicine, didn't impress me very much. Its focus on the reality rather than prediction disappointed me a little, since it covered a lot of ground I was already familiar with. It also seemed to me that the author was dealing with some complex subjects (such as genetic engineering and human cloning) in a rather cursory fashion, and there were even a few statements which were scientifically iffy. The later sections were generally more satisfying, though, with the exception of an oddly out-of-place chapter on religious End Times predictions. Particularly interesting were the parts that focused on domestic and social issues, as those provided some worthwhile (albeit still not terribly deep) discussions comparing the assumptions and expectations of the previous and current generations.
Should you ever happen to find yourself in possession of a time machine and an urge to jump back fifty years or so and mess with the timeline by telling people about what's to come, you could do a lot worse than to bring a few copies of this book with you. The reactions should be highly interesting. Otherwise, it's a decent enough read if you don't go into it expecting either lots of laughs or lots of analysis.
For the record, though, I don't think it ever even mentions robot butlers.
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LibraryThing member meggyweg
The author takes various predictions that were made fifty-odd or a hundred-odd years ago about what the state of the world would be today, explains why these predictions were made, and how and why they didn't work. In the very last chapter, he talks about some predictions that were eerily accurate.
This book is always interesting and often funny. The only fault I can find is that there are no notes, not even a bibliography, which is a big disappointment.
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Reading this book actually made me less fearful for the future; perhaps today's doomsayers will turn out to be just as wrong as the gloomy forecasters of the early 20th century.This book is always interesting and often funny. The only fault I can find is that there are no notes, not even a bibliography, which is a big disappointment.
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LibraryThing member BakuDreamer
Ought to have some pictures ( and actually would work better as a blog/website ), but some good survey information
LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 3.25* of five
The Publisher Says: Talking dolphins . . . Underwater cities . . . Two-hundred-year life spans . . . Welcome to the present!
People have always imagined what life would be like in the future. Most of the time they've been wrong. Often they were really, really wrong. Your Flying
Space tourism will be ubiquitous by the year 2000
Nuclear explosives will be used for commercial demolition
Engineered and man-made oceans will cover the planet
Weather will be as predictable and controllable as a train schedule
An eye-opening, fascinating, and endlessly entertaining collection of truly boneheaded scientific predictions from the past hundred years, Your Flying Car Awaits shines an illuminating light on the people of the previous century by examining the ridiculous theories they envisioned about this one.
My Review: A fast-paced, entertaining overview of how Today was supposed to look. The author's narrative voice is conversational, so reading the book is like barstool/family room sofa beer-fueled chats with your best buddy.
In my youth, predating the author's by a decade or so, I loved finding the old issues of Popular Mechanix and the others of that stripe in my father's pack-rat piles or the library's musty old boxes. The illustrations on the covers...! Oh, and the headlines: "You Will Have Robot Slaves by 1965!" "First Moonbase by 1970!" "Mars is Ours!"
The future was such a cool place back then. I was looking forward to flying TWA to the Moon Marriott. I couldn't wait to board the Concorde, which I got to do one round trip in the 1990s...noisy damned thing. It was the closest I ever got to anything I saw in the magazines. The beautiful turbine cars! The personal copters!
*sigh* Reality sucks.
But one thing I can truthfully say I'm delighted has not come to pass: Flying cars. Most people can't drive the ground cars they have with anything like expertise. Put 'em in charge of something heavy, unstable, and 500ft in the air...the mind boggles.
Another area of contention that was predicted to be a Wild West bonanza: designer babies whose genes were totally under the parents' control. It seems to be an area that makes all the atavistic need for control of our bodies go on Red Alert. Even though the possibility of ending most birth defects through gene therapy is on the horizon, in a world with anti-vaccine loopy goofs it seems likely that we'll be in for another round of silly, time-consuming arguments about "just because we can doesn't mean we should." *yawn*
All in all, reading this light essay on man's hubris in assuming he can predict the future was entertaining, enjoyable, and time I felt was well-spent.
The Publisher Says: Talking dolphins . . . Underwater cities . . . Two-hundred-year life spans . . . Welcome to the present!
People have always imagined what life would be like in the future. Most of the time they've been wrong. Often they were really, really wrong. Your Flying
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Car Awaits looks at the most outrageous predictions from twentieth-century scientists, novelists, and social commentators, detailing the technologies and philosophies that led some great (and not so great)minds to think the ridiculous was achievable. Includes phenomenally inaccurate predictions such as:Space tourism will be ubiquitous by the year 2000
Nuclear explosives will be used for commercial demolition
Engineered and man-made oceans will cover the planet
Weather will be as predictable and controllable as a train schedule
An eye-opening, fascinating, and endlessly entertaining collection of truly boneheaded scientific predictions from the past hundred years, Your Flying Car Awaits shines an illuminating light on the people of the previous century by examining the ridiculous theories they envisioned about this one.
My Review: A fast-paced, entertaining overview of how Today was supposed to look. The author's narrative voice is conversational, so reading the book is like barstool/family room sofa beer-fueled chats with your best buddy.
In my youth, predating the author's by a decade or so, I loved finding the old issues of Popular Mechanix and the others of that stripe in my father's pack-rat piles or the library's musty old boxes. The illustrations on the covers...! Oh, and the headlines: "You Will Have Robot Slaves by 1965!" "First Moonbase by 1970!" "Mars is Ours!"
The future was such a cool place back then. I was looking forward to flying TWA to the Moon Marriott. I couldn't wait to board the Concorde, which I got to do one round trip in the 1990s...noisy damned thing. It was the closest I ever got to anything I saw in the magazines. The beautiful turbine cars! The personal copters!
*sigh* Reality sucks.
But one thing I can truthfully say I'm delighted has not come to pass: Flying cars. Most people can't drive the ground cars they have with anything like expertise. Put 'em in charge of something heavy, unstable, and 500ft in the air...the mind boggles.
Another area of contention that was predicted to be a Wild West bonanza: designer babies whose genes were totally under the parents' control. It seems to be an area that makes all the atavistic need for control of our bodies go on Red Alert. Even though the possibility of ending most birth defects through gene therapy is on the horizon, in a world with anti-vaccine loopy goofs it seems likely that we'll be in for another round of silly, time-consuming arguments about "just because we can doesn't mean we should." *yawn*
All in all, reading this light essay on man's hubris in assuming he can predict the future was entertaining, enjoyable, and time I felt was well-spent.
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009
Physical description
xiii, 280 p.; 21 cm
ISBN
9780061724602
Local notes
Omslag: Justin Dodd / Knickerbocker
Omslaget viser i grafisk form nogle af de skøre forudsigelser plottet mod en tidsskala
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Side 36: Walt Disney er ikke frosset ned, hans aske ligger på en californisk kirkegård.
Side 125: one side of the moon is perpetually facing the sun and there are never any cloudy days. Sikke noget ævl
deadwrong
Omslaget viser i grafisk form nogle af de skøre forudsigelser plottet mod en tidsskala
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Side 36: Walt Disney er ikke frosset ned, hans aske ligger på en californisk kirkegård.
Side 125: one side of the moon is perpetually facing the sun and there are never any cloudy days. Sikke noget ævl
deadwrong
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Pages
xiii; 280
DDC/MDS
| 909.82 |