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#75924 07/15/02 02:22 AM
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Maybe this is understating the question entirely, but how does visionary feel? It at least encompasses *some* of the aspects you're getting at... <shrug>


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Way to go Pedalfish, you've asked we good people to supply a name for a concept that will jell once a name is given. Kinda like having the outboard motor in the front of the boat. Well Fishpedal, thats no hill for a stepper. Dig these...Da ja vu, da ja va, oui? or maybe something more catchy like...futurecalilisticallidosis.
Get real. Build us a proper stadium and we, the world, will come. - -


#75926 07/15/02 08:44 AM
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(a)Thunderbirds http://www.thunderbirdsonline.co.uk was produced in the 1960s, but set in 2020(ish). The look of the technology, but more especially the hairstyles and clothing adopted by the puppet stars, were very much 60s styles, albeit cutting-edge 60s styles.

Don't forget the music, FoaB! Who can forget those old classics Captain Scarlet! Captain Scarlet! and Marina, Aqua Marina [Pass the sick-bag emoticon]


Produced 1969, very daringly set in 1985!
but we'd still have early 70s clothes and hairstyles
but, but I did! [flared trousers emoticon]

Unlike Thunderbirds, UFO used real live actors, which made the dated styles even more obvious. What I find most entertaining about UFO now is the idea that roads could actually be less busy in 15 years time

That's because everyone would have achieved Utopia and would be swanning at home being looked after by their robot servants (probably).

One thing I always remember about Space:1999 is the date when the Moon separated from the Earth - September 13th 1999 - because it appeared at the beginning of every episode. That day I had just gone for an interview and went into work straight after. When I asked anyone if they knew the significance of the date they shrugged and shook their heads. Then, when I told them Space:1999 all the thirty-somethings' heads turned and lit up. Everyone knew the date but had almost forgotten it after almost 15 years.


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you've asked we good people to supply a name for a concept that will jell once a name is given

Well yes, milum - but minor little niceties like that never stopped us before.

Reminds me for some reason of RD Laing's "poem" in Knots about the finger and the moon:
http://www.oikos.org/knots7.htm

futurecalilisticallidosis
This would, of course, be the pathological - often chronic - condition whereby the sufferer believes the future must be the same as the present. A classic example:
"I have bad breath now, therefore I will always have bad breath"

Or am I confusing it with "futurecalilistihalitosis"?




#75928 07/15/02 10:28 AM
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Don't forget the music, FoaB!
Oh yes. Captain Scarlet also had the best lyrics ever:

They crash him, and his body may burn.
They smash him, but they know he'll return,
To live again.

http://time-screen.freeyellow.com/scelyr.htm


>>daringly set in 1985!..but we'd still have early 70s clothes and hairstyles
but, but I did! [flared trousers emoticon]

Umm, yeah, me too, come to think of it.

September 13th 1999
Like your colleagues, I remember the date now you come to mention it. The Moon getting blown out of orbit provides a brilliant apocalyptic scenario, doesn't it? I suppose there was a bit of an environmental warning there, too, as the chain reaction and explosion was caused by the storage of huge amounts of radioactive waste on the Dark Side of the Moon.

"Everything under the Sun is in tune
But the Sun is eclipsed by the Moo-oon.."



#75929 07/15/02 10:38 AM
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how does visionary feel?

Actually I was starting to think "visionary" goes very much in the right direction myself, FB.

Maybe we'd contrast visionaries (dynamic/dramatic/non-linear predictions) with futurologists (linear predictions)?

What would be the opposite of "linear"? Perhaps this could be tied in with Chaos Theory, where you get past a certain quantitative value and there is a qualitative change, i.e. it's more like changing over to a different graph/formula than following the same formula.

(At this rate I'll get a chance to incorporate all of my interests in this thread )




#75930 07/15/02 10:45 AM
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<<From Earth to Moon>>

I have read that the gun Verne describes is essentially a technology that has since been developed, and is called a "rail gun." It involves a pair of charged parallel rods the projectile is hurled by plasma. This overcomes the barrier of maximum velocity to which gas expanding in a tube can excellerate, something like 20,000 mph. This, however, is another 'fact' retrieved from boyhood memory.

As to your original question, what is "futurism." (sorry, no time to look)


#75931 07/15/02 11:20 AM
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what is "futurism"

Ah - Futurism per se hasn't been mentioned yet, Peter , but now you come to mention it:
http://www.futurism.org.uk/

(It's an art movement with political aspects, for those who can't be bothered with clicking the link)

Argh - does this mean that we shouldn't talk about people like Alvin Toffler and Buckminster Fuller as "futurists" (or rather "Futurists") ?

I think "futurology" (a proponent of which would be a "futurologist"), as first mentioned by tsuwm, is something different again. More of a pseudo-science, but with the central tenet that it deals with future possibilities based on current trends.





#75932 07/15/02 11:32 AM
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Actually, I keep a copy of "Future Shock" on my bookshelf just to tell me what WON'T happen ...

- Pfranz

#75933 07/15/02 12:04 PM
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just to tell me what WON'T happen

Rumour has it that Gerry Anderson was Bill Gates' technical advisor for The Road Ahead.

Although another rumour has it that Bill Gates doesn't need any help on that front.





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