Entertainment For Lively Minds
No flat packs at "IDEA" - Here everything is made-up
Posted by STD on 20 February 2012 - 8:13pm.
As a kid I wished my dad owned the flying car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
When I was a teenager I wished I could transport Jenny Agutter into my room like in Logan's Run.
Nowadays I'd probably settle for the vertical parking facility in I Robot.
Phyllis wants an anti-gravity machine:
Is there something from fiction you've always wanted to have in real life?
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The Babel Fish. Without anybody knowing.
H2G2 itself pretty much exists, of course.
And the orb in Sleeper - and the instant pudding mix was pretty cool too.
The orgasmatron was better than them both
The Ice Microwave
Superfast cooling machine. Warm can of beer? Just put it on medium for 15 seconds!No ice? Stick an ice cube tray of water in on high for 30 seconds!
Reminds me of Steven Wright's microwave bed.
He could have a whole night's sleep in seven minutes. Cool.
A flying-saucer shaped house
Or similiar. Back in the 70s, everyone in SF films lived in them, and od course, they were usually actual houses in California, that a lot of people thought would eventually become the norm. Instead, of course, the entire world got covered in Barrat estates.
Best ever cover story
In World of Wonder if I recall-that's one I should have kept.
Meanwhile at least Lautner's Chemosphere was actually built:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enoughrope/2616227529/
something I have to see one day
Architect John Lautner
Have a look at the Foundation website. Click 'Plans and photographs' and knock yourself out.
http://www.johnlautner.org/home.html
Thanks for the site
Have a book on Lautner but one day would be great to see one.
Some good books out there
On that era in general, Atomic Ranch is one on my list to get
[In fact I may have to subscribe: http://www.atomic-ranch.com/ ]
If you read up a bit,
It's surprising how many 'futuristic' ideas actually did come to exist, but actually proved commercially unpopular. The Bell Telephone company in the US was offering videophones as far back as 1965, but the few major corporations who bought em lost interest.
Mobile-to-mobile video calling, and also Dick-Tracy stylle wristwatch mobiles (and wristwatch sized video players) have been available in the Far East for a good few years now, but again, nobodies that bothered.
Excellent point.
And if you look up robot parking there's no end of versions being tested. It's frequently economics rather than a lack of technological capability that leaves ideas stranded on the drawing board.
However I'm confident the massive will have better suggestions than mine.
My impression is that most of the tech in 2001
Including the Bell videophone, was there in the belief that it would happen, quite soon.
Unfortunately I can't seem to work my videophone (ie dont know how to copy a link from the YouTube app on an iPad ...)
That's Stanley Kubrick's daughter
who definitely existed in 2001.
Casting a child
who could be guaranteed to be unimpressed by the tech, was one of those things that is a hallmark of true genius imo ...
[I think I read somewhere, that being Kubrick a bushbaby was procured and a scene shot and then abandoned ;-)]
Wristwatch sized video player?
VHS or Betamax?
I don't think I'd ever have guessed
we'd see an addon to enable a wrist jukebox to double as a watch:
X Ray specs
And a personal flying machine. Please
{Puts on stern voice} And why do you want X-Ray specs?
Are you in the security industry?
Or the medical profession?
I thought not. No further questions, your honour.
OK then
X-Ray specs and a convincing alibi please
I , on the other hand, need neither qualifications nor alibis
When questioned I merely whip out my sheet of psychic paper and "that will do nicely" is the guaranteed response. It's handy for getting into gigs too..
The Flying Car.
Which has actually been developed at least half a dozen times in the past 100 years, despite the fact that it's patently obvious that it would be completely unworkable in the real world. The first one was patented in about 1924, and theirs still companies in America spending millions on developing new versions.
A time machine
Just think of the gigs you could go to; the unspoilt coastline of the Mediterranean you could visit; the great rail journeys you could go on before either Beeching / Portillo got involved; the smart property purchases you could make.
Genuinely, I would be fascinated to go back to see places as they really were, not least to see how they match up to how we now imagine they were, or even to see whether they match up to our memory of them. It probably says much about me that I would only be interested in using the reverse gear on the time machine; that is, until I wanted to come back to the 21st Century for any medical appointments or pay day.
First stop for ne would be Vauxhall Gardens
as per this thread
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/vauxhall-gardens
I think I'd go and pay my respects to the Handel statue in its original spot, or indeed Mr. HANDEL himself
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/roubiliacs-handel/
Don't know what I saw it in
Some fairly ordinary comedy I think, but it had a machine that enabled you to freeze time (and everyone on Earth) while you were unaffected. If I had one they'd say as I went by, "There goes the greatest roulette player that ever lived." I'd be easy to recognise as I'd be wearing a solid gold suit.
This happened in The Twilight Zone, original series
Guy bought a watch that could stop time while he twatted about doing what he wanted. Then one day his watch gets stuck...
... so think on.
I didn't say there was no downside
I actually searched for the title of the film I was thinking of. It was called Clockstoppers and came out in 2002 and has one of the lowest ratings I've ever seen on IMDB of 5/10.
According to IMDB the plot was taken from two sources, a 1901 HG Wells story "The New Accelerator" and that Twilight Zone you mentioned titled "A Kind of Stopwatch."
Despite the warning I'd still risk it.
Hoi! My wallet's just vanished!
Nicholson Baker did a book about this - the Fermata
Extremely pervy - his stuff tends to be. Stop time and have a grope around as you see fit, essentially.
It was shite
I read that
and was surprised a number of years later to see a British film called "Cashback" which used much the same idea (including the undressing women angle) without crediting The Fermata. I suppose the fact that idea has been used many times allowed them to credit no-one..?
"Somebody's pinched my wallet! Somebody's pinched my arse!"
.
A Tomorrow People jaunting belt
No more buses.
At least Firstbus..
...have made the second bit come true.
Enjoyed seeing Samsung call the Tomorrow People
as part of their prior art defence against Apple
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20096061-248/samsung-cites-kubrick-fil...
As a kid, I think Jaunting would be my #1 dream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination
Just so long as it isn't Stephen King's version...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt_(short_story)
I'll have
a Star Trek Transporter, please. Would be enormously useful.
"Beam me up!"
The Tubes - What Do You Want From Life?
I'll have
the beautifully-restored Third Reich swizzle stick, please.
Nowadays I think it would be a working stem cell brain implant
with a memory booster, somewhat in the manner of the novel Holy Fire,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Fire_(novel)
but unlike its heroine protagonist I think I'll wait for V 2.0 ...
Soylent Green
That stuff looks yummy.
What?
Does it taste like chicken, I wonder?