The Lost Highway

Timeshredder writes, I find the art of futures past, that post-war vision of the late twentieth/ early twenty-first century that never happened, both amusing and heartbreaking, and a friend just send me a link to an exhibit of just such material. Check it out. This submission didn’t really fit an existing category, so let’s tack on a question and call it “Ask The Bureau.” Which single technological advancement do you want the most?

10 replies on “The Lost Highway”

  1. What technological advance….?
    Cool-looking yet impossibly pollution-free spaceships that can take us somewhere interesting on one fill-up.

  2. Reminds Me Of A Gibson Story
    Called the ‘Gernsback Continuum’, it dealt with a character who found himself floating between reality and the ‘promised future’ that never arrived.

    It’s in William Gibson’s ‘Burning Chrome’. Definitely worth the read. Toss some Fagen on the player and relax.

    Tensai
    “A Just Machine To Make Big Decisions”

    • Re: Reminds Me Of A Gibson Story

      It’s in William Gibson’s ‘Burning Chrome’. Definitely worth the read. Toss some Fagen on the player and relax.

      Tensai
      “A Just Machine To Make Big Decisions”

      Glad to hear I’m not the only one who remembers that story or links IGY to it. :)

    • Re: Reminds Me Of A Gibson Story

      Called the ‘Gernsback Continuum’

      I remember this story too, quite haunting. The whole Burning Chrome collection is pretty good. Even the title story “Burning Chrome” is a double-entendre. I remember another story in there about a video game, seems like it was a holographic dogfight simulator, and there was some guy who was really good at playing it…don’t remember the punchline, tho. Gibson is an interesting author…deep but I think kind of hard to get into his stories, they’re much more psychological than physical. I LOVE his recurring Molly Millions character, she was Trinity before there WAS a Trinity…

      • Re: Reminds Me Of A Gibson Story

        Called the ‘Gernsback Continuum’

        I remember this story too, quite haunting. The whole Burning Chrome collection is pretty good. Even the title story “Burning Chrome” is a double-entendre. I remember another story in there about a video game, seems like it was a holographic dogfight simulator, and there was some guy who was really good at playing it…don’t remember the punchline, tho. Gibson is an interesting author…deep but I think kind of hard to get into his stories, they’re much more psychological than physical. I LOVE his recurring Molly Millions character, she was Trinity before there WAS a Trinity…

        I want to say that it was that his gf had one dose of this really expensive drug. She needed it to pass some test that would get them out of the slum they were in. He, instead, snitched it to beat out some rival one time at the game.

        Or something to that effect.

        Don’t get me started on Molly and Trinity. Lets just say I vigorously disagree with your theory.

  3. Jetpacks
    Where’s my personal jetpack?
    I’ve been lead to believe I would be able to fly around town since I was a little kid… and now here we are. No jetpacks. I’m going to turn into a bitter cynical old man unless I get my jetpack.
    How else will I fight evil rocketmen and underground dwellers bent on conquering the surface world?

    • Re: Jetpacks

      Where’s my personal jetpack?
      I’ve been lead to believe I would be able to fly around town since I was a little kid… and now here we are. No jetpacks. I’m going to turn into a bitter cynical old man unless I get my jetpack.
      How else will I fight evil rocketmen and underground dwellers bent on conquering the surface world?

      Jet packs…and shiny silver jumpsuits for all!

      • Re: Jetpacks

        How else will I fight evil rocketmen and underground dwellers bent on conquering the surface world?

        With Ray Guns which have settings ranging from “fry egg w/o causing side effects” to “vapourize villain w/o affecting bystanders.”

  4. Room Temperature Superconductors

    The advancement I want most is the room temperature superconductor. With virtually zero loss in a circuit, heat production and power consumption drop to next to nothing. Plus, superconductors are fun to play with.

    Another advancement I’d like to see would be the replacement of fossil fuels in almost all applications by something renewable. If you strip the Middle East of its economic power, a lot of the current problems that might be solved through war can be solved by a national bankruptcy, and other economic means. All they’d have left would be power based on religious properties.

    • Re: Room Temperature Superconductors
      Don’t know if anyone’s still reading this thread, but I just bought Burning Chrome and read “The Gernsback Continuum” (I’ve read a lot of Gibson, but never his early stories). Thanks for the recommendation. It holds, but I wish I’d read it twenty years ago.

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