AMERICAN DIGEST: FuturePerfect Archives

FuturePerfect

"What the wife selects on her console will be paid for by the husband at his counterpart console."

Visionary film about the future of computers in the household from 1966:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun at May 31, 2011 6:51 PM | Comments (3) | QuickLink:

Passing Strange

"The horror! The horror!" KEIICHI MATSUDA's Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop

Posted by Vanderleun at Jan 26, 2010 6:32 PM | Comments (0) | QuickLink:

"Freak Men:" Gully Foyle Interviews a Robot Bartender

One of my favorite passages from what many, rightly, call "the greatest science fiction book ever written:" Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination

'Life is so simple,' Foyle said. 'This decision is so simple, isn't it? Am I to respect Presteign's property rights? The welfare of the planets? Jisbella's ideals? Dagenham's realism? Robin's conscience? Press the button and watch the robot jump. But I'm not a robot. I'm a freak of the universe ... a thinking animal ... and I'm trying to see my way clear through this morass. Am I to turn PyrE over to the world and let it destroy itself? Am I to teach the world how to space-jaunte and let us spread our freak show from galaxy to galaxy through all the universe? What's the answer?'

The bartender robot hurled its mixing glass across the room with a resounding crash. In the amazed silence that followed, Dagenham grunted: 'Damn! My radiation disrupted your dolls again, Presteign.'

'The answer is yes,' the robot said, quite distinctly.

'What?' Foyle asked, taken aback.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun at Aug 14, 2009 4:21 PM | Comments (6) | QuickLink:

Blade Runner: The Penultimate Scene Made New

Posted by Vanderleun at May 6, 2009 3:41 PM | Comments (13) | QuickLink:

THE FAMILY PLAN: Part 2 of "Mourning in America"

The Democratic Un-super Majority in Congress continues in its rush to torpor. Indeed, with the vague move last week to replace the outmoded 18th century concept of the secret ballot with the way-new "card-check" system for keeping Union coffers brimming with enough money to pump into the Congressperns, they have once again shown that their energies are spent on campaigns and not legislation or cerebration.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun at Mar 6, 2007 3:16 PM | Comments (1) | QuickLink:

EMBRACE THE MURTHA: Part One of "Mourning in America"

Murtha: A Man, A Plan, A High Colonic

Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? -- Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, 1.VII

How Nancy Can Get Her Groove Back

After their stunning electoral victories, the Democrats in Congress have hit the ground shunning. Shunning confrontation, shunning decision, shunning crisis, and shunning leadership. The "First Hundred Hours" are now stretching towards the First Hundred Days with nothing but a lot of little victories that are all that has emerged from their big promises.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun at Mar 2, 2007 9:35 PM | Comments (4) | QuickLink:

On "the astounding baseness to which Liberal journalism has sunk." -- 1917

PLUS CA CHANGE, and so forth:

One of the two or three streaks of light on our horizon can be perceived in this: that the moral breakdown of these papers has been accompanied by a mental breakdown also. The contemporary official paper, like the "DailyNews" or the "Daily Chronicle" (I mean in so far as it deals with politics), simply cannot argue; and simply does not pretend to argue. It considers the solution which it imagines that wealthy people want, and it signifies the same in the usual manner; which is not by holding up its hand, but by falling on its face. But there is no more curious quality inits degradation than a sort of carelessness, at once of hurry and fatigue,with which it flings down its argument--or rather its refusal to argue.It does not even write sophistry: it writes anything. It does not so much poison the reader's mind as simply assume that the reader hasn't got one." -- LIBERALISM - A SAMPLE, Utopia of Userers, et al by Gilbert K. Chesterton

A nice little summation of our current run of "leading" newspapers even if it is almost a century old.

More to the point of how Chesterton means more at this moment than in many decades is what comes next in a comment that prefigures the "new" media.

A long while ago, before all the Liberals died, a Liberal introduced a Bill to prevent Parliament being merely packed with the slaves of financial interests. For that purpose he established the excellent democratic principle that the private citizen, as such, might protest against public corruption. He was called the Common Informer. I believe the miserable party papers are really reduced to playing on the degradation of the two words in modern language. Now the word "comnon" in "Common Informer" means exactly what it means in "common sense" or "Book of Common Prayer," or (above all) in "House of Commons." It does not mean anything low or vulgar; any more than they do. The only difference is that the House of Commons really is low and vulgar; and the Common Informer isn't. It is just the same with the word "Informer." It does not mean spy or sneak. It means one who gives information. It means what "journalist" ought to mean. The only difference is that the Common Informer may be paid if he tells the truth. The common journalist will be ruined if he does.

Posted by Vanderleun at Mar 3, 2006 7:35 PM | Comments (1) | QuickLink:

Carressing the Matrix

HYPNOTIC, BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING. You really have to see this to believe it. And you WILL want one:Multi-Touch Interaction Research
[HT from the always on-target Ole Eichhorn @ Critical Section ]

ON THE OTHER HAND, for something completely different, try the ever-popular KOREAN SCHOOLGIRLS!

ON THE THIRD HAND, you can observe and analyze two chinese boys:fairy . But be careful. It's the kind of thing that will have you converting to Islam in a twinkle.

ON THE LAST HAND: Via reader Jim Bass comes this weighty matter. Now you may ask yourself what's so special about the Beatles, three balls, and the juggler Chris Bliss. Doesn't sound too hard, does it? Really? Take a look. Like the Brits say, "It'll gobsmack you."

Posted by Vanderleun at Feb 18, 2006 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | QuickLink:

Always a lovely day, somewhere, sir.

"His senses uncrossed in the ivory-and-gold Star Chamber of Castle Presteign... he saw the high mirors and stained glass windows, the gold tooled library with android librarian on library ladder... he heard the android secretary tapping the manual bead-recorder at the Louis Quinze desk... he sipped the cognac that the robot bartender handed him.

...He ignored his enemies and examined the perpetual beam carved in the robot face of the bartender, the classic Irish grin.

'Thank you,' Foyle said.

'My pleasure, sir,' the robot replied and awaited its next cue.

'Nice day,' Foyle remarked.

'Always a lovely day somewhere, sir,' the robot beamed.

'Awful day,' Foyle said.

'Always a lovely day somewhere, sir,' the robot responded.

'Day,' Foyle said.

'Always a lovely day somewhere, sir,' the robot said. "

The bartender robot hurled its mixing glass across the room with a resounding crash. In the amazed silence that followed, Dagenham grunted: Damn! My radiation disrupted your dolls again, Presteign.'

'The answer is yes,' the robot said, quite distinctly.

'What?' Foyle asked, taken aback.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun at Nov 9, 2004 1:15 AM | Comments (1) | QuickLink:

Don't Like the Stars? Go Out and Make One of Your Own.

"LODESTAR" -- FROM THE Popular Science | 2004 Design Competition, a synthetic star.

The designers of the magnificent Tribute in Light memorial for the World Trade Center turned their attention to urban night blindness: the blankness of the city skies. Urban Lodestar is a light-emitting five-pointed star designed to float serenely above a city center and pulse gently at the same rate as a resting heart to calm the city folk below. Lodestar hovers with the aid of helium-filled polymer balloons; propellant tanks and directional boosters attached to a GPS-equipped positioning system keep it from going AWOL. During the day, photovoltaic film panels harness energy from the Sun and store it in batteries; at night, electroluminescent strips in the shape of a star glow with that stored energy. Graphite composite struts provide stability, and a battery-powered xenon strobe creates the pulsing effect. Intermittent green flashes differentiate the Urban Lodestar from natural celestial bodies.

Posted by Vanderleun at Jun 23, 2004 3:21 PM | Comments (6) | QuickLink: