Oooh oooh. Just when I thought I had hit the retro-futuro motherlode, along comes Tales of Future Past.
The site has a ton of vintage looks at tomorrow, including classic magazine stories of inflatoplanes, hovering Oldsmobiles, and kitchen computers.
But the stuff that'll get Defense Techies riled up is in the Future War section. Land battleships, anyone? (Note the farmhouse, about to be crushed.) Jumping jack artillery tower? Gyro destroyer? (Think Ferris Wheel, with guns, and you've got the right idea.)
"Predictions about the future seem to have a paradoxical quality about them. On the one hand, you see all sorts of articles and images showing a prosperous, peaceful people enjoying complex and interesting lives with all sorts of wonderful gadgets. On the other hand, you find gleeful descriptions of the most incredible means of wielding death that an adolescent mind can conjure," David Zondy, the site's founder, notes. "Come to think of it, that ended up being not very far from the truth. The late 20th century saw the West, and many parts of the rest of the world, enjoying incredible levels of prosperity with some of the most wonderful technological toys ever made, yet at the same time the entire world had a nuclear sword of Damocles hanging over its head."
UPDATE 10:25 AM: Modern Mechanix just posted the full text of a 1934 story, "Is Aerial Warfare Doomed?"
(Big ups: Chris)
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