Saturday, July 18, 2009

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? - Recommended!

I have said before that I am a short-term pessimist but a long-term optimist. In other words, no matter what the weatherman says, I always take my raincoat to work; However, I think that North Koreans will enjoy the benefits of a free-market, liberal democracy in my lifetime. (Classical liberal, that is.) One of the pillars of that optimism is our society's (and our species's) embrace of technology.

So, let me commemorate the2 recent upcoming 40th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing and the recent passing of the always-optimistic-about-America Walter Cronkite by strongly recommending a new graphic novel, "Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?".

This is by a guy named Brian Fies, who obviously loves science fiction and comic books (you can find references to Flash/Buck Gordon/Rogers, Galactus, the cover of Batman #1, Fantastic Voyage, the ubiquity of super-powered monkeys, and 100 toy soldiers made of durable plastic, each with its own base!) He also loves technology and the oomph that we as a society feel to try new things. The New York World's Fair of 1939, Ed White's spacewalk, The Experimental Prototype Community of Tommorow, Richard Feynman's ideas about nanotechnology, and the illustrations of Chesley Bonestell all feature in the narrative.

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