Missed techno-utopias
April 24, 2011 1:14 PM   Subscribe

What are some compelling techno-utopian visions from the past that didn't pan out?

I'm not looking for "manifestos" as such (like the "Hacker Manifesto" or "Cypherpunk Manifesto"), which tend to be arguing a contested point. I'm looking more for examples of genuine gaga wonderment at an expectation for the dreamy future that technology is going to bring -- an end of scarcity, improved community, better democracy, transcendence, etc. Best if they are quotable/citable, too!
posted by yourcelf to Media & Arts (20 answers total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Get comfy and have a nice long look through Tales of Futures Past. Lots of material on how things were supposed to turn out, particularly as viewed from the early-mid 20th century.
posted by hangashore at 1:34 PM on April 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


The promise of modernist architecture and urban planning to destroy the messy legacy of the past and re-establish human society and governance along rational lines, as exemplified by Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin to destroy the Marais, one of the most architecturally rich districts in Paris, and replace it with a set of identical high-rises and freeways.

Money quote from Le Corbu:

"The despot is not a man. It is the plan. The correct, realistic exact plan, the one that will provide your solution once the problem has been posited clearly, in its entirety, in its indispensable harmony. This plan has been drawn up well away from the frenzy in the mayor's office or the town hall, from the cries of the electorate or the laments of society's victims. It has been drawn up by serene and lucid minds."
posted by strangely stunted trees at 1:37 PM on April 24, 2011 [2 favorites]


In the new century no one will walk; all will have wheels.

The Futurama exhibit/ride at the World's Fair is also a good one. (No relation to the cartoon.)
posted by NoraReed at 1:40 PM on April 24, 2011


Jacques Fresco's Venus Project is likely past it's best before date. He and his project co-founder have been building a utopian compound in Florida for about 40 years. Lots of really cool architectural and vehicle models.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:45 PM on April 24, 2011


Broadacre City.
posted by timsteil at 1:45 PM on April 24, 2011


The paperless office
posted by rhizome at 1:48 PM on April 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Arcosanti?
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 1:59 PM on April 24, 2011


Space Colonies.
posted by Rob Rockets at 2:04 PM on April 24, 2011


Free electricity.
posted by spasm at 2:05 PM on April 24, 2011


Response by poster: Ooh, yeah. The Lewis Strauss quote from the "Free Electricity" article is good:
"Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter... It is not too much to expect that our children will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age."
The "Tales of Future Past" site is a great treasure trove, too. Great links all around!
posted by yourcelf at 2:12 PM on April 24, 2011


See also William Gibson's short story, "The Gernsback Continuum." (Wiki spoilers.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:12 PM on April 24, 2011


Whatever flapdoodle Dean Kamen was peddling about Segways radically changing society.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:29 PM on April 24, 2011


Winooski, Vermont.
"In 1979, at the height of the oil crisis, someone proposed during a meeting called by the town fathers to discuss energy needs that the town should be covered with a dome to reduce the escape of heat. The idea quickly took off. Some heralded it as 'the ultimate in Yankee ingenuity'. Not everyone was as enthusiastic, though, and Winooski's requests for federal funds were turned down. Soon, the enthusiasm faded. The legend of the dome, however, still lives on as a giant umbrella covering the town."
posted by cashman at 2:41 PM on April 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Forgotten Futures is a series of role-playing games inspired by those tales of the future that have come into the public domain. While the game parts may not be so interesting to you, Marcus Rowland has been compulsively collecting such "scientific romances" for about 20 years. He was steampunk way before it was cool.

He has, currently, 11 collections of text stories linked to on his page of late 1800s and turn-of-the-century public domain fiction of future that time has passed by. Some are campy pulp, but there are some ripping yarns in there too. I like the Kipling and the Doyle personallty. These are the collections to read, btw, if you want to get many of the references Alan Moore put into the first two volumes of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (beyond the famous ones, of course).
posted by bonehead at 2:53 PM on April 24, 2011 [2 favorites]


On the other hand there's just as many amazing things we have now and take for granted which nobody predicted in the past - the internet and all that goes with it, mobile phones with a hundred gizmos etc etc. The poor track record of predictions is as much the stuff they didn't foresee, as the stuff they envisioned which never happened.
posted by joannemullen at 4:04 PM on April 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Blanket wireless coverage.
posted by TheGoodBlood at 5:03 PM on April 24, 2011


Atlantropa, a dream for revitalizing European farming and irrigating Africa (self-link to MeFi OPP), with comments about some other mega-engineering big dreams (North American Water and Power Alliance - 1950s goal of shifting water from Alaska to the south-west US).

The Human Drift, a work of Utopian social planning, written by King Camp Gillette (of Gillette disposable razor fame - self-link to MeFi OPP). The big plan was for an immense three-level metropolis on the site of Niagara Falls. Designed to accommodate a population of tens of millions of inhabitants, the mega-city would draw its electric power from the Falls.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:08 PM on April 24, 2011


Check out this book: Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future

Optimism is dead. And it's kind of sad.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 7:19 PM on April 24, 2011 [2 favorites]


There have been several proposals to flood the Qattara depression, creating a large lake in western Egypt, originally as a way to generate hydroelectric power. It was the subject of a Jules Verne novel. The US government also discussed a variant of the plan as a way solving Israeli-Palestinian crisis by resettling Palestinians around the lake. Apparently the idea is not entirely dead.
posted by nangar at 3:49 AM on April 25, 2011


In 1979, at the height of the oil crisis, someone proposed during a meeting called by the town fathers to discuss energy needs that the town should be covered with a dome to reduce the escape of heat.

You can listen to a fictional short story about a similiar idea here. You'll need to fast forward to about 28:50.
posted by marsha56 at 9:05 AM on April 25, 2011


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