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Tech News10 Cold War-Era Board Games About Spies and Secret Agents
Americans were obsessed with spy culture during the Cold War. I mean, who didn’t love James Bond? Communists, that’s who. The gosh darn Communits. Spying seeped into every aspect of pop culture in the 1960s and 70s—from TV and movies to comic books and even board games. Below we have a collection of ten board … Continued
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Tech News
These Penguins In Sweaters Are Fake
You may have recently seen the heartwarming story of Australia’s oldest man (109 years young!) who knits sweaters for penguins. The story is currently making the rounds with an adorable photo purporting to show the grateful penguins of Australia’s Phillip Island. The only problem? Those penguins in that particular photo are totally fake. The photo … Continued
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Tech News
What’s Your Favorite Olde Timey Slang?
I love old slang. And today I came across my new favorite phrase from the beforetimes. It dates back to the late 19th century, yet anybody from the early 21st century can easily figure out what it means: Got the morbs. Not only does it sound like it’d be right at home in our truncation-obsessed … Continued
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Tech News
It’s Flying Car Season Again
Every six months, websites proclaim that the flying car is just over the horizon! And as if on schedule, the Daily Mail has a new article about how Terrafugia’s Transition is coming soon! The only problem? We’ve been hearing that since 2008. The last time that Terrafugia really took over the flying car conversation was … Continued
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Tech News
This Enormous Car-Boat Probably Needed Oceans of Oil to Run
Life for Americans after World War II was supposed to be filled with open roads and open waters. The roads, more often than not, were for getting to work. And the water? That was pure leisure time. This “water-mobile” of 1947 was imagined to provide the best of both, with an enormous (and, one imagines, … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Anti-Vaccine Movement Should Be Ridiculed, Because Shame Works
The best way to win a debate is to present your facts in a clear, respectful way. When that doesn’t work, another option is incessant ridicule. Here’s why we have to use shame if we want to stop the anti-vaccine movement. By now I’m sure you know the score. America’s anti-vaccination movement has steamrolled its … Continued
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Tech News
This Instagram Account Proves We’re Living in Blade Runner‘s Future
How close are we to living in Blade Runner’s dark and moody dystopia of 2019? Pretty damn close, if you follow the Instagram account bladerunnerreality. At least aesthetically. The part that doesn’t seem to match up with the film? Aside from the absence of flying cars (we still have four years, guys!) Blade Runner was … Continued
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Tech News1991 Documentary: Will LA Be a Hellish Dystopia? (Yes.)
Back in 1991 the BBC visited Los Angeles to ask if it was the city of the future. Their answer? Yes, but not in a good way. As someone who moved to L.A. back in 2010, the city I see in this BBC special is a portrait of dystopia that’s rather unfamiliar to me. Is … Continued
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Tech News
42 Visions For Tomorrow From The Golden Age of Futurism
It’s 2015. But sometimes it feels like our futuristic dreams are stuck in the 1950s and 60s. And there’s actually a good reason for that. The period between 1958 and 1963 might be described as a Golden Age of American Futurism, if not the Golden Age of American Futurism. Bookended by the founding of NASA … Continued
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Tech NewsIn 1976 Arthur C. Clarke Predicted the Dark Side of Smartphones
Arthur C. Clarke made it his business to look into the future. And just like the dozens of prognosticators who would come before and after him, he got a few things right and a few things wrong. AT&T has just uploaded a video from a conference at MIT wherein Clarke describes the future from the … Continued
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Tech NewsThe History of the Anti-Vaccine Movement Explains Our Terrifying Future
Vaccines are not part of some evil plot to poison our children. But there are plenty of terribly misguided people who believe they are! And their beliefs didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. A new videofrom the New York Times explains how we got to this terrifying point in American history — a seemingly upside … Continued
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Tech News
10 More Viral Photos That Are Actually Fake
Believe it or not, there are a lot of fake photos on the internet. And the explosion in the number of spammy Twitter accounts like OldPicsArchive and HistoryInPics help them spread like wildfire. Today we’re taking a look at 10 more fake-ish photos you may have seen in your social media streams recently. They’re all … Continued
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Tech News
This Engineer Turned Radiowaves Into Fashion During the 1930s
For today’s edition of There’s Nothing New Under The Sun™, we have a radio engineer who experimented with creating high-tech fashion that would be right at home amongst the 21st century’s glitch art and wifi visualizations. Except that these patterns were made in 1938. The July 1938 issue of Radio-Craft magazine featured photos of RCA … Continued
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Tech News
Paper Books Will Never Die
After eight years of writing about past visions of the future, I’ve learned to never make predictions of my own. But I’m about to break my own rule because I’m just so damn confident in my prediction: Paper books will never completely disappear. Okay, I’m going to almost immediately hedge and say that I can’t … Continued
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Tech News
Plan C: America’s Nuclear Doomsday Plan to Declare Martial Law
Newly released documents show that the U.S. government drew up a plan in April of 1956 for how to deal with an impending nuclear war. What was its strategy? Declaration of martial law, evacuation of top American personnel to secret offices, and the immediate detention of over 12,000 people with ties to “subversive organizations.” It … Continued
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Tech News
Cecil B. DeMille Kept a Wolf and Guns To Defend Against Edison’s Thugs
Why did Southern California become the epicenter of the American film industry? The nice weather certainly helped. But there’s another element that modern Hollywood probably hopes you’d forget: Rampant piracy. Even though it was just the piracy of movie camera tech rather than the Jack Sparrow variety, there were plenty of real world bullets being … Continued
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Tech News
Faxpapers: A Lost 1930s Technology That Delivered Newspapers via Radio
One of the greatest media experiments of the 1930s and 40s was the faxpaper. Almost entirely forgotten today, it was a technology that could deliver newspapers over the radio waves, then print them instantly right in your home. When we think about the evolution of mass media, it usually goes something like this: First came … Continued
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Tech News
Remember When Fax Machines Were the High-Tech Future?
When was the last time you sent a fax? 2000? 1995? Never and you hardly even know what a fax is because you’re just too young? Fair enough. But the fax machine was the high-tech device of its day. And even in the world of Back to the Future Part II, it plays an important … Continued
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Tech News
Inventor of the Laser Dies
Charles Townes, the physicist whose work would help lay the foundations for the development of the laser died today. He was 99. His career also ranged far beyond an interest in lasers, into astronomy and a fascination with spirituality. Dr. Townes had an incredible career as a scientist, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in … Continued
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Tech News
Wearable Tech In 1922 Was a Radio Inside Your Top Hat
Many people are convinced that wearable tech will revolutionize our relationship with technology in the coming decades. But we’ve been waiting on this revolution in some form or another for a century. Case in point: This kid who had it all figured out in 1922 when he invented a radio that fit inside his top … Continued
By Matt Novak
Matt Novak
Matt Novak is a reporter at Gizmodo covering news and opinion, with a little history thrown in for good measure. Novak started at Gizmodo in 2013 and has been writing about past visions of the future at Paleofuture.com since 2007. Novak is fascinated with the history of technology and got his start writing professionally for Smithsonian magazine. Emails telling him to "stick to tech" can be sent to [email protected].
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