Fullsteam

The amazing website Paleo-Future (tagline: a look into the future that never was) is a constant source of inspiration and insight for retro-future fans like us. Check it out – but don’t blame us if you’re still looking at it four hours from now.

In the past, the future looked so bright. Today’s vision of the future? Take your pick: famine, war, overpopulation, John Conner hooked on meth instead of saving humankind. Modern society just doesn’t have the optimism of years past.

Perhaps it’s because we realized that concepts like the Aerial Mono-Flyer of the Future (1918) were best left as an artist’s rendering. 

Is our own knowledge numbing us? We know how to build wind-resistant cars to increase gas mileage; the result is that they all end up looking kind of similar. We know that the Aerial Mono-Flyer of the Future is folly; by building more practical machines, well, less people die. 

Or do they? For every Hindenburg, there’s a Steve Fossett. For every Aerial Mono-Flyer of the Future, there are 25 million of us texting while we drive homogenous transporters, mindlessly crossing the median. Every era has its robots and dreamers.

Many many thanks to Matt at Paleo-Future for all the research, creativity, and writing that goes into his site. We owe him some Fullsteam. In the future. 

p.s. this post is extra-special because, by sheer coincidence, the mono-flyer is number 32. And that’s Fullsteam Chris’ nickname. How cool is that!