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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Auto-Car | ||
| A personal vehicle for indoor and outdoor use. |
In the world of this story, most human beings had given up walking.
| ... the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia was filled with the usual throng of pleasure seekers, each in his own auto-car.
 (The Autocar from The Revolt of the Pedestrians) Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles, pausing now and then before this exhibit or that which attracted their individual attention... Finally, a boy stopped his auto-car in front of a glass case. "What is that, Father? They look as we do, only what peculiar shapes." "That, my son, is a family of pedestrians... This family was shot in the Ozark mountains. It is believed they were the last in the world..." |
| Technovelgy from The Revolt of the Pedestrians,
by David H. Keller. Published by Amazing Stories in 1928 Additional resources -
|
Here are more details:
I think that this is a spot-on prediction of the increasing use of "scooters" by people who should be healthy but have given up walking for reasons of obesity or laziness.
In the 2008 movie Wall-e, the entire population has given up walking:
The automobile had developed as legs had atrophied. No longer content to use it constantly outdoors, the Successors of Ford had perfected the smaller individual machine for use indoors, all steps being replaced by curving ascending passages. Men thus came to live within metal bodies, which they left only for sleep. Gradually, partly through necessity and partly through inclination, the automobile was used in sport as well as in play. Special types were developed for golf ; children seated in autocars rolled hoops through shady parks ; lazily, prostrate on one, a maiden drifted through the tropical waters of a Florida resort. Mankind had ceased to use their lower limbs.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Revolt of the Pedestrians
More Ideas
and Technology by David H. Keller
Tech news articles related to The Revolt of the Pedestrians
Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller
Auto-Car-related
news articles:
- Segway S-Pod Fulfills Dire 1928 SciFi Prophecy
- Mobility Scooters Go Offroad
- Autonomous Wheelchairs Improve Airport Mobility
- Adorable One-Seater Electric Car From Wuxi Sinotech
- The Electric Balance Bicycle And The Decline Of Western Civilization
- Honda UNI-ONE Hands-Free Wheelchair Follows 100 Year-Old Design
| Nifty Folding Electric Bicycles! |
| Boring Company Drills Asimov's Single Vehicle Tunnels |
| Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said |
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
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'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
