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"If I can make you see the world the way I see it, then you will automatically think the way I think."
- Philip K. Dick
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| 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
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
| Tesla Electric 'Giga Train' Operational In Germany |
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I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
