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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Television Sheet | ||
| A large, flat screen television set. |
Very early description of this idea; it appears to be complete in itself (the picture does not require a projector to put the image onto the sheet),
| "You have a good room here. Have you tried your television sheet? Probably did not know you had one, did you? Here it is over on this apparently blank wall. Let me turn off the lights and tune in for you. Do you like opera? I can get some good heavy opera from Berlin, or, perhaps, you rather see the Follies or a good Burlesque show. How about it? They are playing cricket over in Australia and I can get that for you.” Let’s see a good song and dance show for the tired business man,” suggested Haggard. “I hear that the show, “ADAM NEEDS A MADAM,” is worth seeing.” Drach turned off the lights and tuned in on the musical comedy. And for the next two hours the chorus girls pranced and danced and sang, and they were seen and heard just as well in the hotel room as they would have been in the best seat of the old time theater. |
| Technovelgy from The Threat of the Robot,
by David H. Keller. Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Even college undergrads preferred to watch events on television:
What was the end result of giving people no reason to leave their homes?
This prediction is all the more amazing when you consider what television with just 30 scan lines of resolution looked like in the 1920's:
Why, even the undergraduates do not come out to support their team, but prefer to see the game in their rooms or frat houses.
You destroyed the best there was in sport, took away the pleasure of attending amusement in a mass, and, by placing all entertainments in the home, you turned mankind into a selfish, introverted, anti-social animal, who cared for little save his own entertainment.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Threat of the Robot
More Ideas
and Technology by David H. Keller
Tech news articles related to The Threat of the Robot
Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller
Television Sheet-related
news articles:
- Large Flexible Plastic Sheet Displays
| Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink? |
| I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display |
| Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large |
| iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen! |
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'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
