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"Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen."
- Larry Niven
 |
| The Veldt | ||
| A nursery that comes alive for the viewer. |
George and Lydia were wonderful parents; they had spared no expense in providing their children with what they needed. This short story provides a remarkable preview of today's big screen tv, media-drenched household.
But what about those things that children need from parents that money can't buy?
| They stood on the thatched floor of the nursery. It was forty feet across by forty feet long and thirty feet high; it had cost half again as much as the rest of the house. "But nothing's too good for our children," George had said.
The nursery was silent. It was empty as a jungle glade at hot high noon. The walls were blank and two dimensional. Now, as George and Lydia Hadley stood in the center of the room, the walls began to purr and recede into crystalline distance, it seemed, and presently an African veldt appeared, in three dimensions, on all sides, in color reproduced to the final pebble and bit of straw. The ceiling above them became a deep sky with a hot yellow sun. George Hadley felt the perspiration start on his brow. |
| From The Illustrated Man,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
George and Lydia realize that they have made a mistake in letting the house take care of the children's needs (also see the entry for the Happylife Home from the same story). What will the children do when the grownups decide to shut off their beautiful electronic playground? David, the psychologist, hazards a guess:
To learn more about how the modern, multimedia home entertainment system has evolved in the minds of great science fiction writers, be sure to see dimensino - alien entertainment center from Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak (1961) and rifle range - virtual skeet shooting designed by aliens from Way Station also by Simak (1963).
An interesting contrast can be made to The Veldt, which is designed as an immersive environment, but is still outside the person who is using it. Contrast The Veldt with simstim - play back your internal experience from the 1984 novel Neuromancer by William Gibson, and XV wedge - Photoshop for your mind from Mother of Storms by John Barnes (1994). Both of these authors offer purely internal experience as entertainment. Your mind is, after all, the ultimate source of your personal entertainment.
"You've let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children's affections. This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents. And now you come along and want to shut it off. No wonder there's hatred here.
You can feel it coming out of the sky. Feel that sun."
Be sure to see the entry for Odorophonics, the technology that makes the Veldt come alive for more discussion of this great short story. Here's how Bradbury describes how The Veldt is achieved:
"Walls, Lydia, remember; crystal walls, that's all they are. Oh, they look real, I must admit - Africa in your parlor - but it's all dimensional, superreactionary, supersensitive color film and mental tape film behind glass screens. It's all odorophonics and sonics, Lydia...
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Illustrated Man
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Bradbury
Tech news articles related to The Illustrated Man
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Bradbury
The Veldt-related
news articles:
- 'Retina Display' SFnally Perfect (Almost)
- Basement Holodeck With Playstation Move And EyeToy
- Take An Infinite Walk In Flexible Spaces
| Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control |
| Take An Infinite Walk In Flexible Spaces |
| HP 3D Display Images Hover Above Device |
| LCD-based Smart Contact Lens Display |
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