Future of Photography (1964)

The September 27, 1964 Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, NC) quotes Wolf Wehran, a representative of the Camera Industries of West Germany, (and probable superhero given his badass name), about the future of photography:

"I believe the photo industry will some day eliminate the processing operation as we know it today. They will dehydrate it - that is, take the water and the mess out of it.

"Instead of liquid solutions and time and temperature factors, it would be simpler to deal with a radiation or heat process to activate the latent image.

"The photograph would take his pictures with an automatic camera, wind the film or sensitized material through a box at home or anywhere he happens to be and out would come the strip of finished negatives, transparencies or prints. It is logically and practical and the trend of the industry thinking is in that direction."

The author of the article then seems to mock the very idea with a flippant comment about crystal balls.

If you can't buy a camera or processing box like that, maybe you can shop around for a crystal ball. It certainly makes beautiful pictures.

Read more:
Movies to be Produced in Every Home (1925)
Television of Tomorrow (1974)

Report From the Year 2050 (1984)

My interest in futurism can probably be credited to two things: Disney's EPCOT Center and children's science books of the 1980s and 90s. One of my earliest posts here at the Paleo-Future blog covered the EPCOT Center book, The Future World of Transportation. I vividly recall checking out the three books in this series from my elementary school library, my sticky fingers pawing through the technological promises Baby Boomers never saw materialize but insisted we Millennials would soon enjoy. Just over that horizon, just a little further! The year 2000 is going to change everything! We swear! 

The number is just so big. And round! 2000! Look at all those zeros. 2000!

To the author's credit they figured out that to sound even remotely plausible and still make me wet my Underoos over the advanced technology featured in the book, one had to open with a year further out than 2000 A.D.

And thus the first chapter, titled, "Report From the Year 2050." Below are four renderings of technology we are certain to have by the year 2050 (if those lying, deceitful Baby Boomers are to be believed).

Read more:
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)
Syd Mead Art for U.S. Steel (1960s)
The Future World of Transportation

Hello and Welcome (Back)

Oh, hello! Good to see you!

It's been awhile. Glad you're still with us.

Haven't blogged in a couple months but I hear it's just like riding a bicycle, you never forget how. Unless maybe you go batshit crazy and drive around the West Coast aimlessly for two weeks. Then blogging is probably less like riding a bike and more like that friend you used to get drunk with but you can't tell him to leave you alone because he once saved your life....

So, let's get to the drinkin'!

Also, if you'd like to follow me on Twitter, feel free. But I can't promise exclusively paleo-futuristic material. It's good to be back.