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I remember as a kid in the 70's having a book from Scholastic that had all the fantastic SSTs and vacuum, magnetic trains that would get us across the world in

I remember as a kid in the 70's having a book from Scholastic that had all the fantastic SSTs and vacuum, magnetic trains that would get us across the world in record time. It was amazing all the speculation about that and how little speculation there was about computers.

xenophonf 11y ago
Those were the Usborne books, right? They were great. I had two or three of them and spent hours reading and re-reading them. When Hyperloop was announced, I'd assumed that it was that in-vacuum maglev train you mentioned finally getting built. :-)
- protomyth 11y ago
  Not sure, I too read those books multiple times. I too had the same assumption you did about Hyperloop.
- TallGuyShort 11y ago
  I remember reading about bullet trains and supersonic jets in this one: http://www.amazon.com/First-Questions-About-Transport-Faulkner/dp/0340329041?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 http://www.amazon.com/First-Questions-About-Transport-Faulkn.... Recently moved back to my home state and am thoroughly enjoying the slow process of stealing all my childhood books from my parents house.
johngalt 11y ago
People always assume "current trends will continue". That the future will simply continue the progress they have already seen. Someone in the 70s would have seen a vast increase in travel speeds. Jets, bullet trains, interstate highway system etc... They can be forgiven for assuming the future would also involve faster speeds.
david-given 11y ago
I used to have a bound set of schoolboy magazines (emphasis on the boy bit there) from the 1950s. I think my parents picked them up in a charity shop. They were amazing --- gleefully inaccurate articles about space travel with shiny pointy rocketships, excited cutaways diagrams of cities OF THE FUTURE, illustrated articles about the joys of electromagnetism... and, for some reason, I remember a semi-comic serial version of _Last of the Mohicans_. All done in 1950s two-colour printing with the occasional colour plate. Brilliant stuff. No idea what happened to them. I'd love to see them again, although I'd probably cringe about how dated they are.

xenophonf 11y ago

Those were the Usborne books, right? They were great. I had two or three of them and spent hours reading and re-reading them. When Hyperloop was announced, I'd assumed that it was that in-vacuum maglev train you mentioned finally getting built. :-)

protomyth 11y ago
Not sure, I too read those books multiple times. I too had the same assumption you did about Hyperloop.
TallGuyShort 11y ago
I remember reading about bullet trains and supersonic jets in this one: http://www.amazon.com/First-Questions-About-Transport-Faulkner/dp/0340329041?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 http://www.amazon.com/First-Questions-About-Transport-Faulkn.... Recently moved back to my home state and am thoroughly enjoying the slow process of stealing all my childhood books from my parents house.

johngalt 11y ago

People always assume "current trends will continue". That the future will simply continue the progress they have already seen. Someone in the 70s would have seen a vast increase in travel speeds. Jets, bullet trains, interstate highway system etc... They can be forgiven for assuming the future would also involve faster speeds.

david-given 11y ago

I used to have a bound set of schoolboy magazines (emphasis on the boy bit there) from the 1950s. I think my parents picked them up in a charity shop. They were amazing --- gleefully inaccurate articles about space travel with shiny pointy rocketships, excited cutaways diagrams of cities OF THE FUTURE, illustrated articles about the joys of electromagnetism... and, for some reason, I remember a semi-comic serial version of _Last of the Mohicans_. All done in 1950s two-colour printing with the occasional colour plate. Brilliant stuff. No idea what happened to them. I'd love to see them again, although I'd probably cringe about how dated they are.