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Its incredible to me that the TX-2 was designed by Wesley Clark who was born in the 20's. Imagine all the advances he not only saw but helped make happen. It m

Its incredible to me that the TX-2 was designed by Wesley Clark who was born in the 20's. Imagine all the advances he not only saw but helped make happen. It must also have been frustrating to be at the forefront of this technology and understand how it could be used by everyday people and knowing that if that day ever comes it will be decades away. Imagine, say, starting a 3d printing company today and only having it become a ubiquitous household item in 2050, knowing the potential and practical use they have today. The TX-2 was a Navy purchase. I also wonder how much of modernity is tied directly to the US's rise as a super-power post WWII. You don't build things like these unless you have worries about another world war breaking out.

DonHopkins 12y ago
With virtual reality smartphones strapped to our faces running Alien Makeout Simulator [1], we're practically living in PKD's novel, "The Zap Gun" [2]! This novel is set in a then-future 2004. There is still a (theoretical) Cold War between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies. At the elite governmental level, however, both "sides" have secretly come to an agreement. They have decided that, instead of continuing the ecologically and economically crippling nuclear and conventional arms race, they will pretend to be constantly developing new weapons, which are then "plowshared." This means that these items are transformed into novel but baroque consumer products. Most of these weapon designers are mediums, who create their new designs in trance states. Design of weapons are extracted telepathically from a motion comic book, The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan, created by mad Italian artist Oral Giacomini. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9LPwSZI0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9LPwSZI0s [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun

DonHopkins 12y ago

With virtual reality smartphones strapped to our faces running Alien Makeout Simulator [1], we're practically living in PKD's novel, "The Zap Gun" [2]! This novel is set in a then-future 2004. There is still a (theoretical) Cold War between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies. At the elite governmental level, however, both "sides" have secretly come to an agreement. They have decided that, instead of continuing the ecologically and economically crippling nuclear and conventional arms race, they will pretend to be constantly developing new weapons, which are then "plowshared." This means that these items are transformed into novel but baroque consumer products. Most of these weapon designers are mediums, who create their new designs in trance states. Design of weapons are extracted telepathically from a motion comic book, The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan, created by mad Italian artist Oral Giacomini. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9LPwSZI0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9LPwSZI0s [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun