In 1842, a German immigrant to America named J. A. Etzler published a book called The Paradise within the Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery.
Technology
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
Illustration from "Popular Mechanics," 1947
On the cutting edge of gimmickry
Recently, in a fit of nostalgia, I purchased copies of “Popular Science” and “Popular Mechanics” from the newsstand.
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Flights of cyber-fancy
It’s spring — officially, at least — and a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of…Cybersex.
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The death knell sounds for those old LPs
A friend down in Florida sells high-end stereo equipment. By high end, I mean off the top of the scale. He has music systems in his shop that cost more than my car.
The future that materials scientists want.
In a world of smart ‘things,’ why not self-sorting socks?
Welcome to the age of smart materials.
"Good gracious, Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
Kansas was never like this
“Good gracious, Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” No, Dorothy, this isn’t Kansas. It’s Cyberland.
Trinity test, Alamogordo, 1945 • U.S. Department of Energy (Public Domain)
Nuclear sites: A lethal legacy across the land
At 5:29 a.m. Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945, the world’s first nuclear explosion occurred on the Alamogordo bombing range in the desert near White Sands, New Mexico.
Construction on the nano scale • CSIRO (CC BY 3.0)
The incredible shrinking technology
Welcome to the nanodecade. Nano, as in nanotechnology, nanocomputers, nanorobots. Nano, as in nanometer, or billionth of a meter. Small. Very, very, very small.
Traditional Irish farming, ca. 1897 • National Library of Ireland
A last, unhurried paradise lost — to technology
Twelve years ago at the end of a spell of fine summer weather we could look out from our house in the rural west of Ireland and count a thousand haystacks. Field after field of haystacks, as far as the eye could see.
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Cameras don’t lie but a photograph might
Photographs don’t lie. Or do they?