A vision of transportation of the future - vintage 1952
 

Could still happen!

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ec080a09a5.jpg

Cover art by Edward Emshwiller

...or we'll have autonomous e-bike ride-sharing.

(But very cool find none the less!)

Here is the context:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants

Note that the woman is smoking a cigarette.

The image does not represent a positive version of the future. Quite the opposite.

so what. beautiful woman smoking a cigarette. personally can't stand 'em, but if you got 'em...

Indeed not. The aerodynamics of that thing are incredibly bad.

I bet chiropractors would make a killing in that version of the future, what will all those people bent over their bikes all day. In that society, it appears as if the odds are much higher of ending up some dog-faced man w/room temp IQ pedaling a taxi bike, than being one of the spoiled rich people riding inside. Looks like Karl Marx's version of The Jetsons.

Eisenhower progressive tax rate if not cut could have made that happen....and if his MIC warning was Heeded.

If you read the link I posted summarizing the novel you will notice that it mentions a future where corporations get people hooked on addictive substances.

You can read the story here:
Gravity Planet

It was published as a serial, so here are the other issues: More Issues

Jeff

Thanks!

Yep.

Water shortages? Narcotic coffee? Pedal-powered Cadillacs? Connies? Rockets to Venus? Sales meetings? What a dark vision of the future, I had to stop reading. But I did skip to the last page where you find out that Soylent Green is made from bicycle seats.

Why, except for the open door-holes and belly?

TO be fair, that isn't too incredibly different from the pedal-cabs that are popping up in cities...

That picture was drawn in 1952. Back then, just about everyone smoked. They had cigarette commercials on TV. Doctors smoked, in their offices, and maybe even in the operating room. I agree it's not a good view of the future, but just recognize the era it was drawn in.

Only I'm guessing the story was supposed to be about a dystopia, not reality.

The 50's? Where are the flying cars we were supposed to have by now?

I know that. I am old enough to remember ashtrays in elevators. But again...Part of the book plot involves corporations getting people hooked on addictive substances. I think the inclusion of a cigarette is a reference to that.

The "Connies" (commies?) are trying to persuade people from drinking or smoking, but the Metropolitan Corporate Police apparently shoot them on sight. This reads like a really preachy Star Trek episode.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c56eb5d937.png

"Alcohol made from GRAIN!?"

A lot of people apparently miss that "utopia" was coined for satirical uses. It means "nowhere".

Those are the joys of Paradise as proselytized on the LCF list.