Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for tuning in. We are on the precipice of one,
Speaker 1: and as this is our first time recording in the
Speaker 1: new year, how long do you think we can call
Speaker 1: it the new year? Noal to like just January or
Speaker 1: I think all year? I think until until there's another
Speaker 1: new year, right, I don't know, Ben, This is at
Speaker 1: least this is a very heavy question, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be asking a lot of heavy questions today. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing a lot of waxing philosophical I totally stole
Speaker 1: that from an article that we're using here, but it's
Speaker 1: a phrase that I really love about the future, because
Speaker 1: you know, one, if ever there was a more futuristic
Speaker 1: sounding year than it was one my friend, and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty was a garbage year. So let's forget about that
Speaker 1: and let's move on to the real future, which starts
Speaker 1: right now. And in today's first part of a two
Speaker 1: part episode, Hey Hey we are, we are partnering with
Speaker 1: our Ride or Die superproducer Casey Pegram to share some predictions.
Speaker 1: Now you know, No, I was thinking about this. Our
Speaker 1: pal slash nemesis, Jonathan STRICKLANDK the Quister, has historically done
Speaker 1: a lot of prediction episodes on his show Tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: That's right. It always seemed like such a gamble to me.
Speaker 1: I don't like the idea of making predictions unless you
Speaker 1: have to. But we being a show that is both
Speaker 1: ridiculous and about history foul, so just bonkers amazing predictions
Speaker 1: about the twenty one century, not from people alive today,
Speaker 1: but from the great minds of years before. Yeah, preemptively,
Speaker 1: from the great beyond, uh in our preemptive two partner.
Speaker 1: And not only are they dead, they were, in fact
Speaker 1: some great minds, some real kind of like neo futurists,
Speaker 1: you know before that was really as much of a
Speaker 1: thing as we think of today. Um, we're talking about
Speaker 1: writers of science fiction, we're talking about inventors, We're talking
Speaker 1: about just a lot of great forward thinking intellects of
Speaker 1: our time. Yes, so we know that predictions are big business, right.
Speaker 1: You find predictions in the stock market, you find them
Speaker 1: in the world of tech, you find them in the
Speaker 1: world of politics, economics, and ecology. Some predictions have already
Speaker 1: come to pass, you know, the idea that the world's
Speaker 1: human population would rise over time. That seems to be true.
Speaker 1: The fact that technology would disrupt numerous industries and parts
Speaker 1: of people's daily lives, that's true. But those are very
Speaker 1: broad things. What we're bringing you here today are some
Speaker 1: uh specifics. And with this, who better to start our
Speaker 1: story than the one, the only. Yeah, Noah, you love him,
Speaker 1: Nicola Tesla. It turns out, in addition to inventing, he
Speaker 1: made a lot of predictions. Yeah, Tesla indeed, and he not.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a science fiction writer. He was basically a
Speaker 1: creator of real life science fiction. Well, I guess science fact.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to the Griffith Park Observatory in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Ben, Yes, yes I have. You may recall
Speaker 1: then that there is a Tesla coil there that always
Speaker 1: strikes me as something right out of science fiction, probably
Speaker 1: because it's used so frequently in like, you know, mad
Speaker 1: scientists laboratory scenes, and in fact, the one that is
Speaker 1: in the Griffith Park Observatory was featured in the kind
Speaker 1: of classic universal School of monster movies. Um, so that's
Speaker 1: a fun thing to go see, but yeah, it's He
Speaker 1: was very much someone that was very functional and practical
Speaker 1: in the way he was able to kind of take
Speaker 1: these ideas that he had and convert them into real
Speaker 1: life inventions. But he also made a lot of very,
Speaker 1: let's just say, kind of bold predictions about the future,
Speaker 1: some of which were a little more on point than others.
Speaker 1: He has thought of even still today as one of
Speaker 1: the great thinkers of the modern age. But some of
Speaker 1: his predictions were super weird and niche. For example, he
Speaker 1: truly believed with his heart of hearts, uh that in
Speaker 1: the twenty one century, which is the thing they would
Speaker 1: have referred to at the time, the twenty first century, um,
Speaker 1: this mystical future time where everything will you know, be
Speaker 1: vastly different. Um, people wouldn't drink coffee anymore. He thought
Speaker 1: coffee was like gonna be super ghost because he looked
Speaker 1: at it as a means of poisoning oneself. Um. Any
Speaker 1: kind of stimulants like nicotine or caffeine. Um. He seemed
Speaker 1: like he had a personal grudge against, But he was
Speaker 1: trying to kind of read the tea leaves of like
Speaker 1: what popular society or civilized decide rather would would accept,
Speaker 1: And he believed in the future these things would be
Speaker 1: considered super passe. Uh, and then no one would drink
Speaker 1: them anymore or you know, um ingest nicotine. It's true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh just cheers to everybody listening along like me
Speaker 1: and maybe like you Nolan enjoyed a nice cup of
Speaker 1: coffee here. It turns out, Uh, as as much as
Speaker 1: I love you, Mr Tesla, you were dead wrong about this.
Speaker 1: Would we are still swigging jugs and java as though
Speaker 1: our lives depend on it. He was partially right about nicotine.
Speaker 1: Smoking rates have continued time over time to decline, but
Speaker 1: he was He was also super super super confident about
Speaker 1: these predictions. All of the ones we're telling you. There
Speaker 1: were none that he said, I don't know. I give
Speaker 1: it like a thirty seventy chance. Uh. He did. He
Speaker 1: did make one correct call about beverages in general. He
Speaker 1: said booze would still be around. He didn't think it
Speaker 1: was the same thing as like coffee. He in fact
Speaker 1: loved it, he called it and a lick sir of life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: spoken like a true lush. Um. Yeah, it's true. It's
Speaker 1: funny toupn you talk about You're right obviously, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: smoking actual combustible cigarettes is super on the decline. But um,
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of other, you know, delivery mechanisms for
Speaker 1: people's precious nicotine, whether it's gum or whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: the weirdly neo futuristic vape mechanisms, which still kind of
Speaker 1: weirds me out in a lot of ways. To me,
Speaker 1: that's one of the most futuri looking things that that
Speaker 1: is around today is vaping. Maybe that's just I don't
Speaker 1: know why I think that. I like the ones that
Speaker 1: look like walkie talkies, and if I see somebody, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about, with a little stubby stay
Speaker 1: and the handheld thing about the size of your palm.
Speaker 1: I love that because when I see somebody with one,
Speaker 1: I always like to pretend there are a spy from
Speaker 1: you know, the eighties or nineties before they had earbuds,
Speaker 1: or it's like they're smoking out of one of those
Speaker 1: super clunky, like early nineties cell phones, you know, the
Speaker 1: car phones, the ones with like the big fat receivers
Speaker 1: and the giant antent on top um. But yeah, Tesla
Speaker 1: was was dead wrong about the coffee, and slightly less
Speaker 1: dead wrong but still wrong about the nicotine, and dead
Speaker 1: right about alcohol. People love a good drink every now
Speaker 1: and then. Um. And he also it was a really
Speaker 1: big proponent of nutrition. Um. Despite being clearly a bit
Speaker 1: of a booze hound, he uh was. It was a
Speaker 1: huge He wasn't a vegan exactly, but he was a
Speaker 1: big fan of like not eating too much meat, and
Speaker 1: he really liked things like milk and honey and wheat,
Speaker 1: which were ingredients shown by a gentleman by the name
Speaker 1: of Bernard McFadden to be usable in creating kind of
Speaker 1: food stuffs that were a little more sustainable and a
Speaker 1: little more natural and would create a population that would
Speaker 1: live longer in theory. Yeah. Yeah, And this is an
Speaker 1: idea that a lot of other people shared, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people share today. Uh. You know, one one
Speaker 1: that always stuck out to me was Robert Heinlan, who
Speaker 1: you know, the famous sci fi writer h He had
Speaker 1: written things like Stranger in a Strange Land and so
Speaker 1: I as far back as the early nineteen fifties. Heinland
Speaker 1: was saying, beef is not gonna last at the levels
Speaker 1: of consumption it's at now. Eventually, in his mind, fish
Speaker 1: and yeast would become the main sources of protein. Asimov
Speaker 1: took this even further in uh nineteen sixty four, he
Speaker 1: said at the World's Fair would feature algae bars uh
Speaker 1: and pseudo steak sort of like Uh, I guess the
Speaker 1: most extreme version of that would be like sort of
Speaker 1: like those bars they're served on the film's snow Crash.
Speaker 1: No spoilers, watch it. It's worth it. Uh. And it
Speaker 1: looks like, if you think about it in a very vague,
Speaker 1: well somewhat vague way, these guys were predicting the rise
Speaker 1: of things like impossible burgers or alternatives to meet what
Speaker 1: are those? What is it? Is it? Morning stars? That
Speaker 1: the brand? Yeah, they like the fake chicken nuggets and
Speaker 1: all that, and there's like things like corn like chicken nuggets.
Speaker 1: Man of corn with a que. It's gotta have a que.
Speaker 1: Let's how you know it's it's it's on the cutting edge. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a really huge billboard off of the interstate near
Speaker 1: near where I live that says nut milk is not milk.
Speaker 1: And if you look at it from far enough away,
Speaker 1: it just looks like it says nut milk is nut milk.
Speaker 1: But it's a big bone of contention with the milk lobby. Uh.
Speaker 1: This idea that using the word milk is a no, no,
Speaker 1: when it comes to nut milk, because it's really not
Speaker 1: actual milk. And I got into conversation with a friend
Speaker 1: of mine about this, and she brought up the fact
Speaker 1: that it's super weird that we drink the milk of
Speaker 1: other animals, and that that's very unusual in in in life,
Speaker 1: and it's something that we, I think Ben you've mentioned
Speaker 1: before on the show. It's something we had to adapt to,
Speaker 1: like our bodies, like you know, over time, have adapted
Speaker 1: to drinking cow's milk, except for those poor souls that
Speaker 1: are lactose intolerant, right, Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: mutation that has not hit the entirety of the human species.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's incredibly unusual for any animal, any mammal,
Speaker 1: to drink milk of its own species or of course
Speaker 1: another species into adulthood. It's kind of a juvenile characteristic
Speaker 1: that some parts of the population have adapted to keep
Speaker 1: into adults. It so milk is always kind of a
Speaker 1: weird thing. We've got an episode coming up on stuff
Speaker 1: they don't want you to know, another show that we
Speaker 1: do about dairy and livestock in general, So do check
Speaker 1: it out if you'd like. To learn more. So if
Speaker 1: we're keeping if you're keeping a checklist at home here, folks.
Speaker 1: Nikola Tesla was kind of right about tobacco, but to
Speaker 1: Knowl's point, he did not anticipate the differing delivery methods.
Speaker 1: He was totally wrong about coffee. He was right about alcohol.
Speaker 1: And the sci fi writers so far are what would
Speaker 1: you say, I would say, they're kind of right, pretty
Speaker 1: close alternatives. Yeah, I mean we're I mean, look they're
Speaker 1: they're like you said, Ben, a lot of these predictions
Speaker 1: are said with a sort of extreme authority that is
Speaker 1: hard to give full credit to. You know, they're basically
Speaker 1: saying like society is going to completely pivot to this
Speaker 1: means of sustenance, and as we know, you know, people
Speaker 1: like all kinds of different things. I have to say
Speaker 1: I think we buried the lead slightly. I love the
Speaker 1: term pseudo steak. I wish that would have taken off um.
Speaker 1: Instead we just call it what sitan Sitan I think
Speaker 1: is the closest thing to pseudo steak and mock turkey,
Speaker 1: which I guess would be something like to fur key.
Speaker 1: But I'm a big fan of the impossible burgers, not
Speaker 1: because I'm like anti meat. I just think they taste
Speaker 1: really good. And the fact that they bleed quote unquote,
Speaker 1: which is sold as a feature, not a book. I
Speaker 1: think it is very strange. Um, but that's not that's
Speaker 1: not what makes me like it. But I think we
Speaker 1: have gotten to a place where you have a lot
Speaker 1: more options now. But it's certainly not one of the
Speaker 1: society as a whole has gravitated towards and like, you know,
Speaker 1: dumped everything right, dumped everything else right. Yeah, it's sort
Speaker 1: of like, you know, the rise of the e book
Speaker 1: or the kindle did not kill the physical book and
Speaker 1: probably won't for a very long long time. I these
Speaker 1: things can exist without being mutually exclusive. The real question
Speaker 1: is one of price, and in parts of the world,
Speaker 1: for a very long time, beef was itself a luxury.
Speaker 1: It's still a luxury, you know, many parts of the planet.
Speaker 1: So the alternative meat stuff is interesting. I love it. Um.
Speaker 1: Some listeners know, I was a vegetarian for a long time,
Speaker 1: a number of years ago. I have I have no
Speaker 1: longer vegetarian. I'm omnivorous. But yeah, man, get down on
Speaker 1: an impossible burger if you haven't tried one. They're pretty
Speaker 1: they're pretty solid. I would say they taste good, but
Speaker 1: being burgers tastes good too. I had one just a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. And I think Ben, both of us
Speaker 1: being fans of home cooking, and we can both attest
Speaker 1: to like it's sort of a misnomer that like, oh,
Speaker 1: if you're vegetarian food, then it's like flavorless or bland
Speaker 1: or something. That's only if you like don't know how
Speaker 1: to cook or don't know, you know, don't have a
Speaker 1: good recipe. Because everything that when you're when you're cooking,
Speaker 1: it's all about how you season it. It's all about
Speaker 1: the ingredients you use. You can make vegetarian food taste incredible,
Speaker 1: just so much flavor possibility and vegetarian food, which leads
Speaker 1: to our next point that they, many of these forward
Speaker 1: thinking minds of the time believed that fruits and vegetables
Speaker 1: would be a big deal, would be absolutely huge. Uh
Speaker 1: let's call it in the twenty one century. Um, you
Speaker 1: know for a lot of reasons. Ay, they're sustainable, you
Speaker 1: can grow them yourselves, and you can keep you know,
Speaker 1: tend to them, and you don't have to put all
Speaker 1: these creeds. I mean obviously there's water consumption issues to
Speaker 1: think about. But in general, it seems like a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a long game that we as a
Speaker 1: human species could sustain, much more so than the beef problem,
Speaker 1: which we know has all kinds of issues beyond just
Speaker 1: humanitarian but just about the methane that's produced and all
Speaker 1: of the you know, conditions in farms, and you know,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to get into all that stuff like
Speaker 1: the Upton Sinclair meat packing industry stuff, but there's it
Speaker 1: is rife with potential problems. Whereas fruits and vegetables none
Speaker 1: of that ick factor really comes into play. So you
Speaker 1: had someone named John Elferth Watkins Junr. Who wrote in
Speaker 1: a uh the Ladies home Journal that we would be
Speaker 1: eating strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries quote as large as apples
Speaker 1: and peas, and beans would be as big as beats.
Speaker 1: He says, yeah. Now, okay, let's pause for a second
Speaker 1: because we have to understand the concerns about what are
Speaker 1: called GMOs short for genetically modified organisms, didn't really exist
Speaker 1: in the nineteen hundred's, a century ago. That wasn't something
Speaker 1: that people were super concerned about. I also have to
Speaker 1: point out whenever GMOs come up, things that we eat.
Speaker 1: Before the concern of GMOs like corn, they were already
Speaker 1: genetically modified through breeding, so it's it's a weird term.
Speaker 1: They weren't worried about this. They did predict, as you said,
Speaker 1: an extreme version of a trend that is occurring. It's
Speaker 1: not hard to find really really big fruits. We know
Speaker 1: that because there's a lot of pretty solid science put
Speaker 1: into creating strains and things like seedless fruits, right, or
Speaker 1: things that are larger than the fruit you would find
Speaker 1: in the wild. But some folks even went further and
Speaker 1: they brought the atomic age into the mix. Gotta love
Speaker 1: a good atomic age prediction, UM, and I love that
Speaker 1: they do this without batting an eyelash considering that maybe
Speaker 1: you shouldn't eat those basketball sized tomatoes that were caused
Speaker 1: to be that way because of fallout left behind by
Speaker 1: the hydrogen bomb. UM. That just that there's really no
Speaker 1: cautionary kind of spirit in any of these predictions. UM.
Speaker 1: There was a an article in nineteen six from the
Speaker 1: Independent Press Telegrams magazine called Southland UM, where a gentleman
Speaker 1: by the name of George Service comes up with this
Speaker 1: whole notion of a farm from the year two thousand
Speaker 1: in the year two thousand and uh, when hydrogen bombs
Speaker 1: would cause the soil to produce three ft long carrots,
Speaker 1: four foot wide turnups, and the aforementioned basketball sized tomatoes. Ah,
Speaker 1: and what if those tomatoes weren't just basketball size, but
Speaker 1: what if they were also square? Former agricultural Secretary Orville
Speaker 1: Freeman believe that the mechanization of agriculture would lead to
Speaker 1: more efficient production, and that a knock on effect of
Speaker 1: this would be the creation of square fruits. No square tomatoes. Rather,
Speaker 1: Now he's not He's not totally wrong. He just got
Speaker 1: the wrong plants. Because you can today or when they're
Speaker 1: in season, you can buy square watermelons and square melons
Speaker 1: of several different types in places like Japan. Uh. This,
Speaker 1: this is true. They are more expensive. But I love
Speaker 1: his I love one of the arguments for the square
Speaker 1: produced folks, and it's this. They said they will be better,
Speaker 1: There'll be better on sandwiches. Yeah, because I just I
Speaker 1: just know nothing I hate more than a round tomato
Speaker 1: on a square sandwich. I need the edge is to
Speaker 1: perfectly align so that every bite gives me a perfect
Speaker 1: you know, combination of the ingredients. We already have round
Speaker 1: bread yeah, you can. I mean, but god, round bread
Speaker 1: just seems wrong, Ben, It just seems wrong. Ben. I
Speaker 1: gotta back up two clicks. How they do those square melons? Man?
Speaker 1: Do they grow them in a box or something like?
Speaker 1: You really? Okay? Yeah, it's it's pretty low level technology.
Speaker 1: It's clever though. I'll send you the link they have.
Speaker 1: They grow them into those frames, into those shapes, but
Speaker 1: they're purely ornamental and they're often like the equivalent of
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars or so. People pay out the news
Speaker 1: for melons. Do you guys case you might ask you first,
Speaker 1: you haven't shined in this episode yet. Do you remember
Speaker 1: the early internet meme hoax thing by the name of
Speaker 1: Bonsai kitten? Oh? Absolutely, I remember the bonds I can
Speaker 1: tell us about bonds I kitten. And I actually was
Speaker 1: not aware that this was like a hoax, So I'm
Speaker 1: glad because that was like kitten cruelty. It was basically
Speaker 1: a kitten that had been stuffed into kind of like
Speaker 1: a square glass container, right, and um, yes, that's pretty
Speaker 1: much all there is to it. Yes, you grow your
Speaker 1: kitty in a in a square clear glass container and
Speaker 1: it molds around so it becomes a perfectly cubed kitten,
Speaker 1: all for the kauaii of it all. So back to
Speaker 1: these predictions. Luckily, yes sponsa kitten for now. One familiar
Speaker 1: is a hoax. I've gotta I've gotta check in here, Casey.
Speaker 1: How what's your take on the alternative meat field or
Speaker 1: on the alternative protein field in general? Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's a worthwhile feel to study. Um. I've had like
Speaker 1: some impossible burgers that kind of thing. They're fine. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean I am a meat eater, but I also
Speaker 1: enjoy kind of trying the new stuff. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean the meat substitutes. They seems like
Speaker 1: a reasonable thing to me. Would you eat insects? No?
Speaker 1: Probably not? Um? Does this has become like an internet meme, right,
Speaker 1: like eat the bugs stay in the pod. I don't
Speaker 1: know about this. I would definitely eat the bug if
Speaker 1: it was one of those crunchy little cricket boys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I could. I could see like a deep fried, chocolate
Speaker 1: dipped kind of thing. Maybe, um, to just like mask
Speaker 1: the taste so you don't really even notice. I would
Speaker 1: do that on a lark, but not as like a
Speaker 1: steady part of my diet. What if you knew a
Speaker 1: false burger. I say false, a false burger patty was
Speaker 1: made up of ground up locusts or something, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't buggy in texture. Would you be okay with that? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why not. I would try it anyway. I just read
Speaker 1: the ingredients after dinner exactly. Yes, yes, So Nol, what
Speaker 1: about you? Just a second ago, you said you were
Speaker 1: you were down with eating our insect toyed friends big time,
Speaker 1: And like I said, like I just said, especially, I
Speaker 1: think I know there are ways where you can grind
Speaker 1: them up to make uh, you know, different textures in
Speaker 1: you know, meat, substitute prod And I think that would
Speaker 1: be an interesting use of insects. And I know they
Speaker 1: had a lot of protein and they have a lot
Speaker 1: kind of a nutty flavor. And I know that sounds
Speaker 1: gross to say that bugs have a nutty flavor, but
Speaker 1: I'm okay with it. I'm on board. I have never
Speaker 1: had opportunity, though, to eat a cricket, but I would
Speaker 1: do it. So you guys might remember me and uh
Speaker 1: friend of the show, Lauren Vogel Bomb, We've eaten several
Speaker 1: insects on our old show snack stuff, including crickets and
Speaker 1: three different flavors. Ate some locusts. Oh, I've had some
Speaker 1: beetles before. I ate uh not not maggots, grubs from Korea,
Speaker 1: and they tasted the way that tire smell on a
Speaker 1: hot day, which is a very sinesthetic way to describe those.
Speaker 1: But I bring this up because the u N predicted
Speaker 1: that people will start eating bugs as part of their
Speaker 1: standard diet helps save the planet or save the ecosystem.
Speaker 1: The thing is a lot of people aren't catching on,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, understandably, I think that squeaks people out.
Speaker 1: But maybe kelp, maybe seaweed is a more acceptable substitute.
Speaker 1: What do you think, well, as as a big sushi eater,
Speaker 1: I'm absolutely fine with seaweed. Really, like a good seaweed salad.
Speaker 1: Kelp is a little bit earlier, I think than just
Speaker 1: regular old seaweed, I'm not mistaken. Like it's a little thicker,
Speaker 1: and like it's the kind of stuff where if you're
Speaker 1: waiting out of the ocean and you get it caught
Speaker 1: on your feet and it has like these weird little
Speaker 1: kind of like booy things that hang off the side
Speaker 1: sort of look like octopus tentacles. That stuff does squig
Speaker 1: me out a little bit, but apparently quite sustainable and
Speaker 1: uh pretty good in a salad. And there were predictions
Speaker 1: that by the Rand Corporation that in nine six UM,
Speaker 1: in an effort to promote eating more kelp, they predicted
Speaker 1: that in the future, uh, massive underwater fields of kelp
Speaker 1: and other varieties of seaweed would be kept by um
Speaker 1: underwater farmers um a k a. Frogman one of our
Speaker 1: favorite terms from stuff that I wants you to know.
Speaker 1: You often hear about spies, Russian spies wearing scuba gear
Speaker 1: being referred to as frogman. I always think of the
Speaker 1: opening to Johnny Quests where you see the particularly froggy
Speaker 1: looking frogman wearing the green scuba suits. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this notion that you could take this kelp, which is
Speaker 1: very rich in protein, uh and make it taste like
Speaker 1: anything you want, like Willy Wonka style. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: almost a uh. So it was the gob stopper, uh,
Speaker 1: the schnausberries taste of schnawsberries. Uh. But don't worry, this
Speaker 1: prediction is still coming to pass. And like you said, no,
Speaker 1: you can find protein rich kelp in a couple of
Speaker 1: different applications. Now, maybe not as extreme as the Rand
Speaker 1: Corps once machine in nineteen sixty six. But we assure you, folks,
Speaker 1: we've looked into it, and eating kelp is not gonna
Speaker 1: lead you down some sort of terrible Veruca Salt. Oh no, wait,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Veruca Salt. What was her name? She was
Speaker 1: always chewing gum. Violet Beauregard. Violet Beauregard will not lead
Speaker 1: you down a Violet Beauregard path. You won't be rolled
Speaker 1: out blueberry sized, or you won't turn into an enormous
Speaker 1: piece of kelp. Quickly back to the frogman. Though this
Speaker 1: prediction Um, which didn't come to pass, I would love
Speaker 1: to see this happen. With this notion of an underwater
Speaker 1: farm maintained by these scuba men, and that they would
Speaker 1: live in these like underwater bunkers um for like weeks
Speaker 1: out of the year while they tended to their crop.
Speaker 1: That prediction kind of kept going, this idea of living
Speaker 1: subterraneanly like either underground or underwater. Isaac Asimov, another fantastic thinker, UM,
Speaker 1: thought that in order to conquer I guess what he
Speaker 1: would maybe see as like the inevitable annihilation of the
Speaker 1: above ground planet and the atmosphere and such. Perhaps we
Speaker 1: do a better job of setting up underground cities very
Speaker 1: post apocalyptic stuff, um, using advanced light technology that could
Speaker 1: create the same quality of light as you'd have outdoors. Um,
Speaker 1: and then just use the earth surface for agriculture and grazing,
Speaker 1: ground and parks. Not quite as bleak and as I
Speaker 1: was getting at. But um, he definitely didn't quite land
Speaker 1: that one um on the bull's eye, did he? Well not,
Speaker 1: maybe not yet. There are underground facilities that are the
Speaker 1: size of small towns, but they are almost entirely like
Speaker 1: bunkers for some above ground disaster. They're not fun places. Yet.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of things that are temporary. They're
Speaker 1: they're like tangentially related. There are some fantastic undersea hotels
Speaker 1: you can go to in Singapore, Dubai, the Caribbean that
Speaker 1: let you get a get the feel of living life
Speaker 1: beneath the waves. And I believe there's a there's a
Speaker 1: plan in New York to create an underground park called
Speaker 1: the low Line, sort of an alternative to the High Line, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Highline is like that kind of mixed use kind
Speaker 1: of area in New York that's part park, part like
Speaker 1: shopping district and it's all made I'm not mistaken out
Speaker 1: of like disused railway lines, sort of like the belt
Speaker 1: Line is here in Atlanta. Um. But yeah, they have
Speaker 1: sort of a subterranean alternative to it that I have
Speaker 1: not heard much about. I don't believe it's a debut yet.
Speaker 1: But it's called the Low Line, and it would be
Speaker 1: like kind of kind of like a similar like underground
Speaker 1: kind of mixed use shopping and dwelling kind of situation.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a mole person or a
Speaker 1: frogman to apply. Another urban prediction that I thought was
Speaker 1: really interesting, and it's Asimov is one person who predicted this,
Speaker 1: but many other people, not just in the realm of
Speaker 1: science fiction, have predicted this. It's the merchants of the
Speaker 1: mega city, the megapolis, right. He thought that he was
Speaker 1: looking at the growth of Boston and Washington and d C.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, eventually these things are going
Speaker 1: to run into each other. They're going to be one huge,
Speaker 1: just city that doesn't stop. And I think we're well
Speaker 1: on the way to that. I guess so. But my
Speaker 1: question is sort of like to what end, Like is
Speaker 1: it is it out of? Um? Oh? I guess efficiency,
Speaker 1: So you just have one government, like it gets to
Speaker 1: a point where if it becomes big enough and it's
Speaker 1: all just much together, then there is is there even
Speaker 1: a need for local government versus like federal government. So
Speaker 1: like the whole point of like you know, the United
Speaker 1: States and that we've got different cities and states obviously
Speaker 1: that have that are kind of governed independently, and if
Speaker 1: he starts kind of mashing them all together, you sort
Speaker 1: of lose some of that individuality. I just wonder what
Speaker 1: was he thinking as to how what benefit this would have?
Speaker 1: You know, it may not have been a question so
Speaker 1: much for him of benefits is one of inevitability that
Speaker 1: the suburbs and excerbs they keep expanding or continually just
Speaker 1: eventually blur. And that's I mean, that's sort of happening.
Speaker 1: And if the trends continue, it may well be that
Speaker 1: the distinction between Boston and d C becomes increasingly a
Speaker 1: matter of tradition. I don't know. I think people will.
Speaker 1: I think locals will tend to want to keep their
Speaker 1: governments though they there might be something that exists that's
Speaker 1: like the uh, the Great Eastern Seaboard conglomeration, or something
Speaker 1: like that. But they'll still want, you know, the mayor
Speaker 1: of Boston is still gonna want to be the mayor
Speaker 1: of Boston, you know. And and you know, as much
Speaker 1: as people maybe like rag on their local politicians, at
Speaker 1: least they feel like they have some agency, you know,
Speaker 1: and there and there's somehow different from people that live
Speaker 1: in other cities. And then they have their own like
Speaker 1: unique kind of personality and like culture. I think that's
Speaker 1: really important. So I'm not I'm not a fan of
Speaker 1: this prediction. Uh and I hope it's not as inevitable
Speaker 1: as as an off thought. I am a big fan
Speaker 1: of this next one. I want to speak a little
Speaker 1: bit or talk a little bit about the presumed kind
Speaker 1: of science behind it this idea. Of course, it was
Speaker 1: Robert A. Heimlin who wrote, uh, oh, what did he writes?
Speaker 1: The one about Mars. He had like a series of
Speaker 1: of books about traveling to Mars and setting up colonies
Speaker 1: on Mars. And I know it has Mars in the name,
Speaker 1: and I am forgetting the name entirely, but you guys
Speaker 1: can look it up google that. But he believed that
Speaker 1: there would should and would be nursing homes on the
Speaker 1: moon and that was because he thought that living on
Speaker 1: the Moon, where gravity is just sevent of the gravity
Speaker 1: fell on Earth, would actually slow down the aging process. Um.
Speaker 1: He thought that, like you know, older bodies that were deteriorating,
Speaker 1: having frail joints, Uh, they would they would feel less pain. Um,
Speaker 1: their weak hearts wouldn't have to work so hard. And
Speaker 1: I guess you know people always say gravity is your
Speaker 1: worst enemy. Uh, and in terms of aging, because everything
Speaker 1: goes down, you know, everything SAgs and all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and like you, you're constantly being pulled towards the center
Speaker 1: of gravity. Um. What do you think, Ben, does that
Speaker 1: hold true? Or or does this sound like some science
Speaker 1: fiction any thinking? Uh, my repressed, my repressed childhood astronauts
Speaker 1: is coming out here. At first, I think you are
Speaker 1: you talking about red planet by planet exactly correct? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he also wrote Starship Troopers. It's right, dude, But but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's your your point, man. It's a nice idea, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a laudable one. And I think it's cool
Speaker 1: that he is keeping older patients or members of the
Speaker 1: human species in his thoughts. But it doesn't consider radiation,
Speaker 1: It doesn't consider the inevitable degradation of the musculature. If
Speaker 1: we keep people on the Moon in low gravity environments
Speaker 1: for such a long time, it would be a one
Speaker 1: way ticket if they live there for a long time. Um,
Speaker 1: and maybe we can create the technology that would allow
Speaker 1: people to live in space for an extended period. But
Speaker 1: interestingly enough to bring this part one of our two
Speaker 1: part series back around just a bit, uh, the best
Speaker 1: chance for people to live long term on the Moon
Speaker 1: is still going to be living under the surface because
Speaker 1: that lunar rock will shield them from the radiation of
Speaker 1: the cosmos. Well, Ben, we also haven't talked about how
Speaker 1: your your childhood uh internal astronaut might bring up this
Speaker 1: point to you gotta be in tip top peak shape
Speaker 1: to even make that voyage to the Moon, you know,
Speaker 1: So what would that be like to to send some
Speaker 1: elderly folks that are frail in the first place, and
Speaker 1: how what impacts that have on their bodies just to
Speaker 1: even get there? Would it would it maybe set them back?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, I see your point
Speaker 1: about the radiation, Like there's all these other mitigating factors
Speaker 1: that maybe would work against this, like miracle cure of
Speaker 1: living in like lower gravity and and if not, can
Speaker 1: we recreate low gravity conditions here on Earth? Yes? Yes
Speaker 1: we can. Can we create the wow you like? I'm
Speaker 1: such a propagandist for this, Yes we can right now?
Speaker 1: Are trouble? Like trouble would be recreating those conditions for
Speaker 1: a long period, for years and years and years. That
Speaker 1: is a little bit more difficult for us, But I
Speaker 1: think I think it's worthwhile. I just, ah, man, how
Speaker 1: cool would it be? How cool would it be if
Speaker 1: a few decades from now we could get together and
Speaker 1: just instead of saying, hey, let's let's all go on
Speaker 1: a road trip, or hey let's all go visit Japan
Speaker 1: or something, we could say, hey, let's go visit the
Speaker 1: lunar base. Um. Another thing I think needs to be
Speaker 1: considered in this equation is think of the Think of
Speaker 1: your loved ones, Think of the folks in your life
Speaker 1: who might potentially benefit from living on the Moon. It
Speaker 1: would be very far away, and it would be tough
Speaker 1: for you to see them. You know, you would be
Speaker 1: on lunar zoom calls. It might not work for everyone,
Speaker 1: but gosh, man, I don't know. Would you do it?
Speaker 1: Would you guys do it? Would you go to the moon.
Speaker 1: Let's say you were in like you're you're in your
Speaker 1: mid eighties. Uh, you're in pretty good condition, but age
Speaker 1: is catching up with you. Would you go to the
Speaker 1: moon and live there if it meant you could live
Speaker 1: to a d T? Yeah? Why not? I guess this
Speaker 1: is the same thing we talked about Ben, this idea
Speaker 1: of making a new Year's resolution or thinking about your
Speaker 1: future self. My present self gives my future self, you know,
Speaker 1: all the support that I can muster to go to
Speaker 1: the moon. But my future self might not feel the
Speaker 1: same way. But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see if
Speaker 1: I even get to my mid eighties to even make
Speaker 1: that call. And who knows, by the time we're in
Speaker 1: our mid eighties, maybe this will be an option. Um,
Speaker 1: maybe a lot of these things will have come to
Speaker 1: pass that we are now pooh pooing as like, you know,
Speaker 1: because what is a great forward thinking, you know, predictive
Speaker 1: mind if not someone that is constantly being told, oh
Speaker 1: you missed the mark on that one, only to like
Speaker 1: ten years later. Things do go that way. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, a lot left to be written about some
Speaker 1: of these predictions. Um, maybe underwater help farming, Um, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into some really fun underwater stuff in the
Speaker 1: next episode that we're not gonna spoil right now, involving
Speaker 1: water sports and modes of transportation. That's correct, And speaking
Speaker 1: of our future selves, let's put some more pressure on
Speaker 1: those guys. Look, folks, the future host of ridiculous history
Speaker 1: of this next episode that you're gonna hear uh in
Speaker 1: just a little while, they're gonna tell they're gonna do
Speaker 1: a bang up job. It's gonna be amazing. You're gonna
Speaker 1: leave feeling like you went on that ride at Epcot.
Speaker 1: I think it was Epcot where you go through these
Speaker 1: different versions of the future. Does that Spaceship Earth? No,
Speaker 1: maybe it was. Remember I just remember at the very end,
Speaker 1: you could check someone right in and let us know
Speaker 1: what this is. At the very end of this ride,
Speaker 1: you could choose how to how to end the ride.
Speaker 1: You could fly underwater through space or the hazard or
Speaker 1: something like that. Uh, let us know. We want to
Speaker 1: know what you think of these predictions. We want to
Speaker 1: know your other favorite predictions from yesteryear about the twenty
Speaker 1: one century. And if you're feeling uh frogmany, then take
Speaker 1: a leap and let us know your predictions for the future.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, guys these things you say
Speaker 1: shouting into the void, waving your fist in the air,
Speaker 1: but I don't know how to get in contact with you. Well,
Speaker 1: we can fix that right now. Yeah, first of all,
Speaker 1: stop shouting and and and and lower your fists. This
Speaker 1: is this is a safe space. You can reach us
Speaker 1: on the internet very easily, um, no void shouting necessary.
Speaker 1: You can find us on our Facebook group, it's called
Speaker 1: the Ridiculous Historians. All you have to do is name
Speaker 1: and name my name to producer Casey Pegram's name, Ben
Speaker 1: Boland's name, anyone associated with the show that we list
Speaker 1: in those ubiquitous credits that we do the end of
Speaker 1: every episode. A topic, anything that lets us know that
Speaker 1: you're an actual human person who's a fan of the show,
Speaker 1: and you're in lots of great memes, sharing lots of
Speaker 1: good conversation sans maybe some some other predictions. I would
Speaker 1: love to see that. You can also find us on
Speaker 1: the various social media outlets of your choosing. We're on
Speaker 1: Facebook as just like a page. We're on Instagram. We're
Speaker 1: also available as individual human people. You can find me
Speaker 1: on Instagram at how now Noel Brown. Send your weird
Speaker 1: predictions or weird retro futurism stuff to me directly on
Speaker 1: Twitter or on Instagram. I'm at Ben Bullin on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm at Ben bolan hs W on Twitter. As always,
Speaker 1: thanks to our super producer, the Man of the Hour,
Speaker 1: the Man of the Future, dare I say casey Pegram.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Alex Williams who composed this banging track. Thanks
Speaker 1: to our own Nicola Tesla, the One, the Only Gay Luisier,
Speaker 1: Christopher Hastiots here in spirit uh Eves Jeff Coats. Check
Speaker 1: out her new show that she's executive producing, Jay dot
Speaker 1: Il the podcast featuring the one and Only Jill Scott.
Speaker 1: Also a daily show that he's does called This Day
Speaker 1: in History Class. Jonathan Strickland the quizter. I believe he's
Speaker 1: due for a New Year's appearance any day now. Um
Speaker 1: no spoilers, but I just have a feeling we always
Speaker 1: did that, but we mean it because we do, We
Speaker 1: do really mean it, um it. Thanks to you, Ben.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, my friend. It's good to be back
Speaker 1: on the Zoom with you again, and happy New Year
Speaker 1: to you. Well, here's to many more episodes and New
Speaker 1: Year's in the future. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.