X-Message-Number: 18659
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Forecasting the Future
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 15:34:16 -0000

> Message #18655
> From: 
> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 10:07:26 EST
> Subject: The Prospect of Immortality
> If there is any lesson here, it is that I am not optimistic enough. (Also
> sometimes not pessimistic enough, but that is on a different time scale.)

A further example of forecasting the future can be found on a new web site I
am working on. It concerns the invention of PCM and it's inventor.
http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com One article already on the site is his
predictions for the future of PCM - as written in 1965.

These predictions for the future are already a parallel universe, one
without personal computers and the internet, and with alien devices that
wouldn't be out of place in a Philip Pullman novel, such as mobile
telephones storing numbers on magnetic tape and radio communication with the
dead. In some ways a greater dependence on telecommunication would make it a
better world - there would be no September 11, no "road toll" equal to a
jumbo crashing every week, and probably the lack of demand for oil would
have made Beirut and Kuwait the peaceful places Reeves knew and visited on
his trips. Some of his inaccurate ideas still have a beauty of their own as
do fantasy novels, and I hope that the web site is seen in this way rather
than as poking ridicule on things that didn't happen.

There will be a television programme, to be broadcast in the UK on Sunday 3
March at 8 pm on Channel Four, and which focuses on Reeves' war work. I had
nothing to do with the making of the programme, but have seen a synopsis and
it looks to be an extravagant production and well worth seeing. It is in the
series "Secrets of the Dead" and includes a dramatic re-construction and
demonstration with real aeroplanes, re-created equipment, and dummy bombs of
how his inventions enabled accurate destruction of Nazi facilities at
critical stages in the war.

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:      http://www.deRivaz.com
my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors'
report, an autobio and various other projects:
http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt
http://www.autopsychoice.com - http://www.cryonics-europe.org -
http://www.porthtowan.com

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