January 5, 2021 • 37 mins
It's the first Ridiculous History episode of the New Year! Ben, Noel and Casey are ringing it in with some predictions--not their own predictions, mind you. Instead the guys are diving into the predictions of luminaries from ages past, exploring how much (or how little) these historical figures got right about the 21st century.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. We are on the precipice of one,
and as this is our first time recording in the
new year, how long do you think we can call
it the new year? Noal to like just January or
I think all year? I think until until there's another
(00:50):
new year, right, I don't know, Ben, This is at
least this is a very heavy question, and we're gonna
be asking a lot of heavy questions today. We're gonna
be doing a lot of waxing philosophical I totally stole
that from an article that we're using here, but it's
a phrase that I really love about the future, because
you know, one, if ever there was a more futuristic
(01:11):
sounding year than it was one my friend, and twenty
twenty was a garbage year. So let's forget about that
and let's move on to the real future, which starts
right now. And in today's first part of a two
part episode, Hey Hey we are, we are partnering with
our Ride or Die superproducer Casey Pegram to share some predictions.
(01:36):
Now you know, No, I was thinking about this. Our
pal slash nemesis, Jonathan STRICKLANDK the Quister, has historically done
a lot of prediction episodes on his show Tech Stuff.
That's right. It always seemed like such a gamble to me.
I don't like the idea of making predictions unless you
have to. But we being a show that is both
(01:57):
ridiculous and about history foul, so just bonkers amazing predictions
about the twenty one century, not from people alive today,
but from the great minds of years before. Yeah, preemptively,
from the great beyond, uh in our preemptive two partner.
And not only are they dead, they were, in fact
(02:19):
some great minds, some real kind of like neo futurists,
you know before that was really as much of a
thing as we think of today. Um, we're talking about
writers of science fiction, we're talking about inventors, We're talking
about just a lot of great forward thinking intellects of
our time. Yes, so we know that predictions are big business, right.
(02:42):
You find predictions in the stock market, you find them
in the world of tech, you find them in the
world of politics, economics, and ecology. Some predictions have already
come to pass, you know, the idea that the world's
human population would rise over time. That seems to be true.
(03:03):
The fact that technology would disrupt numerous industries and parts
of people's daily lives, that's true. But those are very
broad things. What we're bringing you here today are some
uh specifics. And with this, who better to start our
story than the one, the only. Yeah, Noah, you love him,
(03:24):
Nicola Tesla. It turns out, in addition to inventing, he
made a lot of predictions. Yeah, Tesla indeed, and he not.
He wasn't a science fiction writer. He was basically a
creator of real life science fiction. Well, I guess science fact.
Have you ever been to the Griffith Park Observatory in
Los Angeles, Ben, Yes, yes I have. You may recall
then that there is a Tesla coil there that always
(03:47):
strikes me as something right out of science fiction, probably
because it's used so frequently in like, you know, mad
scientists laboratory scenes, and in fact, the one that is
in the Griffith Park Observatory was featured in the kind
of classic universal School of monster movies. Um, so that's
a fun thing to go see, but yeah, it's He
was very much someone that was very functional and practical
(04:10):
in the way he was able to kind of take
these ideas that he had and convert them into real
life inventions. But he also made a lot of very,
let's just say, kind of bold predictions about the future,
some of which were a little more on point than others.
He has thought of even still today as one of
the great thinkers of the modern age. But some of
(04:33):
his predictions were super weird and niche. For example, he
truly believed with his heart of hearts, uh that in
the twenty one century, which is the thing they would
have referred to at the time, the twenty first century, um,
this mystical future time where everything will you know, be
vastly different. Um, people wouldn't drink coffee anymore. He thought
(04:54):
coffee was like gonna be super ghost because he looked
at it as a means of poisoning oneself. Um. Any
kind of stimulants like nicotine or caffeine. Um. He seemed
like he had a personal grudge against, But he was
trying to kind of read the tea leaves of like
what popular society or civilized decide rather would would accept,
(05:17):
And he believed in the future these things would be
considered super passe. Uh, and then no one would drink
them anymore or you know, um ingest nicotine. It's true. Yeah,
and uh just cheers to everybody listening along like me
and maybe like you Nolan enjoyed a nice cup of
coffee here. It turns out, Uh, as as much as
(05:39):
I love you, Mr Tesla, you were dead wrong about this.
Would we are still swigging jugs and java as though
our lives depend on it. He was partially right about nicotine.
Smoking rates have continued time over time to decline, but
he was He was also super super super confident about
these predictions. All of the ones we're telling you. There
(06:01):
were none that he said, I don't know. I give
it like a thirty seventy chance. Uh. He did. He
did make one correct call about beverages in general. He
said booze would still be around. He didn't think it
was the same thing as like coffee. He in fact
loved it, he called it and a lick sir of life. Yeah,
spoken like a true lush. Um. Yeah, it's true. It's
(06:24):
funny toupn you talk about You're right obviously, you know, uh,
smoking actual combustible cigarettes is super on the decline. But um,
there's all kinds of other, you know, delivery mechanisms for
people's precious nicotine, whether it's gum or whether it's you know,
the weirdly neo futuristic vape mechanisms, which still kind of
(06:45):
weirds me out in a lot of ways. To me,
that's one of the most futuri looking things that that
is around today is vaping. Maybe that's just I don't
know why I think that. I like the ones that
look like walkie talkies, and if I see somebody, you
know what I'm talking about, with a little stubby stay
and the handheld thing about the size of your palm.
I love that because when I see somebody with one,
I always like to pretend there are a spy from
(07:08):
you know, the eighties or nineties before they had earbuds,
or it's like they're smoking out of one of those
super clunky, like early nineties cell phones, you know, the
car phones, the ones with like the big fat receivers
and the giant antent on top um. But yeah, Tesla
was was dead wrong about the coffee, and slightly less
(07:28):
dead wrong but still wrong about the nicotine, and dead
right about alcohol. People love a good drink every now
and then. Um. And he also it was a really
big proponent of nutrition. Um. Despite being clearly a bit
of a booze hound, he uh was. It was a
huge He wasn't a vegan exactly, but he was a
(07:48):
big fan of like not eating too much meat, and
he really liked things like milk and honey and wheat,
which were ingredients shown by a gentleman by the name
of Bernard McFadden to be usable in creating kind of
food stuffs that were a little more sustainable and a
(08:10):
little more natural and would create a population that would
live longer in theory. Yeah. Yeah, And this is an
idea that a lot of other people shared, and a
lot of people share today. Uh. You know, one one
that always stuck out to me was Robert Heinlan, who
(08:32):
you know, the famous sci fi writer h He had
written things like Stranger in a Strange Land and so
I as far back as the early nineteen fifties. Heinland
was saying, beef is not gonna last at the levels
of consumption it's at now. Eventually, in his mind, fish
and yeast would become the main sources of protein. Asimov
(08:55):
took this even further in uh nineteen sixty four, he
said at the World's Fair would feature algae bars uh
and pseudo steak sort of like Uh, I guess the
most extreme version of that would be like sort of
like those bars they're served on the film's snow Crash.
No spoilers, watch it. It's worth it. Uh. And it
(09:19):
looks like, if you think about it in a very vague,
well somewhat vague way, these guys were predicting the rise
of things like impossible burgers or alternatives to meet what
are those? What is it? Is it? Morning stars? That
the brand? Yeah, they like the fake chicken nuggets and
all that, and there's like things like corn like chicken nuggets.
(09:40):
Man of corn with a que. It's gotta have a que.
Let's how you know it's it's it's on the cutting edge. Um.
There's a really huge billboard off of the interstate near
near where I live that says nut milk is not milk.
And if you look at it from far enough away,
it just looks like it says nut milk is nut milk.
But it's a big bone of contention with the milk lobby. Uh.
(10:01):
This idea that using the word milk is a no, no,
when it comes to nut milk, because it's really not
actual milk. And I got into conversation with a friend
of mine about this, and she brought up the fact
that it's super weird that we drink the milk of
other animals, and that that's very unusual in in in life,
(10:22):
and it's something that we, I think Ben you've mentioned
before on the show. It's something we had to adapt to,
like our bodies, like you know, over time, have adapted
to drinking cow's milk, except for those poor souls that
are lactose intolerant, right, Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a
mutation that has not hit the entirety of the human species.
It's actually it's incredibly unusual for any animal, any mammal,
(10:46):
to drink milk of its own species or of course
another species into adulthood. It's kind of a juvenile characteristic
that some parts of the population have adapted to keep
into adults. It so milk is always kind of a
weird thing. We've got an episode coming up on stuff
they don't want you to know, another show that we
(11:06):
do about dairy and livestock in general, So do check
it out if you'd like. To learn more. So if
we're keeping if you're keeping a checklist at home here, folks.
Nikola Tesla was kind of right about tobacco, but to
Knowl's point, he did not anticipate the differing delivery methods.
He was totally wrong about coffee. He was right about alcohol.
(11:29):
And the sci fi writers so far are what would
you say, I would say, they're kind of right, pretty
close alternatives. Yeah, I mean we're I mean, look they're
they're like you said, Ben, a lot of these predictions
are said with a sort of extreme authority that is
hard to give full credit to. You know, they're basically
(11:50):
saying like society is going to completely pivot to this
means of sustenance, and as we know, you know, people
like all kinds of different things. I have to say
I think we buried the lead slightly. I love the
term pseudo steak. I wish that would have taken off um.
Instead we just call it what sitan Sitan I think
is the closest thing to pseudo steak and mock turkey,
(12:11):
which I guess would be something like to fur key.
But I'm a big fan of the impossible burgers, not
because I'm like anti meat. I just think they taste
really good. And the fact that they bleed quote unquote,
which is sold as a feature, not a book. I
think it is very strange. Um, but that's not that's
not what makes me like it. But I think we
(12:31):
have gotten to a place where you have a lot
more options now. But it's certainly not one of the
society as a whole has gravitated towards and like, you know,
dumped everything right, dumped everything else right. Yeah, it's sort
of like, you know, the rise of the e book
or the kindle did not kill the physical book and
probably won't for a very long long time. I these
(12:53):
things can exist without being mutually exclusive. The real question
is one of price, and in parts of the world,
for a very long time, beef was itself a luxury.
It's still a luxury, you know, many parts of the planet.
So the alternative meat stuff is interesting. I love it. Um.
Some listeners know, I was a vegetarian for a long time,
a number of years ago. I have I have no
(13:15):
longer vegetarian. I'm omnivorous. But yeah, man, get down on
an impossible burger if you haven't tried one. They're pretty
they're pretty solid. I would say they taste good, but
being burgers tastes good too. I had one just a
few weeks ago. And I think Ben, both of us
(13:36):
being fans of home cooking, and we can both attest
to like it's sort of a misnomer that like, oh,
if you're vegetarian food, then it's like flavorless or bland
or something. That's only if you like don't know how
to cook or don't know, you know, don't have a
good recipe. Because everything that when you're when you're cooking,
it's all about how you season it. It's all about
the ingredients you use. You can make vegetarian food taste incredible,
(13:56):
just so much flavor possibility and vegetarian food, which leads
to our next point that they, many of these forward
thinking minds of the time believed that fruits and vegetables
would be a big deal, would be absolutely huge. Uh
let's call it in the twenty one century. Um, you
know for a lot of reasons. Ay, they're sustainable, you
(14:17):
can grow them yourselves, and you can keep you know,
tend to them, and you don't have to put all
these creeds. I mean obviously there's water consumption issues to
think about. But in general, it seems like a little
bit more of a long game that we as a
human species could sustain, much more so than the beef problem,
which we know has all kinds of issues beyond just
humanitarian but just about the methane that's produced and all
(14:40):
of the you know, conditions in farms, and you know,
I wouldn't have to get into all that stuff like
the Upton Sinclair meat packing industry stuff, but there's it
is rife with potential problems. Whereas fruits and vegetables none
of that ick factor really comes into play. So you
had someone named John Elferth Watkins Junr. Who wrote in
(15:01):
a uh the Ladies home Journal that we would be
eating strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries quote as large as apples
and peas, and beans would be as big as beats.
He says, yeah. Now, okay, let's pause for a second
because we have to understand the concerns about what are
(15:22):
called GMOs short for genetically modified organisms, didn't really exist
in the nineteen hundred's, a century ago. That wasn't something
that people were super concerned about. I also have to
point out whenever GMOs come up, things that we eat.
Before the concern of GMOs like corn, they were already
(15:42):
genetically modified through breeding, so it's it's a weird term.
They weren't worried about this. They did predict, as you said,
an extreme version of a trend that is occurring. It's
not hard to find really really big fruits. We know
that because there's a lot of pretty solid science put
into creating strains and things like seedless fruits, right, or
(16:06):
things that are larger than the fruit you would find
in the wild. But some folks even went further and
they brought the atomic age into the mix. Gotta love
a good atomic age prediction, UM, and I love that
they do this without batting an eyelash considering that maybe
you shouldn't eat those basketball sized tomatoes that were caused
to be that way because of fallout left behind by
(16:30):
the hydrogen bomb. UM. That just that there's really no
cautionary kind of spirit in any of these predictions. UM.
There was a an article in nineteen six from the
Independent Press Telegrams magazine called Southland UM, where a gentleman
by the name of George Service comes up with this
(16:51):
whole notion of a farm from the year two thousand
in the year two thousand and uh, when hydrogen bombs
would cause the soil to produce three ft long carrots,
four foot wide turnups, and the aforementioned basketball sized tomatoes. Ah,
and what if those tomatoes weren't just basketball size, but
(17:13):
what if they were also square? Former agricultural Secretary Orville
Freeman believe that the mechanization of agriculture would lead to
more efficient production, and that a knock on effect of
this would be the creation of square fruits. No square tomatoes. Rather,
(17:34):
Now he's not He's not totally wrong. He just got
the wrong plants. Because you can today or when they're
in season, you can buy square watermelons and square melons
of several different types in places like Japan. Uh. This,
this is true. They are more expensive. But I love
his I love one of the arguments for the square
(17:55):
produced folks, and it's this. They said they will be better,
There'll be better on sandwiches. Yeah, because I just I
just know nothing I hate more than a round tomato
on a square sandwich. I need the edge is to
perfectly align so that every bite gives me a perfect
you know, combination of the ingredients. We already have round
(18:17):
bread yeah, you can. I mean, but god, round bread
just seems wrong, Ben, It just seems wrong. Ben. I
gotta back up two clicks. How they do those square melons? Man?
Do they grow them in a box or something like?
You really? Okay? Yeah, it's it's pretty low level technology.
It's clever though. I'll send you the link they have.
They grow them into those frames, into those shapes, but
(18:39):
they're purely ornamental and they're often like the equivalent of
a hundred dollars or so. People pay out the news
for melons. Do you guys case you might ask you first,
you haven't shined in this episode yet. Do you remember
the early internet meme hoax thing by the name of
Bonsai kitten? Oh? Absolutely, I remember the bonds I can
(19:01):
tell us about bonds I kitten. And I actually was
not aware that this was like a hoax, So I'm
glad because that was like kitten cruelty. It was basically
a kitten that had been stuffed into kind of like
a square glass container, right, and um, yes, that's pretty
much all there is to it. Yes, you grow your
kitty in a in a square clear glass container and
it molds around so it becomes a perfectly cubed kitten,
(19:25):
all for the kauaii of it all. So back to
these predictions. Luckily, yes sponsa kitten for now. One familiar
is a hoax. I've gotta I've gotta check in here, Casey.
How what's your take on the alternative meat field or
on the alternative protein field in general? Um, I think
(19:45):
it's a worthwhile feel to study. Um. I've had like
some impossible burgers that kind of thing. They're fine. Um.
I mean I am a meat eater, but I also
enjoy kind of trying the new stuff. So yeah, I
don't know. I mean the meat substitutes. They seems like
a reasonable thing to me. Would you eat insects? No?
Probably not? Um? Does this has become like an internet meme, right,
(20:08):
like eat the bugs stay in the pod. I don't
know about this. I would definitely eat the bug if
it was one of those crunchy little cricket boys. Yeah,
I could. I could see like a deep fried, chocolate
dipped kind of thing. Maybe, um, to just like mask
the taste so you don't really even notice. I would
do that on a lark, but not as like a
steady part of my diet. What if you knew a
false burger. I say false, a false burger patty was
(20:29):
made up of ground up locusts or something, but it
wasn't buggy in texture. Would you be okay with that? Um? Yeah,
why not. I would try it anyway. I just read
the ingredients after dinner exactly. Yes, yes, So Nol, what
about you? Just a second ago, you said you were
you were down with eating our insect toyed friends big time,
(20:49):
And like I said, like I just said, especially, I
think I know there are ways where you can grind
them up to make uh, you know, different textures in
you know, meat, substitute prod And I think that would
be an interesting use of insects. And I know they
had a lot of protein and they have a lot
kind of a nutty flavor. And I know that sounds
gross to say that bugs have a nutty flavor, but
I'm okay with it. I'm on board. I have never
(21:10):
had opportunity, though, to eat a cricket, but I would
do it. So you guys might remember me and uh
friend of the show, Lauren Vogel Bomb, We've eaten several
insects on our old show snack stuff, including crickets and
three different flavors. Ate some locusts. Oh, I've had some
beetles before. I ate uh not not maggots, grubs from Korea,
(21:35):
and they tasted the way that tire smell on a
hot day, which is a very sinesthetic way to describe those.
But I bring this up because the u N predicted
that people will start eating bugs as part of their
standard diet helps save the planet or save the ecosystem.
(21:58):
The thing is a lot of people aren't catching on,
and uh, you know, understandably, I think that squeaks people out.
But maybe kelp, maybe seaweed is a more acceptable substitute.
What do you think, well, as as a big sushi eater,
I'm absolutely fine with seaweed. Really, like a good seaweed salad.
Kelp is a little bit earlier, I think than just
(22:20):
regular old seaweed, I'm not mistaken. Like it's a little thicker,
and like it's the kind of stuff where if you're
waiting out of the ocean and you get it caught
on your feet and it has like these weird little
kind of like booy things that hang off the side
sort of look like octopus tentacles. That stuff does squig
me out a little bit, but apparently quite sustainable and
uh pretty good in a salad. And there were predictions
(22:41):
that by the Rand Corporation that in nine six UM,
in an effort to promote eating more kelp, they predicted
that in the future, uh, massive underwater fields of kelp
and other varieties of seaweed would be kept by um
underwater farmers um a k a. Frogman one of our
(23:05):
favorite terms from stuff that I wants you to know.
You often hear about spies, Russian spies wearing scuba gear
being referred to as frogman. I always think of the
opening to Johnny Quests where you see the particularly froggy
looking frogman wearing the green scuba suits. Um. But yeah,
this notion that you could take this kelp, which is
very rich in protein, uh and make it taste like
(23:27):
anything you want, like Willy Wonka style. Yeah, it's it's
almost a uh. So it was the gob stopper, uh,
the schnausberries taste of schnawsberries. Uh. But don't worry, this
prediction is still coming to pass. And like you said, no,
you can find protein rich kelp in a couple of
(23:48):
different applications. Now, maybe not as extreme as the Rand
Corps once machine in nineteen sixty six. But we assure you, folks,
we've looked into it, and eating kelp is not gonna
lead you down some sort of terrible Veruca Salt. Oh no, wait,
it wasn't Veruca Salt. What was her name? She was
always chewing gum. Violet Beauregard. Violet Beauregard will not lead
(24:10):
you down a Violet Beauregard path. You won't be rolled
out blueberry sized, or you won't turn into an enormous
piece of kelp. Quickly back to the frogman. Though this
prediction Um, which didn't come to pass, I would love
to see this happen. With this notion of an underwater
farm maintained by these scuba men, and that they would
live in these like underwater bunkers um for like weeks
(24:32):
out of the year while they tended to their crop.
That prediction kind of kept going, this idea of living
subterraneanly like either underground or underwater. Isaac Asimov, another fantastic thinker, UM,
thought that in order to conquer I guess what he
would maybe see as like the inevitable annihilation of the
(24:55):
above ground planet and the atmosphere and such. Perhaps we
do a better job of setting up underground cities very
post apocalyptic stuff, um, using advanced light technology that could
create the same quality of light as you'd have outdoors. Um,
and then just use the earth surface for agriculture and grazing,
(25:16):
ground and parks. Not quite as bleak and as I
was getting at. But um, he definitely didn't quite land
that one um on the bull's eye, did he? Well not,
maybe not yet. There are underground facilities that are the
size of small towns, but they are almost entirely like
bunkers for some above ground disaster. They're not fun places. Yet.
(25:39):
There are a couple of things that are temporary. They're
they're like tangentially related. There are some fantastic undersea hotels
you can go to in Singapore, Dubai, the Caribbean that
let you get a get the feel of living life
beneath the waves. And I believe there's a there's a
(26:01):
plan in New York to create an underground park called
the low Line, sort of an alternative to the High Line, right, Yeah,
the Highline is like that kind of mixed use kind
of area in New York that's part park, part like
shopping district and it's all made I'm not mistaken out
of like disused railway lines, sort of like the belt
(26:21):
Line is here in Atlanta. Um. But yeah, they have
sort of a subterranean alternative to it that I have
not heard much about. I don't believe it's a debut yet.
But it's called the Low Line, and it would be
like kind of kind of like a similar like underground
kind of mixed use shopping and dwelling kind of situation.
You don't have to be a mole person or a
frogman to apply. Another urban prediction that I thought was
(26:50):
really interesting, and it's Asimov is one person who predicted this,
but many other people, not just in the realm of
science fiction, have predicted this. It's the merchants of the
mega city, the megapolis, right. He thought that he was
looking at the growth of Boston and Washington and d C.
And he said, you know, eventually these things are going
(27:12):
to run into each other. They're going to be one huge,
just city that doesn't stop. And I think we're well
on the way to that. I guess so. But my
question is sort of like to what end, Like is
it is it out of? Um? Oh? I guess efficiency,
So you just have one government, like it gets to
a point where if it becomes big enough and it's
(27:32):
all just much together, then there is is there even
a need for local government versus like federal government. So
like the whole point of like you know, the United
States and that we've got different cities and states obviously
that have that are kind of governed independently, and if
he starts kind of mashing them all together, you sort
of lose some of that individuality. I just wonder what
was he thinking as to how what benefit this would have?
(27:52):
You know, it may not have been a question so
much for him of benefits is one of inevitability that
the suburbs and excerbs they keep expanding or continually just
eventually blur. And that's I mean, that's sort of happening.
And if the trends continue, it may well be that
the distinction between Boston and d C becomes increasingly a
(28:17):
matter of tradition. I don't know. I think people will.
I think locals will tend to want to keep their
governments though they there might be something that exists that's
like the uh, the Great Eastern Seaboard conglomeration, or something
like that. But they'll still want, you know, the mayor
of Boston is still gonna want to be the mayor
of Boston, you know. And and you know, as much
(28:39):
as people maybe like rag on their local politicians, at
least they feel like they have some agency, you know,
and there and there's somehow different from people that live
in other cities. And then they have their own like
unique kind of personality and like culture. I think that's
really important. So I'm not I'm not a fan of
this prediction. Uh and I hope it's not as inevitable
as as an off thought. I am a big fan
of this next one. I want to speak a little
(29:01):
bit or talk a little bit about the presumed kind
of science behind it this idea. Of course, it was
Robert A. Heimlin who wrote, uh, oh, what did he writes?
The one about Mars. He had like a series of
of books about traveling to Mars and setting up colonies
on Mars. And I know it has Mars in the name,
and I am forgetting the name entirely, but you guys
(29:23):
can look it up google that. But he believed that
there would should and would be nursing homes on the
moon and that was because he thought that living on
the Moon, where gravity is just sevent of the gravity
fell on Earth, would actually slow down the aging process. Um.
He thought that, like you know, older bodies that were deteriorating,
(29:46):
having frail joints, Uh, they would they would feel less pain. Um,
their weak hearts wouldn't have to work so hard. And
I guess you know people always say gravity is your
worst enemy. Uh, and in terms of aging, because everything
goes down, you know, everything SAgs and all of that stuff,
and like you, you're constantly being pulled towards the center
of gravity. Um. What do you think, Ben, does that
hold true? Or or does this sound like some science
(30:08):
fiction any thinking? Uh, my repressed, my repressed childhood astronauts
is coming out here. At first, I think you are
you talking about red planet by planet exactly correct? Yeah, yeah,
he also wrote Starship Troopers. It's right, dude, But but yeah,
it's your your point, man. It's a nice idea, and
it's it's a laudable one. And I think it's cool
(30:30):
that he is keeping older patients or members of the
human species in his thoughts. But it doesn't consider radiation,
It doesn't consider the inevitable degradation of the musculature. If
we keep people on the Moon in low gravity environments
for such a long time, it would be a one
(30:53):
way ticket if they live there for a long time. Um,
and maybe we can create the technology that would allow
people to live in space for an extended period. But
interestingly enough to bring this part one of our two
part series back around just a bit, uh, the best
chance for people to live long term on the Moon
(31:13):
is still going to be living under the surface because
that lunar rock will shield them from the radiation of
the cosmos. Well, Ben, we also haven't talked about how
your your childhood uh internal astronaut might bring up this
point to you gotta be in tip top peak shape
to even make that voyage to the Moon, you know,
(31:33):
So what would that be like to to send some
elderly folks that are frail in the first place, and
how what impacts that have on their bodies just to
even get there? Would it would it maybe set them back?
You know what I mean? Like, I see your point
about the radiation, Like there's all these other mitigating factors
that maybe would work against this, like miracle cure of
living in like lower gravity and and if not, can
(31:54):
we recreate low gravity conditions here on Earth? Yes? Yes
we can. Can we create the wow you like? I'm
such a propagandist for this, Yes we can right now?
Are trouble? Like trouble would be recreating those conditions for
a long period, for years and years and years. That
(32:16):
is a little bit more difficult for us, But I
think I think it's worthwhile. I just, ah, man, how
cool would it be? How cool would it be if
a few decades from now we could get together and
just instead of saying, hey, let's let's all go on
a road trip, or hey let's all go visit Japan
(32:36):
or something, we could say, hey, let's go visit the
lunar base. Um. Another thing I think needs to be
considered in this equation is think of the Think of
your loved ones, Think of the folks in your life
who might potentially benefit from living on the Moon. It
would be very far away, and it would be tough
for you to see them. You know, you would be
(32:58):
on lunar zoom calls. It might not work for everyone,
but gosh, man, I don't know. Would you do it?
Would you guys do it? Would you go to the moon.
Let's say you were in like you're you're in your
mid eighties. Uh, you're in pretty good condition, but age
is catching up with you. Would you go to the
moon and live there if it meant you could live
to a d T? Yeah? Why not? I guess this
(33:24):
is the same thing we talked about Ben, this idea
of making a new Year's resolution or thinking about your
future self. My present self gives my future self, you know,
all the support that I can muster to go to
the moon. But my future self might not feel the
same way. But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see if
I even get to my mid eighties to even make
that call. And who knows, by the time we're in
our mid eighties, maybe this will be an option. Um,
(33:45):
maybe a lot of these things will have come to
pass that we are now pooh pooing as like, you know,
because what is a great forward thinking, you know, predictive
mind if not someone that is constantly being told, oh
you missed the mark on that one, only to like
ten years later. Things do go that way. So I
don't know, a lot left to be written about some
of these predictions. Um, maybe underwater help farming, Um, we're
(34:09):
gonna get into some really fun underwater stuff in the
next episode that we're not gonna spoil right now, involving
water sports and modes of transportation. That's correct, And speaking
of our future selves, let's put some more pressure on
those guys. Look, folks, the future host of ridiculous history
of this next episode that you're gonna hear uh in
(34:30):
just a little while, they're gonna tell they're gonna do
a bang up job. It's gonna be amazing. You're gonna
leave feeling like you went on that ride at Epcot.
I think it was Epcot where you go through these
different versions of the future. Does that Spaceship Earth? No,
maybe it was. Remember I just remember at the very end,
you could check someone right in and let us know
(34:50):
what this is. At the very end of this ride,
you could choose how to how to end the ride.
You could fly underwater through space or the hazard or
something like that. Uh, let us know. We want to
know what you think of these predictions. We want to
know your other favorite predictions from yesteryear about the twenty
one century. And if you're feeling uh frogmany, then take
(35:16):
a leap and let us know your predictions for the future.
I want to tell you, guys these things you say
shouting into the void, waving your fist in the air,
but I don't know how to get in contact with you. Well,
we can fix that right now. Yeah, first of all,
stop shouting and and and and lower your fists. This
is this is a safe space. You can reach us
(35:37):
on the internet very easily, um, no void shouting necessary.
You can find us on our Facebook group, it's called
the Ridiculous Historians. All you have to do is name
and name my name to producer Casey Pegram's name, Ben
Boland's name, anyone associated with the show that we list
in those ubiquitous credits that we do the end of
every episode. A topic, anything that lets us know that
you're an actual human person who's a fan of the show,
(35:57):
and you're in lots of great memes, sharing lots of
good conversation sans maybe some some other predictions. I would
love to see that. You can also find us on
the various social media outlets of your choosing. We're on
Facebook as just like a page. We're on Instagram. We're
also available as individual human people. You can find me
on Instagram at how now Noel Brown. Send your weird
(36:19):
predictions or weird retro futurism stuff to me directly on
Twitter or on Instagram. I'm at Ben Bullin on Instagram.
I'm at Ben bolan hs W on Twitter. As always,
thanks to our super producer, the Man of the Hour,
the Man of the Future, dare I say casey Pegram.
Thanks to Alex Williams who composed this banging track. Thanks
(36:42):
to our own Nicola Tesla, the One, the Only Gay Luisier,
Christopher Hastiots here in spirit uh Eves Jeff Coats. Check
out her new show that she's executive producing, Jay dot
Il the podcast featuring the one and Only Jill Scott.
Also a daily show that he's does called This Day
in History Class. Jonathan Strickland the quizter. I believe he's
(37:03):
due for a New Year's appearance any day now. Um
no spoilers, but I just have a feeling we always
did that, but we mean it because we do, We
do really mean it, um it. Thanks to you, Ben.
Happy New Year, my friend. It's good to be back
on the Zoom with you again, and happy New Year
to you. Well, here's to many more episodes and New
Year's in the future. We'll see you next time, folks.
(37:33):
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. We are on the precipice of one,
and as this is our first time recording in the
new year, how long do you think we can call
it the new year? Noal to like just January or
I think all year? I think until until there's another
(00:50):
new year, right, I don't know, Ben, This is at
least this is a very heavy question, and we're gonna
be asking a lot of heavy questions today. We're gonna
be doing a lot of waxing philosophical I totally stole
that from an article that we're using here, but it's
a phrase that I really love about the future, because
you know, one, if ever there was a more futuristic
(01:11):
sounding year than it was one my friend, and twenty
twenty was a garbage year. So let's forget about that
and let's move on to the real future, which starts
right now. And in today's first part of a two
part episode, Hey Hey we are, we are partnering with
our Ride or Die superproducer Casey Pegram to share some predictions.
(01:36):
Now you know, No, I was thinking about this. Our
pal slash nemesis, Jonathan STRICKLANDK the Quister, has historically done
a lot of prediction episodes on his show Tech Stuff.
That's right. It always seemed like such a gamble to me.
I don't like the idea of making predictions unless you
have to. But we being a show that is both
(01:57):
ridiculous and about history foul, so just bonkers amazing predictions
about the twenty one century, not from people alive today,
but from the great minds of years before. Yeah, preemptively,
from the great beyond, uh in our preemptive two partner.
And not only are they dead, they were, in fact
(02:19):
some great minds, some real kind of like neo futurists,
you know before that was really as much of a
thing as we think of today. Um, we're talking about
writers of science fiction, we're talking about inventors, We're talking
about just a lot of great forward thinking intellects of
our time. Yes, so we know that predictions are big business, right.
(02:42):
You find predictions in the stock market, you find them
in the world of tech, you find them in the
world of politics, economics, and ecology. Some predictions have already
come to pass, you know, the idea that the world's
human population would rise over time. That seems to be true.
(03:03):
The fact that technology would disrupt numerous industries and parts
of people's daily lives, that's true. But those are very
broad things. What we're bringing you here today are some
uh specifics. And with this, who better to start our
story than the one, the only. Yeah, Noah, you love him,
(03:24):
Nicola Tesla. It turns out, in addition to inventing, he
made a lot of predictions. Yeah, Tesla indeed, and he not.
He wasn't a science fiction writer. He was basically a
creator of real life science fiction. Well, I guess science fact.
Have you ever been to the Griffith Park Observatory in
Los Angeles, Ben, Yes, yes I have. You may recall
then that there is a Tesla coil there that always
(03:47):
strikes me as something right out of science fiction, probably
because it's used so frequently in like, you know, mad
scientists laboratory scenes, and in fact, the one that is
in the Griffith Park Observatory was featured in the kind
of classic universal School of monster movies. Um, so that's
a fun thing to go see, but yeah, it's He
was very much someone that was very functional and practical
(04:10):
in the way he was able to kind of take
these ideas that he had and convert them into real
life inventions. But he also made a lot of very,
let's just say, kind of bold predictions about the future,
some of which were a little more on point than others.
He has thought of even still today as one of
the great thinkers of the modern age. But some of
(04:33):
his predictions were super weird and niche. For example, he
truly believed with his heart of hearts, uh that in
the twenty one century, which is the thing they would
have referred to at the time, the twenty first century, um,
this mystical future time where everything will you know, be
vastly different. Um, people wouldn't drink coffee anymore. He thought
(04:54):
coffee was like gonna be super ghost because he looked
at it as a means of poisoning oneself. Um. Any
kind of stimulants like nicotine or caffeine. Um. He seemed
like he had a personal grudge against, But he was
trying to kind of read the tea leaves of like
what popular society or civilized decide rather would would accept,
(05:17):
And he believed in the future these things would be
considered super passe. Uh, and then no one would drink
them anymore or you know, um ingest nicotine. It's true. Yeah,
and uh just cheers to everybody listening along like me
and maybe like you Nolan enjoyed a nice cup of
coffee here. It turns out, Uh, as as much as
(05:39):
I love you, Mr Tesla, you were dead wrong about this.
Would we are still swigging jugs and java as though
our lives depend on it. He was partially right about nicotine.
Smoking rates have continued time over time to decline, but
he was He was also super super super confident about
these predictions. All of the ones we're telling you. There
(06:01):
were none that he said, I don't know. I give
it like a thirty seventy chance. Uh. He did. He
did make one correct call about beverages in general. He
said booze would still be around. He didn't think it
was the same thing as like coffee. He in fact
loved it, he called it and a lick sir of life. Yeah,
spoken like a true lush. Um. Yeah, it's true. It's
(06:24):
funny toupn you talk about You're right obviously, you know, uh,
smoking actual combustible cigarettes is super on the decline. But um,
there's all kinds of other, you know, delivery mechanisms for
people's precious nicotine, whether it's gum or whether it's you know,
the weirdly neo futuristic vape mechanisms, which still kind of
(06:45):
weirds me out in a lot of ways. To me,
that's one of the most futuri looking things that that
is around today is vaping. Maybe that's just I don't
know why I think that. I like the ones that
look like walkie talkies, and if I see somebody, you
know what I'm talking about, with a little stubby stay
and the handheld thing about the size of your palm.
I love that because when I see somebody with one,
I always like to pretend there are a spy from
(07:08):
you know, the eighties or nineties before they had earbuds,
or it's like they're smoking out of one of those
super clunky, like early nineties cell phones, you know, the
car phones, the ones with like the big fat receivers
and the giant antent on top um. But yeah, Tesla
was was dead wrong about the coffee, and slightly less
(07:28):
dead wrong but still wrong about the nicotine, and dead
right about alcohol. People love a good drink every now
and then. Um. And he also it was a really
big proponent of nutrition. Um. Despite being clearly a bit
of a booze hound, he uh was. It was a
huge He wasn't a vegan exactly, but he was a
(07:48):
big fan of like not eating too much meat, and
he really liked things like milk and honey and wheat,
which were ingredients shown by a gentleman by the name
of Bernard McFadden to be usable in creating kind of
food stuffs that were a little more sustainable and a
(08:10):
little more natural and would create a population that would
live longer in theory. Yeah. Yeah, And this is an
idea that a lot of other people shared, and a
lot of people share today. Uh. You know, one one
that always stuck out to me was Robert Heinlan, who
(08:32):
you know, the famous sci fi writer h He had
written things like Stranger in a Strange Land and so
I as far back as the early nineteen fifties. Heinland
was saying, beef is not gonna last at the levels
of consumption it's at now. Eventually, in his mind, fish
and yeast would become the main sources of protein. Asimov
(08:55):
took this even further in uh nineteen sixty four, he
said at the World's Fair would feature algae bars uh
and pseudo steak sort of like Uh, I guess the
most extreme version of that would be like sort of
like those bars they're served on the film's snow Crash.
No spoilers, watch it. It's worth it. Uh. And it
(09:19):
looks like, if you think about it in a very vague,
well somewhat vague way, these guys were predicting the rise
of things like impossible burgers or alternatives to meet what
are those? What is it? Is it? Morning stars? That
the brand? Yeah, they like the fake chicken nuggets and
all that, and there's like things like corn like chicken nuggets.
(09:40):
Man of corn with a que. It's gotta have a que.
Let's how you know it's it's it's on the cutting edge. Um.
There's a really huge billboard off of the interstate near
near where I live that says nut milk is not milk.
And if you look at it from far enough away,
it just looks like it says nut milk is nut milk.
But it's a big bone of contention with the milk lobby. Uh.
(10:01):
This idea that using the word milk is a no, no,
when it comes to nut milk, because it's really not
actual milk. And I got into conversation with a friend
of mine about this, and she brought up the fact
that it's super weird that we drink the milk of
other animals, and that that's very unusual in in in life,
(10:22):
and it's something that we, I think Ben you've mentioned
before on the show. It's something we had to adapt to,
like our bodies, like you know, over time, have adapted
to drinking cow's milk, except for those poor souls that
are lactose intolerant, right, Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a
mutation that has not hit the entirety of the human species.
It's actually it's incredibly unusual for any animal, any mammal,
(10:46):
to drink milk of its own species or of course
another species into adulthood. It's kind of a juvenile characteristic
that some parts of the population have adapted to keep
into adults. It so milk is always kind of a
weird thing. We've got an episode coming up on stuff
they don't want you to know, another show that we
(11:06):
do about dairy and livestock in general, So do check
it out if you'd like. To learn more. So if
we're keeping if you're keeping a checklist at home here, folks.
Nikola Tesla was kind of right about tobacco, but to
Knowl's point, he did not anticipate the differing delivery methods.
He was totally wrong about coffee. He was right about alcohol.
(11:29):
And the sci fi writers so far are what would
you say, I would say, they're kind of right, pretty
close alternatives. Yeah, I mean we're I mean, look they're
they're like you said, Ben, a lot of these predictions
are said with a sort of extreme authority that is
hard to give full credit to. You know, they're basically
(11:50):
saying like society is going to completely pivot to this
means of sustenance, and as we know, you know, people
like all kinds of different things. I have to say
I think we buried the lead slightly. I love the
term pseudo steak. I wish that would have taken off um.
Instead we just call it what sitan Sitan I think
is the closest thing to pseudo steak and mock turkey,
(12:11):
which I guess would be something like to fur key.
But I'm a big fan of the impossible burgers, not
because I'm like anti meat. I just think they taste
really good. And the fact that they bleed quote unquote,
which is sold as a feature, not a book. I
think it is very strange. Um, but that's not that's
not what makes me like it. But I think we
(12:31):
have gotten to a place where you have a lot
more options now. But it's certainly not one of the
society as a whole has gravitated towards and like, you know,
dumped everything right, dumped everything else right. Yeah, it's sort
of like, you know, the rise of the e book
or the kindle did not kill the physical book and
probably won't for a very long long time. I these
(12:53):
things can exist without being mutually exclusive. The real question
is one of price, and in parts of the world,
for a very long time, beef was itself a luxury.
It's still a luxury, you know, many parts of the planet.
So the alternative meat stuff is interesting. I love it. Um.
Some listeners know, I was a vegetarian for a long time,
a number of years ago. I have I have no
(13:15):
longer vegetarian. I'm omnivorous. But yeah, man, get down on
an impossible burger if you haven't tried one. They're pretty
they're pretty solid. I would say they taste good, but
being burgers tastes good too. I had one just a
few weeks ago. And I think Ben, both of us
(13:36):
being fans of home cooking, and we can both attest
to like it's sort of a misnomer that like, oh,
if you're vegetarian food, then it's like flavorless or bland
or something. That's only if you like don't know how
to cook or don't know, you know, don't have a
good recipe. Because everything that when you're when you're cooking,
it's all about how you season it. It's all about
the ingredients you use. You can make vegetarian food taste incredible,
(13:56):
just so much flavor possibility and vegetarian food, which leads
to our next point that they, many of these forward
thinking minds of the time believed that fruits and vegetables
would be a big deal, would be absolutely huge. Uh
let's call it in the twenty one century. Um, you
know for a lot of reasons. Ay, they're sustainable, you
(14:17):
can grow them yourselves, and you can keep you know,
tend to them, and you don't have to put all
these creeds. I mean obviously there's water consumption issues to
think about. But in general, it seems like a little
bit more of a long game that we as a
human species could sustain, much more so than the beef problem,
which we know has all kinds of issues beyond just
humanitarian but just about the methane that's produced and all
(14:40):
of the you know, conditions in farms, and you know,
I wouldn't have to get into all that stuff like
the Upton Sinclair meat packing industry stuff, but there's it
is rife with potential problems. Whereas fruits and vegetables none
of that ick factor really comes into play. So you
had someone named John Elferth Watkins Junr. Who wrote in
(15:01):
a uh the Ladies home Journal that we would be
eating strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries quote as large as apples
and peas, and beans would be as big as beats.
He says, yeah. Now, okay, let's pause for a second
because we have to understand the concerns about what are
(15:22):
called GMOs short for genetically modified organisms, didn't really exist
in the nineteen hundred's, a century ago. That wasn't something
that people were super concerned about. I also have to
point out whenever GMOs come up, things that we eat.
Before the concern of GMOs like corn, they were already
(15:42):
genetically modified through breeding, so it's it's a weird term.
They weren't worried about this. They did predict, as you said,
an extreme version of a trend that is occurring. It's
not hard to find really really big fruits. We know
that because there's a lot of pretty solid science put
into creating strains and things like seedless fruits, right, or
(16:06):
things that are larger than the fruit you would find
in the wild. But some folks even went further and
they brought the atomic age into the mix. Gotta love
a good atomic age prediction, UM, and I love that
they do this without batting an eyelash considering that maybe
you shouldn't eat those basketball sized tomatoes that were caused
to be that way because of fallout left behind by
(16:30):
the hydrogen bomb. UM. That just that there's really no
cautionary kind of spirit in any of these predictions. UM.
There was a an article in nineteen six from the
Independent Press Telegrams magazine called Southland UM, where a gentleman
by the name of George Service comes up with this
(16:51):
whole notion of a farm from the year two thousand
in the year two thousand and uh, when hydrogen bombs
would cause the soil to produce three ft long carrots,
four foot wide turnups, and the aforementioned basketball sized tomatoes. Ah,
and what if those tomatoes weren't just basketball size, but
(17:13):
what if they were also square? Former agricultural Secretary Orville
Freeman believe that the mechanization of agriculture would lead to
more efficient production, and that a knock on effect of
this would be the creation of square fruits. No square tomatoes. Rather,
(17:34):
Now he's not He's not totally wrong. He just got
the wrong plants. Because you can today or when they're
in season, you can buy square watermelons and square melons
of several different types in places like Japan. Uh. This,
this is true. They are more expensive. But I love
his I love one of the arguments for the square
(17:55):
produced folks, and it's this. They said they will be better,
There'll be better on sandwiches. Yeah, because I just I
just know nothing I hate more than a round tomato
on a square sandwich. I need the edge is to
perfectly align so that every bite gives me a perfect
you know, combination of the ingredients. We already have round
(18:17):
bread yeah, you can. I mean, but god, round bread
just seems wrong, Ben, It just seems wrong. Ben. I
gotta back up two clicks. How they do those square melons? Man?
Do they grow them in a box or something like?
You really? Okay? Yeah, it's it's pretty low level technology.
It's clever though. I'll send you the link they have.
They grow them into those frames, into those shapes, but
(18:39):
they're purely ornamental and they're often like the equivalent of
a hundred dollars or so. People pay out the news
for melons. Do you guys case you might ask you first,
you haven't shined in this episode yet. Do you remember
the early internet meme hoax thing by the name of
Bonsai kitten? Oh? Absolutely, I remember the bonds I can
(19:01):
tell us about bonds I kitten. And I actually was
not aware that this was like a hoax, So I'm
glad because that was like kitten cruelty. It was basically
a kitten that had been stuffed into kind of like
a square glass container, right, and um, yes, that's pretty
much all there is to it. Yes, you grow your
kitty in a in a square clear glass container and
it molds around so it becomes a perfectly cubed kitten,
(19:25):
all for the kauaii of it all. So back to
these predictions. Luckily, yes sponsa kitten for now. One familiar
is a hoax. I've gotta I've gotta check in here, Casey.
How what's your take on the alternative meat field or
on the alternative protein field in general? Um, I think
(19:45):
it's a worthwhile feel to study. Um. I've had like
some impossible burgers that kind of thing. They're fine. Um.
I mean I am a meat eater, but I also
enjoy kind of trying the new stuff. So yeah, I
don't know. I mean the meat substitutes. They seems like
a reasonable thing to me. Would you eat insects? No?
Probably not? Um? Does this has become like an internet meme, right,
(20:08):
like eat the bugs stay in the pod. I don't
know about this. I would definitely eat the bug if
it was one of those crunchy little cricket boys. Yeah,
I could. I could see like a deep fried, chocolate
dipped kind of thing. Maybe, um, to just like mask
the taste so you don't really even notice. I would
do that on a lark, but not as like a
steady part of my diet. What if you knew a
false burger. I say false, a false burger patty was
(20:29):
made up of ground up locusts or something, but it
wasn't buggy in texture. Would you be okay with that? Um? Yeah,
why not. I would try it anyway. I just read
the ingredients after dinner exactly. Yes, yes, So Nol, what
about you? Just a second ago, you said you were
you were down with eating our insect toyed friends big time,
(20:49):
And like I said, like I just said, especially, I
think I know there are ways where you can grind
them up to make uh, you know, different textures in
you know, meat, substitute prod And I think that would
be an interesting use of insects. And I know they
had a lot of protein and they have a lot
kind of a nutty flavor. And I know that sounds
gross to say that bugs have a nutty flavor, but
I'm okay with it. I'm on board. I have never
(21:10):
had opportunity, though, to eat a cricket, but I would
do it. So you guys might remember me and uh
friend of the show, Lauren Vogel Bomb, We've eaten several
insects on our old show snack stuff, including crickets and
three different flavors. Ate some locusts. Oh, I've had some
beetles before. I ate uh not not maggots, grubs from Korea,
(21:35):
and they tasted the way that tire smell on a
hot day, which is a very sinesthetic way to describe those.
But I bring this up because the u N predicted
that people will start eating bugs as part of their
standard diet helps save the planet or save the ecosystem.
(21:58):
The thing is a lot of people aren't catching on,
and uh, you know, understandably, I think that squeaks people out.
But maybe kelp, maybe seaweed is a more acceptable substitute.
What do you think, well, as as a big sushi eater,
I'm absolutely fine with seaweed. Really, like a good seaweed salad.
Kelp is a little bit earlier, I think than just
(22:20):
regular old seaweed, I'm not mistaken. Like it's a little thicker,
and like it's the kind of stuff where if you're
waiting out of the ocean and you get it caught
on your feet and it has like these weird little
kind of like booy things that hang off the side
sort of look like octopus tentacles. That stuff does squig
me out a little bit, but apparently quite sustainable and
uh pretty good in a salad. And there were predictions
(22:41):
that by the Rand Corporation that in nine six UM,
in an effort to promote eating more kelp, they predicted
that in the future, uh, massive underwater fields of kelp
and other varieties of seaweed would be kept by um
underwater farmers um a k a. Frogman one of our
(23:05):
favorite terms from stuff that I wants you to know.
You often hear about spies, Russian spies wearing scuba gear
being referred to as frogman. I always think of the
opening to Johnny Quests where you see the particularly froggy
looking frogman wearing the green scuba suits. Um. But yeah,
this notion that you could take this kelp, which is
very rich in protein, uh and make it taste like
(23:27):
anything you want, like Willy Wonka style. Yeah, it's it's
almost a uh. So it was the gob stopper, uh,
the schnausberries taste of schnawsberries. Uh. But don't worry, this
prediction is still coming to pass. And like you said, no,
you can find protein rich kelp in a couple of
(23:48):
different applications. Now, maybe not as extreme as the Rand
Corps once machine in nineteen sixty six. But we assure you, folks,
we've looked into it, and eating kelp is not gonna
lead you down some sort of terrible Veruca Salt. Oh no, wait,
it wasn't Veruca Salt. What was her name? She was
always chewing gum. Violet Beauregard. Violet Beauregard will not lead
(24:10):
you down a Violet Beauregard path. You won't be rolled
out blueberry sized, or you won't turn into an enormous
piece of kelp. Quickly back to the frogman. Though this
prediction Um, which didn't come to pass, I would love
to see this happen. With this notion of an underwater
farm maintained by these scuba men, and that they would
live in these like underwater bunkers um for like weeks
(24:32):
out of the year while they tended to their crop.
That prediction kind of kept going, this idea of living
subterraneanly like either underground or underwater. Isaac Asimov, another fantastic thinker, UM,
thought that in order to conquer I guess what he
would maybe see as like the inevitable annihilation of the
(24:55):
above ground planet and the atmosphere and such. Perhaps we
do a better job of setting up underground cities very
post apocalyptic stuff, um, using advanced light technology that could
create the same quality of light as you'd have outdoors. Um,
and then just use the earth surface for agriculture and grazing,
(25:16):
ground and parks. Not quite as bleak and as I
was getting at. But um, he definitely didn't quite land
that one um on the bull's eye, did he? Well not,
maybe not yet. There are underground facilities that are the
size of small towns, but they are almost entirely like
bunkers for some above ground disaster. They're not fun places. Yet.
(25:39):
There are a couple of things that are temporary. They're
they're like tangentially related. There are some fantastic undersea hotels
you can go to in Singapore, Dubai, the Caribbean that
let you get a get the feel of living life
beneath the waves. And I believe there's a there's a
(26:01):
plan in New York to create an underground park called
the low Line, sort of an alternative to the High Line, right, Yeah,
the Highline is like that kind of mixed use kind
of area in New York that's part park, part like
shopping district and it's all made I'm not mistaken out
of like disused railway lines, sort of like the belt
(26:21):
Line is here in Atlanta. Um. But yeah, they have
sort of a subterranean alternative to it that I have
not heard much about. I don't believe it's a debut yet.
But it's called the Low Line, and it would be
like kind of kind of like a similar like underground
kind of mixed use shopping and dwelling kind of situation.
You don't have to be a mole person or a
frogman to apply. Another urban prediction that I thought was
(26:50):
really interesting, and it's Asimov is one person who predicted this,
but many other people, not just in the realm of
science fiction, have predicted this. It's the merchants of the
mega city, the megapolis, right. He thought that he was
looking at the growth of Boston and Washington and d C.
And he said, you know, eventually these things are going
(27:12):
to run into each other. They're going to be one huge,
just city that doesn't stop. And I think we're well
on the way to that. I guess so. But my
question is sort of like to what end, Like is
it is it out of? Um? Oh? I guess efficiency,
So you just have one government, like it gets to
a point where if it becomes big enough and it's
(27:32):
all just much together, then there is is there even
a need for local government versus like federal government. So
like the whole point of like you know, the United
States and that we've got different cities and states obviously
that have that are kind of governed independently, and if
he starts kind of mashing them all together, you sort
of lose some of that individuality. I just wonder what
was he thinking as to how what benefit this would have?
(27:52):
You know, it may not have been a question so
much for him of benefits is one of inevitability that
the suburbs and excerbs they keep expanding or continually just
eventually blur. And that's I mean, that's sort of happening.
And if the trends continue, it may well be that
the distinction between Boston and d C becomes increasingly a
(28:17):
matter of tradition. I don't know. I think people will.
I think locals will tend to want to keep their
governments though they there might be something that exists that's
like the uh, the Great Eastern Seaboard conglomeration, or something
like that. But they'll still want, you know, the mayor
of Boston is still gonna want to be the mayor
of Boston, you know. And and you know, as much
(28:39):
as people maybe like rag on their local politicians, at
least they feel like they have some agency, you know,
and there and there's somehow different from people that live
in other cities. And then they have their own like
unique kind of personality and like culture. I think that's
really important. So I'm not I'm not a fan of
this prediction. Uh and I hope it's not as inevitable
as as an off thought. I am a big fan
of this next one. I want to speak a little
(29:01):
bit or talk a little bit about the presumed kind
of science behind it this idea. Of course, it was
Robert A. Heimlin who wrote, uh, oh, what did he writes?
The one about Mars. He had like a series of
of books about traveling to Mars and setting up colonies
on Mars. And I know it has Mars in the name,
and I am forgetting the name entirely, but you guys
(29:23):
can look it up google that. But he believed that
there would should and would be nursing homes on the
moon and that was because he thought that living on
the Moon, where gravity is just sevent of the gravity
fell on Earth, would actually slow down the aging process. Um.
He thought that, like you know, older bodies that were deteriorating,
(29:46):
having frail joints, Uh, they would they would feel less pain. Um,
their weak hearts wouldn't have to work so hard. And
I guess you know people always say gravity is your
worst enemy. Uh, and in terms of aging, because everything
goes down, you know, everything SAgs and all of that stuff,
and like you, you're constantly being pulled towards the center
of gravity. Um. What do you think, Ben, does that
hold true? Or or does this sound like some science
(30:08):
fiction any thinking? Uh, my repressed, my repressed childhood astronauts
is coming out here. At first, I think you are
you talking about red planet by planet exactly correct? Yeah, yeah,
he also wrote Starship Troopers. It's right, dude, But but yeah,
it's your your point, man. It's a nice idea, and
it's it's a laudable one. And I think it's cool
(30:30):
that he is keeping older patients or members of the
human species in his thoughts. But it doesn't consider radiation,
It doesn't consider the inevitable degradation of the musculature. If
we keep people on the Moon in low gravity environments
for such a long time, it would be a one
(30:53):
way ticket if they live there for a long time. Um,
and maybe we can create the technology that would allow
people to live in space for an extended period. But
interestingly enough to bring this part one of our two
part series back around just a bit, uh, the best
chance for people to live long term on the Moon
(31:13):
is still going to be living under the surface because
that lunar rock will shield them from the radiation of
the cosmos. Well, Ben, we also haven't talked about how
your your childhood uh internal astronaut might bring up this
point to you gotta be in tip top peak shape
to even make that voyage to the Moon, you know,
(31:33):
So what would that be like to to send some
elderly folks that are frail in the first place, and
how what impacts that have on their bodies just to
even get there? Would it would it maybe set them back?
You know what I mean? Like, I see your point
about the radiation, Like there's all these other mitigating factors
that maybe would work against this, like miracle cure of
living in like lower gravity and and if not, can
(31:54):
we recreate low gravity conditions here on Earth? Yes? Yes
we can. Can we create the wow you like? I'm
such a propagandist for this, Yes we can right now?
Are trouble? Like trouble would be recreating those conditions for
a long period, for years and years and years. That
(32:16):
is a little bit more difficult for us, But I
think I think it's worthwhile. I just, ah, man, how
cool would it be? How cool would it be if
a few decades from now we could get together and
just instead of saying, hey, let's let's all go on
a road trip, or hey let's all go visit Japan
(32:36):
or something, we could say, hey, let's go visit the
lunar base. Um. Another thing I think needs to be
considered in this equation is think of the Think of
your loved ones, Think of the folks in your life
who might potentially benefit from living on the Moon. It
would be very far away, and it would be tough
for you to see them. You know, you would be
(32:58):
on lunar zoom calls. It might not work for everyone,
but gosh, man, I don't know. Would you do it?
Would you guys do it? Would you go to the moon.
Let's say you were in like you're you're in your
mid eighties. Uh, you're in pretty good condition, but age
is catching up with you. Would you go to the
moon and live there if it meant you could live
to a d T? Yeah? Why not? I guess this
(33:24):
is the same thing we talked about Ben, this idea
of making a new Year's resolution or thinking about your
future self. My present self gives my future self, you know,
all the support that I can muster to go to
the moon. But my future self might not feel the
same way. But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see if
I even get to my mid eighties to even make
that call. And who knows, by the time we're in
our mid eighties, maybe this will be an option. Um,
(33:45):
maybe a lot of these things will have come to
pass that we are now pooh pooing as like, you know,
because what is a great forward thinking, you know, predictive
mind if not someone that is constantly being told, oh
you missed the mark on that one, only to like
ten years later. Things do go that way. So I
don't know, a lot left to be written about some
of these predictions. Um, maybe underwater help farming, Um, we're
(34:09):
gonna get into some really fun underwater stuff in the
next episode that we're not gonna spoil right now, involving
water sports and modes of transportation. That's correct, And speaking
of our future selves, let's put some more pressure on
those guys. Look, folks, the future host of ridiculous history
of this next episode that you're gonna hear uh in
(34:30):
just a little while, they're gonna tell they're gonna do
a bang up job. It's gonna be amazing. You're gonna
leave feeling like you went on that ride at Epcot.
I think it was Epcot where you go through these
different versions of the future. Does that Spaceship Earth? No,
maybe it was. Remember I just remember at the very end,
you could check someone right in and let us know
(34:50):
what this is. At the very end of this ride,
you could choose how to how to end the ride.
You could fly underwater through space or the hazard or
something like that. Uh, let us know. We want to
know what you think of these predictions. We want to
know your other favorite predictions from yesteryear about the twenty
one century. And if you're feeling uh frogmany, then take
(35:16):
a leap and let us know your predictions for the future.
I want to tell you, guys these things you say
shouting into the void, waving your fist in the air,
but I don't know how to get in contact with you. Well,
we can fix that right now. Yeah, first of all,
stop shouting and and and and lower your fists. This
is this is a safe space. You can reach us
(35:37):
on the internet very easily, um, no void shouting necessary.
You can find us on our Facebook group, it's called
the Ridiculous Historians. All you have to do is name
and name my name to producer Casey Pegram's name, Ben
Boland's name, anyone associated with the show that we list
in those ubiquitous credits that we do the end of
every episode. A topic, anything that lets us know that
you're an actual human person who's a fan of the show,
(35:57):
and you're in lots of great memes, sharing lots of
good conversation sans maybe some some other predictions. I would
love to see that. You can also find us on
the various social media outlets of your choosing. We're on
Facebook as just like a page. We're on Instagram. We're
also available as individual human people. You can find me
on Instagram at how now Noel Brown. Send your weird
(36:19):
predictions or weird retro futurism stuff to me directly on
Twitter or on Instagram. I'm at Ben Bullin on Instagram.
I'm at Ben bolan hs W on Twitter. As always,
thanks to our super producer, the Man of the Hour,
the Man of the Future, dare I say casey Pegram.
Thanks to Alex Williams who composed this banging track. Thanks
(36:42):
to our own Nicola Tesla, the One, the Only Gay Luisier,
Christopher Hastiots here in spirit uh Eves Jeff Coats. Check
out her new show that she's executive producing, Jay dot
Il the podcast featuring the one and Only Jill Scott.
Also a daily show that he's does called This Day
in History Class. Jonathan Strickland the quizter. I believe he's
(37:03):
due for a New Year's appearance any day now. Um
no spoilers, but I just have a feeling we always
did that, but we mean it because we do, We
do really mean it, um it. Thanks to you, Ben.
Happy New Year, my friend. It's good to be back
on the Zoom with you again, and happy New Year
to you. Well, here's to many more episodes and New
Year's in the future. We'll see you next time, folks.
(37:33):
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
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Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
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