Matt Novak, Author at Gizmodo

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 03 – The Space Car

This is the third in a 24-part series look at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. Each and every year at least one company goes knocking on the doors of the major news outlets and announces to the world that the futuristic vision of a flying car will be…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 9 '12

Predictions From The Father of Science Fiction

Hugo “Awards” Gernsback was many different things to different people. To his fans, he was a visionary who started some of the most influential (not to mention the first) science fiction magazines of the early 20th century. Ray Bradbury was quoted as saying, “Gernsback made us fall in love with the future.” To his detractors,…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 4 '12

Revisiting Epcot Center on its 30th Birthday

EPCOT Center opened on October 1, 1982 as the single most expensive private construction project the world had ever seen. It was immediately viewed by Disney purists as a shadow of Walt Disney’s utopian dream to build a dynamic city of technology and innovation. EPCOT was originally supposed to be a real city; alive with…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 3 '12

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 02 – A Date With Jet Screamer

This is the second in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The second episode of “The Jetsons” aired September 30, 1962 and was titled “A Date With Jet Screamer.” Arguably the most famous of all the Jetsons episodes, it’s also certainly the most hedonistic;…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 1 '12

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 01 – Rosey the Robot

This is the first in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. Episode 01: “Rosey the Robot,” originally aired: September 23, 1962 If you flipped through the Cedar Rapids Gazette on September 23, 1962 the news looked fairly typical for the early 1960s. There was…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 24 '12

Parade Magazine Asks American Women About The Sexiest Professions of 1962

NASA astronauts in July of 1962 (source: NASA) In 1962 Parade magazine surveyed American women about the sexiest profession for American men. Here at the dawn of the space age, they were shocked astronauts weren’t ranked number one, concluding “Astronauts are great for history, but not for current affairs…” Doctors were ranked the sexiest and…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 23 '12

Trains of Tomorrow, After the War

American advertisers made a great number of promises for the future during World War II. The American people were told that if they could just be patient with wartime rationing, or the number of resources being devoted to the war effort, we would all be assured better lives after the war. https://gizmodo.com/today-at-war-tomorrow-in-stores-512620266 The Association of…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 21 '12

50 Years of the Jetsons: Why The Show Still Matters

It was 50 years ago this coming Sunday that the Jetson family first jetpacked their way into American homes. The show lasted just one season (24 episodes) after its debut on Sunday September 23, 1962, but today “The Jetsons” stands as the single most important piece of 20th century futurism. More episodes were later produced…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 19 '12

The Anti-Skyscraper Law That Shaped Sydney, Australia

When we look at visions of the future from the 20th century we often imagine the lone inventor or solitary artist concocting the fantastical world of tomorrow in isolation. But it’s amazing how frequently both government regulation and the lack of regulation can influence the future of a given city in ways we don’t often…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 10 '12

Big Apple Apocalypse: 200 Years of Destroying New York City

Futurist thinkers have rarely been kind to New York City. In fact, writers and artists have spent the better part of two centuries destroying the Big Apple. Whether by flood or fire, nuclear explosion or alien invasion, New York more than any other city bears the brunt of our most apocalyptic futures. And perhaps no…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 6 '12

Futurist fixes for fighting skyscraper fires

“The tallest building in the world is on fire. You are there with 294 other guests. There’s no way down. There’s no way out.” So read the poster for the 1974 disaster movie Towering Inferno, which depicts an epic tale of survival in the badly wired 138 story Glass Tower in San Francisco and the…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 5 '12

My Robot Helper of Tomorrow

When I was a kid growing up in the late 1980s and early ’90s there were only two things that I was certain of when it came to my future: I was going to grow up to be an animator for Disney, and I was going to have a robot. Sadly, my drawing skills peaked…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 31 '12

The Robot Hall of Fame: Vote Rosey 2012

Americans are gearing up for the presidential election this coming November, but many people are sadly unaware of an even more important vote taking place right now: 2012 inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame. For the first time since its founding in 2003, Carnegie Mellon University’s Robot Hall of Fame is allowing the public…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 22 '12

Crowdfunding a Museum for Alexander Graham Bell in 1922

Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great for bands trying to finance an album or independent filmmakers hoping to shoot a movie. But it’s interesting to see these alternative finance tools being used more and more for projects that are often associated with large public institutions — namely, monuments and museums. Last year, a…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 20 '12

The Future of Mars, 40 Years Ago

I’m in Gentry Lee’s office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California for less than 30 seconds before he jumps to his whiteboard to explain to me why people care about Mars. “Let’s not beat around the bush,” Lee says, “the reason Mars is fascinating and the reason that we went to explore Mars…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 17 '12

Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

Twenty-eight years ago this month an exhibit called Yesterday’s Tomorrows opened to the public at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. I wasn’t even a year old yet, but this 1984 exhibit would have a profound effect on my life many years later after I discovered the exhibit book by Smithsonian curators…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 15 '12

Meal-in-a-pill: A Staple of Science Fiction

It is a constant theme of early science fiction, and one you are almost certainly familiar with: the man or woman of the future pops a pill on to their tongue, knocks it back and is almost immediately satisfied. For inside the little white capsule was a full three course meal, designed to mimic the…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 12 '12

Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

According to Athelstan Spilhaus, writing the comic strip “Our New Age” was his way of slipping a little subliminal education into the Sunday funnies. Each week the strip took a different topic—such as ocean currents or heredity or the moons of Mars—and explained in a very straightforward way just what made that area of scientific…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 8 '12

Hello Mars — This is the Earth!

Yesterday, we looked at Wernher von Braun’s 1954 vision for a manned mission to Mars. But long before people imagined how we might plausibly put boots on Martian soil, we dreamed how one day we might be able to communicate with the planet. Thanks to “canals” spotted on Mars in the late 19th century, there…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 31 '12

Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles

Assuming everything goes according to plan, NASA’s Curiosity rover will touch down on the surface of Mars this Sunday, August 5th at 10:31 PDT. Curiosity travels in the cosmic wake of not only the pioneering landers and rovers that have made journeys to Mars before, but also the innumerable visionaries who showed us how we…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 30 '12

Matt Novak

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 03 – The Space Car

Predictions From The Father of Science Fiction

Revisiting Epcot Center on its 30th Birthday

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 02 – A Date With Jet Screamer

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 01 – Rosey the Robot

Parade Magazine Asks American Women About The Sexiest Professions of 1962

Trains of Tomorrow, After the War

50 Years of the Jetsons: Why The Show Still Matters

The Anti-Skyscraper Law That Shaped Sydney, Australia

Big Apple Apocalypse: 200 Years of Destroying New York City

Futurist fixes for fighting skyscraper fires

My Robot Helper of Tomorrow

The Robot Hall of Fame: Vote Rosey 2012

Crowdfunding a Museum for Alexander Graham Bell in 1922

The Future of Mars, 40 Years Ago

Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

Meal-in-a-pill: A Staple of Science Fiction

Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

Hello Mars — This is the Earth!

Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles

We Think We Found ‘Human Printer’ Natalie Harp’s Printer Setup. It’s Bulky

What If This Was How You Found Out The Singularity Has Begun?

‘Doctor Who’ Writer Mark Gatiss Says What We’re All Thinking About the Show’s Future

‘Lanterns’ Season 2 Is Already in the Works Whether It Happens or Not

Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 Review: Comfy Sleep Earbuds With an Uncomfortable Price

Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL Review: Still Growing Into Their AI Shoes

New NASA Images Reveal Crater Left Behind by SpaceX Rocket Impact on the Moon

An ‘Exercise Pill’ Just Cleared Its First Human Test

FBI Warns That Hackers Are Targeting Siemens Equipment Amid Recent Water Plant Breaches

You Can Soon Say ‘Wassup’ to ‘Scary Movie’ on Paramount+

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) Review: Still More Quiet and Comfortable Than Most

Schlage Sense Pro Review: Who Needs a Key Anyway?

Viture Pro 2 Review: A Dark Horse in the Entry-Level AR Glasses Race

Insta360 X6 Review: The King of 360 Cameras Reclaims Its Crown

Samsung Odyssey G80HS Monitor Review: 6K Isn’t the Future of Gaming

Roborock RockNeo Q110H Review: A Quiet and Capable Robot Lawn Mower

Lenovo Pro 9i 16 G11 Aura Edition Review: A Pretty Screen Stuffed Into an Ugly Laptop

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Review: The Most Fun Phone in Ages

CMF Clip Pro Review: An Affordable Challenger in the Clip-Style Earbuds Craze

Back to School: The 8 Best Smart Home Devices for Your Dorm Room