Matt Novak, Author at Gizmodo

The Trench Destroyer (1917)

This chilling image from the height of World War I appeared on the February, 1917 cover of Hugo Gernsback’s The Electrical Experimenter. The excerpt below is from Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future by Joseph Corn and Brian Horrigan. The design of this mobile dreadnaught, with its steel-tired, spoked wheels, suggests that its…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 21 '11

Ford’s Magic Skyway (1964)

Of all the major attractions at the 1964 World’s Fair it seems Ford’s Magic Skyway receives the least amount of chatter, ink and pixels in 2011. It wasn’t moved to Disneyland like Carousel of Progress or It’s A Small World, and it wasn’t a sexy sequel like Futurama II. But it looked like quite the…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 20 '11

Space Farmer of the Year 2012 (1982)

The 1982 Kids’ Whole Future Catalog is just bursting at the seams with amazing advancements from the world of yestermorrow. From space hotels and universal language translators to factories in space and schools in the sky, this catalog fed the imaginations of countless rugrats in the 1980s. Today we have an excerpt from the catalog…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 19 '11

Edison’s Predictions for the Year 2011 (1911)

On June 20, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the year 2011 from the one and only Tommy “Dumbo Killah” Edison. Edison makes some amazing predictions about a future of golden automobiles, the discontinuation of gold as currency, the rise of steel and the death of the steam engine. I’m especially interested in his…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 18 '11

The Sno-Melter (1960)

Having recently moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis, my experience with snow this year has been limited to pixel-drenched dispatches that family and friends have beamed out from the unforgiving tundra. With historic blizzards, closed schools and caved in stadiums it sounds like the snowy season has been off to a punishing start in my…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 16 '10

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

The shiny happy futurism of the 1950s gave way to much darker predictions for humanity in the 1970s. With energy crises, fears of terrorism and skyrocketing unemployment, it’s really no wonder that Americans of the 1970s were often pessimistic about the future. Out of this dread, the apocsploitation film was born. Movies like Future Shock…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 13 '10

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

The shiny happy futurism of the 1950s gave way to much darker predictions for humanity in the 1970s. With energy crises, fears of terrorism and skyrocketing unemployment, it’s really no wonder that Americans of the 1970s were often pessimistic about the future. Out of this dread, the apocsploitation film was born. Movies like Future Shock…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 13 '10

Driverless Car of the Future (1957)

TVs that hang on walls? Automatic lights? Food cooked in seconds? American power companies sure had the future figured out! Except for one little thing… we’re still waiting on those driverless cars. The futuristic family from this ad bares a striking resemblance to the family of Disneyland TV’s 1958 episode, “Magic Highway, USA.” ELECTRICITY MAY…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 10 '10

New Nutrition (1933)

The book Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food by Warren Belasco is one of my favorite books ever. So well researched and written, I could devote a thousand posts to its genius. Instead I’ll share an insight from page 217 about the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and American attitudes at that…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 6 '10

Jobs Robots Will Never Do (1983)

The June 3, 1983 Wall Street Journal ran a short blurb about jobs that robots would soon do and others that robots would probably never do. Darning socks made the list of jobs they’d never do. They should have put it on the list of things humans wouldn’t do either. Where’s my Father McKenzie bot?!?!!…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 3 '10

First Men to the Moon (1960)

The 1960 book First Men to the Moon by Wernher von Braun tells the story of John Mason, a fictional astronaut of the future bound for the moon. The dedication page reads, “To Iris and Margrit [von Braun’s daughters] who will live in a world in which flights to the moon will be commonplace.” In…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 3 '10

Dawn of the Wireless Phone (1901)

William Edward Ayrton (source: Wikimedia)Susan J. Douglas has a fascinating essay about early wireless telegraphy in the book Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology and the American Future, which was edited by Paleo-Future Legend Joe Corn. Douglas excerpts a prediction by Professor William Edward Ayrton that appeared in a 1901 magazine called The Century. In it, Ayrton…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 1 '10

What Happened to the Future?

This image was lost some time after publication. Your fourth most favorite retro-futurist blogger was on the teevee box last night rambling about robots* and stuff. The clip is embedded below or you can watch it on KTLA‘s website. We hit most of the major topics and I somehow manage to keep my shirt on.…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 23 '10

This Age of Power and Wonder (1930s)

Companies of the early 20th century would often include collectible cards with their foodstuffs and tobacco smokes. The New York Public Library has an extensive collection of these cigarette cards available for viewing online, including many from a series by Max Cigarettes called This Age of Power and Wonder. This series from 1935-38 includes predictions…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 22 '10

Garco the Robot Retires (1961)

Lately I’ve been obsessed with finding the current location of 1950’s robot star Garco. Garco appeared on numerous TV shows, including one of my favorite pieces of retro-space-futurism, the 1957 Disneyland TV episode, “Mars and Beyond.” I can’t seem to find any clue as to where this robot might be stored. Is Garco sitting in…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 10 '10

1975 and the Changes to Come (1962)

TV of the future Meat Puppets drummer Derrick Bostrom has a wonderful Flickr set of images from the 1962 book, 1975: And the Changes to Come by Arnold B. Barach. While some of the products like this bacon toaster would be well suited for a 1960’s version of Sky Mall magazine, others were practical visions…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 16 '10

paleofuture.tv [episode 00000]

Rather than finish the magazine I’ve been working on for months*, I edited the premiere episode of paleofuture.tv yesterday. As you can see, it has the the production values of amateur porn, but with 37% less nudity.** The first episode is about food, and as I learn a bit more about how to properly put…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 13 '10

paleofuture.tv [episode 00000]

Rather than finish the magazine I’ve been working on for months*, I edited the premiere episode of paleofuture.tv yesterday. As you can see, it has the the production values of amateur porn, but with 37% less nudity.** The first episode is about food, and as I learn a bit more about how to properly put…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 13 '10

Alpha the Robot Shoots His Inventor (1932)

During the autumn of 1932 a group of curious onlookers assembled in Brighton, England to see inventor Harry May’s latest invention, Alpha the robot. The mechanical man was controlled by verbal commands and sat in a chair silently while May carefully placed a gun in Alpha’s hand. May then walked across the room to set…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 15 '10

Radio of the Future (1942)

The radio of the future is… a television? This 1942 ad for Admiral radios featured modernist designer Samuel A. Marx and his vision of a “radio of the future.” Like most American visions of the future from the 1940s, this one is drenched in talk of war and what technological advancements are just around the…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 10 '10

Matt Novak

The Trench Destroyer (1917)

Ford’s Magic Skyway (1964)

Space Farmer of the Year 2012 (1982)

Edison’s Predictions for the Year 2011 (1911)

The Sno-Melter (1960)

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

Driverless Car of the Future (1957)

New Nutrition (1933)

Jobs Robots Will Never Do (1983)

First Men to the Moon (1960)

Dawn of the Wireless Phone (1901)

What Happened to the Future?

This Age of Power and Wonder (1930s)

Garco the Robot Retires (1961)

1975 and the Changes to Come (1962)

paleofuture.tv [episode 00000]

paleofuture.tv [episode 00000]

Alpha the Robot Shoots His Inventor (1932)

Radio of the Future (1942)

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