Interwebs Find of the Week: Paleofuture

A short attention span can be a wonderful thing sometimes. The internet is a meta-world where links upon links can take you into under-explored sub-topics. This week I "stumbled on" paleofuture.com, the site that proficiently asks, "What ever happend to...?" I remember my computer science class in Grade 10, where Windows 95 was the greatest thing ever, and BBS boards were the proto-Facebook/torrent share/forum venue for the secretly extraverted introvert. Our parents worried ceaselessly about our Super Nintendo overusage. The teacher in my aforementioned class told us that in 20 years' time, all of our personal information and cash, especially, would be help on tiny plastic cards you could fit in your wallet. I actually argued the point, saying no one would ever be so stupid as to let go of their privacy and risk losing their card, and therefore all of their money. He told me smugly to talk to him in ten years. Now I teach a theatre class to 10-year olds who are completely habituated to making their own animations online, fishing for the next meme on Youtube, and when I tell them in 10 years' time the upload speed for a movie will be negligible and the computer will be a camera in your hat, a projector in your necklace, and a microphone near your mouth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzKmGTVmqJs), they look at me with that familiar look of "Whatever, old chick, you and your science fiction notions".

So for anyone who needs to take a step back and reflect on what we said would happen, what did actually happen, what never happened, and what very much should happen, do check out paleofuture.com. A quote, graciously attributed to the blog's authors:

"The August 28, 1949 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, TX) ran this article and cartoon about the "brain wave" music of the future. The piece quotes heavily from electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott.

CHICAGO, Aug. 27 - (AP) - Some day composers won't write music, and musicians won't play it - yet fans will enjoy it in never-before-heard perfection.

The composer or artist will simply project it by brain waves - "thought transference," says Raymond Scott.

BRAIN WAVES

This man, who thinks in terms of electronics and music, thinks that is all quite possible. Scott said in an interview:

"Brains put out electrical waves. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some day it were possible to do away with lines in music, such as writing it out and playing the notes. You'll just be able to think it.

 "Imagine fastening electrodes to your head, inviting some people to your home and then thinking your music. If you wanted 1000 violins you could have them - and if you wanted the bass fiddle to play piccolo parts, you could do that, too."

RECORDINGS, TOO

 Scott says even recordings will carry, instead of musical sound, the brain waves of the composer. No arrangers, no rehearsals.

Scott is a New Yorker who has spent most of his adult life working on new developments in his two loves, music and electronics. He maintains a permanent electronics research laboratory in New York, while he composes music and directs his bands for radio shows and night club appearances. His musical theories have always been off-beat."