Speak Out: If Man Can Dream It

Posted by Old John on Wed, Mar 2, 2011, at 11:46 PM:

My great uncle told me once that if man can dream it he will try it. He cited Flash Gorden and some other entertainment of his youthful days. Trips to the moon, lasers, and x-ray vision! That was over 40 years ago and as a simple factory worker that refinished kitchen tables after work for extra money to get ahead of the crowd, I think he was pretty far sighted.

Today I got a glimpse of a story about a blind guy that was fitted with artifical retinas using tiny camera technology.

Gene Roddenberry and the the Star trek writers gave us this idea with a character that wore a device to enable a blind man to see.

What else has man dreamed that may come to pass?

Any ideas?

Replies (39)

  • Everything that man has wrought has come to pass because someone dreamed about it first. From writing to building empires, from building blocks to building the Great Wall of China, it all started with a dream.

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:44 AM
  • Amazing how most of the "Retro-Age" really DID come about, indeed. Computerized-cars that literally can drive themselves, although still in a late-experimental stage.

    And the irony of it all? They STILL have "accidents", and "glitches"---just like HUMANS...!☺

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 10:52 AM
  • "a dream" and the laying of the first block.

    -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 12:42 PM
  • Old John: Just thought of one---seriously, this time!

    Remember the "Mission:Impossible"-team? And the one-and-only black-man, "Barney"?(His credits'-name was Greg Morris, I think?) Kind of the "mechanic" of the crew. Anyway, remember that battery-powered hand-drill he used? The very-first time I saw him use that, I said: "God, how I wish they really made somethin' that drilled like that---and, with no-cord!" And, lo and behold what was it, about 25, 30-years later that "it-happened"? Yeah, ba-by, yeah!!!☺

    I was reminded of how spoiled I'VE become, now, too. A few-months' back, I was using an actual HAND-FITTED SCREWDRIVER, without a battery,☺! and a much-younger fella quietly remarked: "Whoa, dude---how retro!!!" Although to his credit, he did pick-up the operation of such quite-quickly, for a 19-y.o. "kid"! But he's an all-right kinda guy, he'll grow out of it soon-enough!

    (Personal Re: to Shapley Hunter, concerning "Credit", from earlier: That was a short-"war", wasn't it? Did ya' use the "Nuclear-Option", or somethin'? That thread is suddenly "the color of GONE"...!!!☺)

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 3:36 PM
  • Donknome-2

    I suspect that, once it was reported, they stripped the poster of their identity, and that removes any posts and threads they have posted.

    I remember that our 'friend of many names' had a number of threads started once, some with very lengthy discussions. One day I logged in and they were gone - all gone! He apparently 'crossed the line' somewhere so they banned him, and all his threads vanished.

    But, it wasn't me that reported it, this time or the last! :)

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 3:42 PM
  • Shapley: Yeah, I've noticed our "friend" has been kinda-quiet, lately? But it doesn't matter to me, at all---I bow-out when it turns political, it's not worth the headache. I don't particularly care for ANY-party designation anymore, although I DO tend to lean to the RIGHT---but, nowhere near the "Full"-mark, mind you!☺

    But it's a shame---the "war" was just getting started, and probably(?)not by it's original-sender!

    Just wait 'til Cape County starts with the "Eminent-Domain"-crap again this spring/summer, as they've been doing each year, now. That's when you'll see MY-"Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde"-personna at it's finest!☺ And, it COULD get interesting, THIS-time around!

    Arrgh!!! Enough of this crap! I ain't gonna mess-up O.J.s'-thread with it.

    Besides, my latest "Mr.Hyde-Formula" hasn't matured in it's cask long enough yet to safely-use...!!!☺

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 4:12 PM
  • I always wear my flame-retardant skivvies, just in case another war breaks out...

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 4:26 PM
  • Every idea starts in one human mind. Show me a collective mind and I'll show you mush passing itself off as solid gold.

    -- Posted by voyager on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 5:34 PM
  • I remember how cool it was when I first got a cordless phone. I could walk around the yard and talk. I got it for my birthday and I was mad because my family paid about $250 for it. But anyway I was uptown.

    -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 5:37 PM
  • My cordless phone finally blew a battery...litterally in my hand!

    -- Posted by voyager on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 6:34 PM
  • And you can still reuse the bottle.

    -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 7:00 PM
  • When the 2/10 mile markers were installed on the interstate I figured maybe the idea I've had for several years was coming to fruitation.

    With the tecnology in use today, it would be easy to put some sort of device in the markers that would interact with cars to control speed, send driver alerts and prevent speeding in consrtuction zones. Maybe not now, but someday.

    Remember the invisable man on TV? It would be possible today to suit a person in a flexible material that would display the image of what was behind that person making a perfect camouflage.

    Dick Tracy never dreamed his radio-watch would be this close to real with features he could never imagine!

    Donk, I've got a real neat tool that doesn't have a battery or a cord and cuts wood, another like it that cuts metal! I'm on the cutting edge, you know.

    -- Posted by Old John on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 7:23 PM
  • Old-John! (GASP!) You mean to say you have not ONE, but TWO, fully-functional, original-patent MANUALLY-HAND-POWERED saws??? And, one expressly for cutting metal?? Do you realize how much they would be worth, if only for their antique-appeal, on todays' open-market???☺!

    Quote: "Whoa, dude---how retro!" Unquote!

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 7:57 PM
  • Oh, and todays' "Ghillie-suits" are pretty-darned close to invisible, when worn/used by someone with an eye for mundane details, that would otherwise go unnoticed by the "average"-person.

    Nope! Not ME! Only way I could see someone with that kinda talent is to accidentally hit-'im with my walkin' stick, an' hear 'im cuss...!☺

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:04 PM
  • Donk, I got a meat saw older than me, I think. Hope it didn't belong to a doctor. :)

    I actually used my real cordless drill a while back when I didn't want to wait for the battery to charge up on the other one. I was suprised at how well it worked when I bellied up to it.

    In the early '60s CBS aired a documentary about the future. That was when we all figured the year 2000 would have us all flying around in our autoplanes. True, the flying car was invented and flown, but it never caught on. The predictions of that show had us driving cars pretty much the same as we were then except for the shape. They predicted a car designed to slip through the wind a little better and provide better economy.

    I guess they predicted well.

    -- Posted by Old John on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:15 PM
  • I'm still waiting for my 8-track tape collection to reach 'antique' status. They're merely 'quaint' right now...

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:33 PM
  • Shap, I'm still waiting for my Tandy, Radio Shack lap top to be antique!

    -- Posted by Old John on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:49 PM
  • Shapley,

    I still have quite a few 8 Tracks laying around, and I still have one player that works. Been meaning to transfer a few of them to CD's, if and when I get around to it.

    Had a 77 Mark V that had a quadraphonic 8 track player in it that sounded really good at the time.

    -- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 9:26 PM
  • Wheels,

    You may have hit the jackpot. If we combine your 8 track collection with mine and Shapley's we could open a museum. Only problem is I can't find anyone qualified to fix my stereo so I can listen to them!

    By the way, I read the other day about a fifth grade class that was asked to suggest inventions. The winner was a girl who thinks someone should invent a telephone with a cord connecting it to the wall so it would not get lost. We are way ahead of ourselves!

    -- Posted by Robert* on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 10:27 PM
  • Stnmsn8,

    I was lucky and found this player that has to be connected to something else with RCA cables, I use one of the big getto blasters from a few years back. I defintely should copy the ones I want to keep before that too quits on me.

    -- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 10:35 PM
  • Wheels, Seems I remember an 8 tract that played the noise seperately to each of the four speakers in the car. Quad Track? One tape in particular sent the sound around in a circle that would nearly make me dizzy!

    -- Posted by Old John on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 10:51 PM
  • Rick, where in Thunder did yhou ever dig up Raymond E. Norwine's picture you are using in your avatair.

    -- Posted by voyager on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 11:36 PM
  • Old John,

    Yes that was Quad Track or Quadraphonic, I believe Lincoln called it. That has been nearly 35 years ago. It did sound pretty good for the time with a good tape. You are probably talking about a Demo tape.

    Also, as I remember it, there were not that many quad tapes out there.

    -- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 12:03 AM
  • Did 'man' dream up the phrase "Peace on Earth?" Wonder if that 'idea' will ever become reality ...

    Used to think it would be great not to have to get up to change channels or adjust volume on the TV set ... mainly because I was Pops' Official Channel Changer!

    What I'd like is a robotic housekeeper ... like in that old futuristic comedy cartoon show? Or the ones in JD Robb's fictional series ... as well as the food service thing where you just plug in what you want & it pops out!

    -- Posted by gurusmom on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 1:04 AM
  • Rick, you could've fooled me!

    -- Posted by voyager on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 8:10 AM
  • I'm still waiting for my 8-track tape collection to reach 'antique' status. They're merely 'quaint' right now...

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Thu, Mar 3, 2011, at 8:33 PM

    Take them to a hot rod swap meet. Those guys eat them up if they are in good shape.

    -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 9:26 AM
  • 8-tracks weren't in good shape even when they were new...

    They were a flawed design to begin with. A continuous tape would around a single spool, with one end of the tape pulled from the center while it was wound back around the outside. The design guaranteed that the tape left the real at a different speed than it was wound onto it. The tape was moved by a drive spindle which pulled the tape from the center of the real, stretching the tape ever so slightly as it did so.

    There were, as the name says, 8 tracks of data on the tape. The playback head was designed to read two of these at a time (four at a time for quadraphonic playback). The playback heads, which were subject to jarring, particularly in portable and automobile-mounted units, would misalign, resulting in 'bleedover' as they read data from multiple tracks simultaneously.

    As the tape cartridge aged, the little dab of lubricant on the reel dried out, and the friction increased drag on the tape, resulting in irregular playback, known as 'wow and flutter'. The drag also increased the stretching of the tape, resulting in distorted playback. Eventually, the drag on the tape would exceed the tensile strength of the tape, or of that little foil connector at the tape splice, and the tape could come apart, filling the palyback unit with tape. Usually, the drive would continue to pull the tape into the unit until a significant amount of tape had accumulated to jam the drive mechanism. By this time, the tape was usually ruined, and sometimes the playback unit with it.

    Being poor kids, we used to open the tapes up and rewind them by hand, resplicing them as needed. Of course, some of the tape had become seriously damaged during this, and we had to 'smooth it out', usually by winding it carefully around a pencil while stretching it, to get rid of the wrinkles. When playing the tape, this 'repaired' portion of the tape was glaringly noticable.

    Sometimes we even had to cut a damaged section of tape out completely, and resplice. Foils splicing tape could be purchased at the store to make this possible. Thus, Ina Gadda Da Vida was reduced from 17 minutes to 15 minutes, but what the heck, part of Ina Gadda Da Vida was better than no Ina Gadda Da Vida, right?

    A repaired tape was sometimes good for a couple of playbacks, but I knew of some that lasted for dozens before failing again.

    Those were the days, no?

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 9:49 AM
  • What I mean is if they still look good. Not sun bleached, dirty, or the label is wrinkled. They like to have the 8track box in the back seat with new looking tape cartridges in it and a one in the unit.

    You are right though. They had a short use life. I got to be a master at refeeding the tape in if it got eaten.

    -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 10:06 AM
  • Since most folks have microwave ovens that unfreeze food in a short time, when will we have a device to freeze it back just as quickly?

    -- Posted by Old John on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 10:43 AM
  • It took me a year to discover the car I bought had an 8- track tape player. I don't do well with electronics.

    -- Posted by voyager on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 4:20 PM
  • I liked the old LPs, and still have a pretty decent vinyl LP collection. There were four main disadvantages to them, though:

    1. They were prone to scratching. Just getting them out of the dust sleeve could scratch them. Scratches left them with an unwanted noise at the least, and rendered them unlistenable at the worst.

    2. The playback stylus damaged them on playback. The very act of dragging the needle through the groove eroded the groove that produced the playback, so they were self-destructive. Expensive turntables had very delicately balanced stylus arms, in order to minimize the damage, but the fact remains that everytime you played your vinyl LP, you eroded it slightly, lowering the quality of the next playback.

    3. They lacked portability. The scratching and stylus sensitivity issue made them unsuitable for portable or in-car use. Sears did market an automobile-mountable turntable. The LP was attached to a vertical platter, and a stylus mounted on a tubular arm (similar to the ones found on some jukeboxes) that supposedly kept the stylus on track even in a moving auto. I do not know anyone that ever owned such a device, though.

    4. They were fragile.

    The playback quality was better than CD's, according to many audiophiles. This was because of their limited reproduction range - they had to be engineered so that the highs and lows were within those limits. As a result, you could listen to soft passages and loud passages without adjusting the speakers - the engineers did that in recording. Soft passages would be lost in the rumble and hiss if they were not recorded at louder levels, and loud passages would distort if they were not toned down in engineering. As a result, you could enjoy a piece such as Mahler's 2nd from start to finish at the same volume setting, and not miss any of it (exept that you had turn the LP over midway, because of the recording-time limitation of the LP).

    -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 4:55 PM
  • Nice detail, Shapley.

    I have a wall of several hundred vinyls. Most of the ones I bought were played two times: once to make note of what was on the album, and once when I recorded the mix to tape.

    Over the years, my collection has expanded when friends dumped theirs. I got a turntable to USB device for Father's Day a couple of years ago, but I have yet to burn my first album.

    The only stage I skipped was the 8-track. Based on your description, it was a good technology to miss.

    If the Music Police ever come busting down my door because of my MP3 downloads, I intend to say, "I bought it on vinyl, on tape and CD. Just how many times am I expected to pay for it?"

    -- Posted by ksteinhoff on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 7:40 PM
  • We have a pre '70s console that has the timbre, bass, treble adjustments. Those old records sound pretty good to me on it, but my '73 Zenith console TV looked pretty good until I got a flat screen.

    -- Posted by Old John on Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at 11:57 PM
  • I remember when I was young. My parents had an old wind up phonograph in the attic with a whole stack of wax. I would go up in the attic and enjoy those old records, scratchy sound and all. When we moved the antiquers saw an opportunity to sneak in at night. I hope they enjoyed those old things as much as I did! But they probably just cashed them in.

    -- Posted by Robert* on Sat, Mar 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM
  • John, do you remember anything like a big, gigantic video(movie)-disc of the ?maybe? mid-60's/early 70's? About twice the size & thickness of a typical LP-vinyl, and a deep-cobalt-blue color? As a matter of fact, the jacket of each mentioned something about "Laser-Disc"??? I was told they were used in the large, multi-speaker combo entertainment-centers of the time. Loaded 'em just like a one-ton CD(☺)---except you never touched the surface, it was all enclosed in it's own sleeve. Same for unloading.

    Must've been a short-lived thing that developed when I was still "in a land far, far away", 'cause I'd never seen such an "animal" until a few-years back, at a flea-market.

    Or maybe they were only for commercial-theatre use, only?

    Geez, they weighed like what felt to be every-bit of 5-pounds...!

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Sat, Mar 5, 2011, at 11:21 AM
  • I had one of those home disc movie players, it came with a free movie - "Stripes". We traded a couple of movies back and forth with friends for a while but like said it wasn't long before you couldn't find anywhere to get the discs.

    Growing up we had a player-radio that used the heavy brittle records. Most of the songs were from the depression era. I still remember "If You Don't Marry Me" title or lyric.

    My sister has it now and I see the style of the 18x18x8" box in a lot of modern retro products.

    I remember the old stand up radio on the trash fire not long after our first TV and table top radio. Even then I felt that nagging stab of discomfort in seeing such waste.

    -- Posted by Old John on Sat, Mar 5, 2011, at 1:27 PM
  • Spank & Old John: Thanks! Yeah, that's the exact-thing I was referring to. I guess I just never got-out enough, but I just don't even recall seeing-such advertised at the time?

    I do remember a cousin that had a Curtis-Mathis "Entertainment-Center" they called it.(May very well have had the hardware for this movie-disk?)Anyway, it not only had an "Insta-On" TUBE-chassis, it also had "Auto-Color", as well as FM-Stereo radio, WITH A.F.C.!!! And, FOUR---count 'em!---FOUR-independent speaker-channels, PLUS a sub-woofer! WHOA, tie me DOWN, dude!!!

    And, on a side note of irony: It did have a remote channel-changer, indeed, but the hardware---a chain/sprocket-driven mechanical linkage to the shaft of the existing knob, you could read the numbers as it turned!---had a VACUUM-TUBE-powered receiver!(Remember those? Had a hand-clicker with a range of about 20-ft.? And sounded like one of the sole-cutters at the Florsheim-plant? "Weeee-CHUNG!-Weeee-CHUNG!")LOL!!!

    Blew-up at least twice each month. But, BOY did he ever impress the neighbors...!!!

    -- Posted by donknome-2 on Sat, Mar 5, 2011, at 5:13 PM
  • Those were the days!

    -- Posted by Robert* on Sat, Mar 5, 2011, at 5:39 PM
  • Maybe we will have someday a pop up screen in the car that shows all the available parking space at the big store upon entering the lot.

    How many gallons of gasoline and how much time has been wasted circling the parking lot?

    And when you give up and park way out, you always walk past an empty spot up close.

    -- Posted by Old John on Sun, Mar 6, 2011, at 1:20 AM

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