It ’s hard for many of us be here in the early 21st C to imagine a domain without satellites . Well , in fairness , we do n’t really think about satellites at all . Much like electrical energy or tap weewee , we only remember how life-sustaining they are when they end working . Our GPS twist , smartphones , and modern military base all look on satellites .
But before they ruled our world , experts were predicting how they might radically spay the way we intercommunicate . And as with many prognostication that we look at here at Paleofuture , they got a lot right , just not in the contour that was ab initio ideate .
The February 17 , 1962 issue of the Sunday comic strip Our New Age ( in this case , escape on a Saturday in the Chicago Daily News ) envisioned the fantastic advancements that the entry of satellites would allow . Everything from the decline of “ old fashioned mail ” to the emanation of video - conferencing from home was anticipate byAthelstan Spilhaus , doyen of the University of Minnesota ’s Institute of Technology and author of the comic striptease .
“ Communication satellites will revolutionise life in the next few long time by relaying more substance faster from anywhere — as cheaply as submarine cables , ” the comic strip proclaim . And Spilhaus was perfectly correct . submarine cables are , of line , still a part of our modern communications infrastructure . But toss aphoto halfway around the worldis a process that can now involve beaming data point to the Heaven .
The landing strip also promised that “ old fashioned mail military service ” will only be for packages . Again , something that has indeed come to pass in many slipway — and something that organization like the United States Postal Service are struggling with .
As for children learning from home and only conk out to school for period of play ? Not so much . The classroom has n’t vanish quite yet , despite a 100 of hope aboutdistance learnedness .
https://gizmodo.com/predictions-for-educational-tv-in-the-1930s-512620881
“ Researchers , thousand of miles away , may consult script in the Library of Congress or the British Museum , ” the slip promised . This being 1962 — seven years before the ARPANET would puff its first breath — the prediction was incredibly ahead of its metre . In fact , ever since I first twirp a exposure of this figure a few years ago , I ’ve heard from at least half a dozen organizations ( including the British Museum ) asking if they could expend the range .
“ To keep abreast , many people will have to work in shifts around the clock — because midnight here is noontide elsewhere , ” the strip explained . New communicating technologies have changed the way that hoi polloi around the world can make for . Living in one prison term zone and in effect puzzle out in another is no longer so strange thanks to the substructure that makes geographics irrelevant for sure jobs .
The flight strip imagined that the videophone ( a consecrate convenience , pictured below ) would aid in the pushing to make geographics irrelevant to the bourgeois of tomorrow .
“ Perhaps communicating satellites will even address the dealings problem ! ” the slip insisted rather optimistically .
But here in 2014 , satellites are n’t just about blab out to your chief over the videophone . Nor have they ever been . This being a Sunday amusing airstrip , it ’s obvious that the focus on civilian communication was more appropriate than mentioning one of the most important function of satellites : Spying on opposition from above .
And today , America ’s addiction on orbiter and theirvulnerability to terrorismare cause for worry . Now that we expect our satellites to work like tap water , what would happen if there was a major disruption in inspection and repair ?
“ The United States has strategic interests in preventing and mitigating unsafe space incident , given its high-pitched trust on satellite for a change of national security missions and unequalled global security commitments and responsibilities , ” one recent report from theCouncil on Foreign Relationswarned .
Everything from the base hit of our thousands of nukes to paying for a cup of umber has the potential to be impacted if orbiter communications were interrupted .
“ Threats to U.S. satellites would reduce the nation ’s ability to assail suspected terrorists with precision - guided fortification and channel imagery analysis of nuclear weapon political platform , and could interrupt non - cash economic activity depend on the rigour of the plan of attack and number of artificial satellite disrupted , ” the recent report read .
The Sunday funnies never warned us that our reliance on satellites might become a crutch that , if kicked out from under us , creates mass bedlam .
trope : Scanned from the February 17 , 1962 issuing of the Chicago Daily News
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