Popular Science , which started as a text-only newsletter in 1872, has made its entire 137-year archive available for free browsing . It’s an invaluable resource, especially for those of us interested in retrofuturism (depictions of the future produced in the past). From the 1920 to the 1970s, Popular Science was at the forefront of futurism, with depictions of ray-guns, robots, rocket-ships, and other future tech depicted in almost every issue.
Naturally, the types of popular science the magazine focused on tended to be those of applied science and technology. And while no topic that entails application in human lives is completely free of ethical and political concerns, some subjects proved to be—at least in retrospect—more controversial than others.
For example, while browsing the archives I stumbled across an article from 1910 innocently titled “Heredity.” The content, however, reveals a future that was narrowly avoided .
Fortunately, we are more enlightened than Harvard professors were a hundred years ago. A century later we have totally repudiated the idea of eugenics, haven’t we ?
(Via: i09 )
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
