Raygun Gothic

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Raygun Gothic refers to any creative work from 1900 through about 1959, predicting the future before it became possible. Think rockets and rayguns, flying cars and futuristic cities - especially if the vision never quite panned out in reality. We find this aesthetic in product design, book covers, films, radio & TV. "A tomorrow that never was". The same style as in the Fallout games, The Jetsons and so on but focused on the time period through the 50s.

See also: Raygun Gothic at TVTropes

Post and discuss anything with these aesthetics.

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perishthethought@piefed.social

Self-driving car idea (s3.metapixl.com)

submitted 1 day ago by perishthethought@piefed.social to c/raygungothic@piefed.social

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Forget where I found this...

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[–] klu9@piefed.social 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Did a reverse image search for it.

Getty has it but just says "photo by Getty".

A blog also has it and says "photo courtesy of RAND Corporation".

A search for "RAND corporation self-driving car" led to this report with the image on the cover. Opening the PDF led to this:

Cover image: Advertisement from 1957 for “America’s Independent Electric Light and Power Companies” (art by H. Miller). Text with original: “ELECTRICITY MAY BE THE DRIVER. One day your car may speed along an electric super-highway, its speed and steering automatically controlled by electronic devices embedded in the road. Highways will be made safe—by electricity! No traffic jams…no collisions…no driver fatigue.”

[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice, thanks!

[–] klu9@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

You're welccome

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Interesting that there’s no billboards, or gas stations, or anything of the sort in this illustration.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In a perfect world, we never leave our cars. We are just eternally with our friends and family on our racing living rooms. Passing cars deliver your amenities and you simply relieve yourself out the window. The future of a road-only world awaits!

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

That's the plot line of the Doctor Who episode called Gridlock.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridlock_(Doctor_Who)

The episode is set five billion years in the future on the planet New Earth, the remainder of humanity on the planet live in perpetual gridlock within the Motorway, a highway system beneath the city state of New New York.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

That's the plot of WALL-E

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

Life is a Highway

[–] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is this one of those things that when you start trying to make it feasible ends up with trains?

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah this looks exactly like a train ride in a corridor coach. Actually it's probably similar to a flight on a golden-age-of-aviation airline too. Crazy what can be done with economies of scale applied to transportation, eh?

[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"in the future, the entire family will all get along and play games together!"

[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

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