Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Happylife Home | ||
| An automated multi-media home, which provided the good life to its inhabitants. |
Ray Bradbury shared the 50's fascination with gadgets and technology for the home. In 1950, fewer than 10% of homes had televisions. By 1960, over 90% did. In reading the following excerpt, see how quickly Bradbury skips over the intervening generations of technology to get to what people in 1950's really wanted.
| They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them. Their approach sensitized a switch somewhere and the nursery light flicked on when they came within ten feet of it. Similarly, behind them, in the halls, lights went on and off as they left them behind, with a soft automaticity |
| From The Illustrated Man,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
This item is taken from "The Veldt", the first story in the collection.
The single largest difference that I can see between this scenario and the typical vision of the "automated house" of the 21st century is that, for us, control is what we really want. Products like HAL (Home Automated Living) are a set of control devices that allow the user to wirelessly and remotely control the various devices in the home. The vision of technology that Bradbury saw (and feared, which we can deduce from the veiled sarcasm in this passage) is that of a technology that replaces the human touch; the technology provides care for the people.
For more on this topic, see the comments for The Veldt, from the same novel.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 4 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Illustrated Man
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Bradbury
Tech news articles related to The Illustrated Man
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Bradbury
Happylife Home-related
news articles:
- Smart Home Provides Elder Care
- A Smart Home With Cyber Crumbs - Bradbury's Happylife Home?
- RoomRender Futuristic Smart Room
- Space Robot Knows Your Mood
- WellAWARE Passive Sensor Monitoring Of Elderly
- Time For Bradbury's 'Smart Home'?
| Aequoreas Floating Village 3D Printed From Ocean Junk |
| PassivDom 3D Printed House - What If You Could Live Anywhere? |
| Rosemont Hotel Dubai Has Lobby Rainforest |
| Would Movable Houses Make Cities Better? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Do I know protocol? Why, it's my primary function.'
'When unfolded and unrolled... it became a tough, gleaming film.'
