A recent visit to my CAD dealer and reading the brilliant XKCD Blog resulted in a rather remarkable coincidence.
Rich Sales (yes, that’s really his name) was showing me his new company vehicle, a Segway. Rich chose it as lives reasonably close to work, travels a route soon to be cluttered with bus/pedestrian only transit roads, it’s fun way to save gas and save the planet. I think it’s rather appropriate transport for the ultimate CAD/BIM geek. I was at Salesoft for training but had time for a little test drive around the office. For someone used to balancing on bicycles I found the “relax I’ll balance for you” Segway a strange, but cool, way to move.
That night I got home to find XKCD Blog featured a cartoon vision of the future, drawn in 1900. The caption says “In the new century no one will walk – all will have wheels” and the label on the device reads ‘footomobile’. I asked Rich for a photo of his new toy for my blog but didn’t tell him about the ‘toon. I grinned when this image arrived today with eerily similar composition.
Rich may say he commutes by Segway, but for me it will forever be:
1900 (A vision of 2000) 2007 (A Vision!)
Click the images for full-size versions
Footomobiles - xkcd » Blog Archive
I was recently reading through newspapers from around 1898 to 1901. In a collection of articles from midwestern papers predicting what life would be like in the year 2000, I found this cartoon. The label on the device reads ‘footomobile’. Words fail me
Cartoon from Brown County Democrat, December 28, 1900.
