Where Did the Future Go?
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic, and this is my weekly blog post. The large Sunday Bizarro comic above is mine, as are the comments below. The past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics that follow were written and drawn by my partner Wayno, whose weekly blog post I highly recommend.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to my Sunday comic’s Secret Symbols.
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Welcome, Jazz Pickles.
The mid-20th-century animated TV show, The Jetsons, inspired my cartoon above. I was a huge fan of that show as a kid and fully expected to see some of it come true in my lifetime. Some elements have, but the coolest parts have not.
To my inner child’s disappointment, flying cars and buildings perched on poles above the clouds have not materialized. That’s probably a good thing.
It takes only a moment to realize what a mess flying cars would be. Without lane markers, medians, curbs, and guardrails, people would be bashing into each other like those bumper car attractions at amusement parks. Even if we built cars that automatically avoid running into each other, traffic would quickly devolve into a chaotic murmuration of swerving vehicles, and the sky would rain with vomit from airsick passengers.
There’d also be the problem of malfunctions causing them to fall from the sky, not to mention a traffic jam of Jetsonmobiles filling the skies over cities. So, though there was a lot of talk about how close we were to flying cars in the 1950s, it hasn’t happened, and it probably won’t.
I don’t recall much mention of robots to clean our houses, but that part came true, though they don’t look like the Jetsons’ housekeeper, Rosie.
There was an episode in which Rosey and other robot slaves realized humans were useless and killed off our entire species, I think. Or maybe I’m thinking of something I read more recently about AI.
Wayno’s cartoons this week (below) are a series about how AI currently tends to get things fairly close to correct, but regularly makes some amusing mistakes. This series is one of my very favorites of Wayno’s, and I’m thrilled to report that it continues into next week. My personal favorites in next week’s batch will be on Wednesday and Saturday. Be sure to tell us which are your favorites in the comments.
Coincidentally aligning with this theme, in my most recent article for The Naked Cartoonist, “Being Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the Future,” I mention my grandfather’s refusal to leave a recorded message on the early answering machines of the 1970s. He would shout, “I’m not talking to a goddam robot!” and slam the phone down.
I laughed at him then, but I now find I have the same objections to being thrust into the future. When the topic of Siri or Alexa comes up, my grandfather’s voice involuntarily booms from my depths, “I’m not asking a goddam robot to turn on a light!”
History repeats itself and life goes on—eventually, without us all.
Time now for Wayno’s AI series of Bizarro cartoons from the week…
In this case, Simon sang the high parts.
If you taste wu-tang, you know the clam is past its expiration date.
Even AI should know that Marley would not have approved of whaling.
In his blog post this week, Wayno includes an interesting story about the book he’s drawn here.
David Bowie was his stage name, of course, inspired by the Bowie knife, used by frontiersman, Jim Bowie. His real name was David Swissarmyknife.
Bruno Mars born name is Lady Gaga, but he had to change it for obvious reasons.
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