Ralph 124C 41+
I read this book on Project Gutenberg: Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660, by Hugo Gernsback. It was good, well-written, interesting. It's a standard romance for American men of 1911; that is, the red-blooded American genius scientist uses his ingenuity and derring-do to save his sweetheart, a woman who only exists to tell him how wonderful he is and ask questions about the marvels they see so he can show off his knowledge, and to be rescued when two other men, one of them an alien--Martian!--how could she ever fall in love with someone not human--kidnap her by turns. She ends up dead, but by some miracle our hero is the very man to know exactly what to do to have her preserved until they arrive at his lab on earth, where he has directed people to revive her while he donates some of his very own blood to replace the preserving fluid in her veins.
The real entertainment is in the science marvels described by our hero. America, of course, is on top of the world in scientific advancement and production of all types. Whole fields miles long are covered by permanent greenhouses that produce four or five crops of wheat every year; the latest restaurants serve food that has been run through a blender, including the steak. They travel by three-wheeled electric roller-skates in a New York City where people smoke and yet have no dirt on the ground whatsoever; the streets are electrified metal, perfectly smooth and clean for the electric vehicles, wired like trolleys, including a wire and antenna on each person's head while they skate. They have holographic or televised opera performances, but no video saved for later; multiple options to watch from playhouses around the world, but no Youtube. Our heroine travels by tunnel under the Atlantic to meet our hero, and experiences NO jetlag, no time change, no adverse effects except from the excitement of traveling through the mantle of the earth. There are fingerprint locks and voiceprints--literal voice lines on paper--cathode rays but no CRT screens. There is no Pluto, and Venus is inhabited. It's great. And the government owns all the banks, which print currency like postage stamps, in sheets or rolls, instead of coins, because metal has lost its value; transmutation is a thing. No one ever bounces checks or goes into debt, because that would land you in jail, after the third such check.
Oh you sweet, sweet summer child!
