Reconstructed for RetroWDW.com’s Horizons Series of Podcast Episodes RetroWDW.com WALT DISNEY WORLD EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE COMMUNITY OF TOMORROW For millions of years, people have searched for ways to improve their lives. Through creativity and hard work, innovations have emerged that have provided more effective ways of dealing with the challenges of life. These innovations were the creations of dreamers and doers; of people who think in terms of the “possible” rather than “impossible.” Walt Disney was a dreamer and doer, a man who cared about the world and its problems. He believed that people could develop solutions to problems if equipped with information, technology and opportunity. The dream of EPCOT Center originated with Walt Disney nearly 20 years ago. Yet the new ideas and systems that may together to share their cultural “spirit of EPCOT,”played a major someday serve people every- heritage, arts and entertainment. role in the development of all where. And it provides an It offers a new look at what our of Walt Disney World. We have ongoing forum where the world can be through under- leading-edge transportation, creative thoughts of many standing, cooperation and better communications and safety disciplines, including industries, knowledge of each other. systems; solar and biomass governments and universities, The efforts of thousands of energy experiments; and are exchanged to help provide people were required to bring innovative master-planningand practical solutions to the needs this dream called EPCOT to agricultural developments. In of people. reality. Years of research, 1981, Walt Disney World was EPCOT Center communicates testing, development, patience, selected from among 200 this knowledge to the world. By and determination are at its projects nationwide to receive showcasing innovations, EPCOT foundation. And yet, its real the Urban Land Institute “Award Center encourages the develop- value lies in its human spirit: the of Excellence” . the top ment of even better systems for people who inspired it; the national award for all projects in the future. people who created it; the America. The richness and diversity of people who experience it; and With this foundation, EPCOT the human family is highlighted the people who host it. Center has been created as a in World Showcase. This unpre- This is the essence of EPCOT demonstration and proving cedented people-to-people Center: a collective endeavor by ground for prototype concepts exchange brings people from people . for people, in the and technologies. It showcases nations throughout the world hope for a better world. 1 ON THE HORIZON OF TOMORROW Throughout history, man has space exploration will affect our to spend our leisure time. been fascinated with the future. lives in various ways. But more The efforts of our ancestors In ancient times, sorcerers and important than any one of these brought man to live in remote seers attempted to predict changes will be the combined islands, mountains, rain forests events such as the outcome of impact they will have on the and the Arctic. Our quest has a battle, or the success of a ways we live and work in the brought us to the undersea planted crop by examinations of future. world and the brink of outer natural forces. A superstitious The same advances that will space. No one can be certain belief in occult signs and omen make desert farming, undersea what the future will hold; the was widespread. mining, and outer space manu- only thing we can be sure of is These various efforts to facturing possible, will also that mankind will continue to foresee the future occurred in create the need and the oppor- reach outward, overcoming new civilizations throughout the tunity for people to live and challenges, seeking new oppor- world. These civilizations shared work in these unique environ- tunities, finding new frontiers. the idea that a preordained ments. Entirely different life- Wherever the future will be, it future already existed and that it styles will emerge as we explore is we who are creating it as we was possible to “see” that the potential of our new move toward the horizon of future. habitats and devise new ways tomorrow. In modern times, we are still engaged in efforts to foresee the future, perhap more so than ever. But there is a funda- mental difference. Our methods are scientific rather than mystical or inspirational: we study data from weather satellites to plan crops and harvests; stock analysts construct computer models to plot future trends; election results are predicted based on statistical analysis of a small number of votes. As dramatic as these changes in method are, the biggest change is in our outlook. We have come to realize that we have an ongoing relationship with the future; it is our efforts and our innovations that deter- mine what the future will bring. New scientific and technologi- cal breakthroughs in electronics, communications, genetic engi- neering, transportation, agricul- ture, manufacturing, energy and 2 THE HORIZONS EXPERIENCE Horizons, like the other Future veyor, we begin our journey as artist, Robida. His stylized view World pavilions, has been we board suspended gondolas of rush-hour rapid transit was designed to make a striking accomodating four passengers created over a hundred years architectural statement. This each. ago. massive, yet graceful structure rises majestically from the EARLY INVENTIONS ART DECO landscape, its sharply faceted contours sloping gently up into As we move through a short The dreamers of the 1930s a truncated pyramid. tunnel, our narrator tells us that put their own stamp on designs The interior is divided into we are not the first to travel for the future. The work of three levels and a mezzanine. forward in time: “People have visionary artists was most often The Horizons show is a 38- been dreaming about the future published on the covers of scene, ride-through attraction for centuries.” Shifting clouds cheap “pulp” science fiction that takes us on a speculative and floating images of early magazines. In this setting of an journey into the future, through inventions trail his words. art deco apartment, we see many wondrous worlds of various hair-brained contraptions tomorrow. The presentation “LOOKING BACK and mechanical wonders that includes Audio-Animatronics AT TOMORROW” were supposed to make house- figures, Omnimax motion work obsolete, including a picture systems and a variety of is the theme that unites rather overburdened housework special effects to show us some the next five scenes. This whim- robot. of the unusual living environ- sical, lighthearted recollection ments made possible by gives us a taste of what some NEON CITY advanced technology. dreamers of the past thought the future might look like. In more recent times, THE FUTUREPORT dreamers’ visions of the future JULES VERNE have come to us through the The queue and load concourse media of television and film. is styled as a transportation A leading visionary of his time Against a neon backdrop, three center of the future. Here, we and one of the earliest writers screens provide glimpses of the are immersed in an environment of science fiction, Jules Verne future world from classic of tomorrow. The public predicted that space travel science fiction films and televi- address system announces would one day be a regular sion programs. arriving transports and pages occurrence. In this scene, passengers bound for exotic Verne’s bullet-rocket blasts off locations. Three projected for the moon with Verne ‘travel posters” highlight our himself and two animals as destinations in this future passengers. Next, we pass by adventure: Sea Castle, a floating the “Man in the Moon” with the city; Mesa Verde, a desert rocket ship lodged in his eye. farming community, and Brava Centauri, a space colony. ROBIDA One concept of futuristic mass LOAD AREA transportation systems was Stepping onto a moving con- envisioned by the 19th-century 3 FUTURE CITY URBAN HABITAT with her husband on another screen. Leaving the control This dimensional set reveals a We travel through a tunnel dome, we see a jet-powered 1950s conception of the future. to a three-dimensional urban hovercraft idling at its landing City lights twinkle as a futuristic environment of the future, Nova pad outside the farmer’s home. monorail glides along its guide- Cite. It is dusk, and as we glide way. The sky above is dominat- past, advanced transportation ed by helicopters, jetpackers systems (mag-lev trains) and DESERT HABITAT- and rocket ships. habitable megastructures are visible throughout the com- KITCHEN/ munity. Our vehicles near an COMMUNICATIONS “OMNISPHERE” apartment decorated with ROOM (Omnimax Theater) unique plants that are the result of genetic engineering. Inside, a We approach the home past a After passing through another married couple are speaking lush garden with a three-tiered transition tunnel where the shift- and we recognize the man’s waterfall and tropical flowers ing lights and projected colors voice as that of our narrator. surrounded by a natural rock of the “lumia” set the mood, we The conversations and observa- landscape. Inside, the house begin a gradual ascent past the tions of this couple (the is designed to blend with the two giant concave screens of grandparents of an extended desert landscape. Dad fixes a the “Omnisphere.” Here, family) will be the narration for cake in the kitchen while his through spectacular projected the rest of our trip. At the son plays with the voice- imagery, we visit micro- and moment, the grandmother is activated pantry. In the macro-worlds and the far conversing with a miniature communications center, a reaches of inner and outer holographic image of her talking computer gives a space. The startling imagery daughter at a desert-farm chemistry lesson to a teen-age surrounds us above, below and community.