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popculturegenealogy · 1 year

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Non-traditional family trees: the case of Futurama

The Farnsworth family tree that he shows to the crew members of Planet Express in "All the Presidents' Heads"

Some time ago, Mary Koeven wrote an interesting article about family history and adoption (if it is taking a long time to load, please read the archived copy), which she defines as "when a child is raised by someone other than their parents, whether or not their last name was changed or any official adoption process was carried out in the court system," with adoptive parents being either "grandparents, aunt and uncle, other family members, or complete strangers," sometimes referred to as "guardianship or fostering rather than adoption." She also went onto say the important part is establishing a timeline of the child's life, saying that "any information you find on relationships and family events should be recorded on your family tree." The article goes onto outline how to add "adoption info in your Ancestry.com tree," specifically focusing on the Harry Potter series as an example, although looking at how this works for Family Search would also be helpful. In this post, I aim to talk about family trees in Futurama, which I briefly mentioned in a post on one of my sister blogs.

Reprinted from my Genealogy in Popular Culture WordPress blog. Originally published on July 27, 2020.

After reading Koeven's post, I responded on Twitter, wondering whether the family tree in Futurama was "non-traditional," adding that "one of the protagonists is his own grandfather," referring to the Fry family. Koeven responded by remarking that "time travel would rewrite a lot of the fundamental rules of genealogy (death always comes after birth, etc.) and make research MUCH more difficult." Be that as it may, I still feel this article is one worth pursuing. Infosphere, the nerd's guide to the Futurama universe, has a very helpful family tree of the Fry family, which explains a lot:

Courtesy of Infosphere.

In episode 1 of season 4 (Roswell That Ends Well), Fry and the rest of the Planet Express crew inadvertently travel back in time to 1947. In the process, he kills his own grandfather, Enos, leading to all sorts of distortions:

Fry's time travel means that Yancy, Sr's paternal grandmother is Mrs. Fry, his wife and Fry's mother. And not only did Fry become his own grandfather, he made his father his own grandfather as well. An infinite loop results: Fry is his own grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-great-great-great-grandfather and so on. This abnormality is the reason Fry lacks the Delta Brainwave.

This disrupts the fundamental rules of genealogy and would make research more difficult. Besides the crew of the Planet Express ship, who else knew that they traveled back to 1947? Those in 1947 cannot testify to anything except that "aliens came," although those "aliens" were people from the future. Later on, in the series, during the first Futurama direct-to-DVD film, Bender's Big Score, Fry again travels back in time, creating the time-paradox duplicate of Lars Fillmore. Again, if he is a duplicate, what is his real birth date then? We can say for certain what his death date is (Dec 31, 3007) but if he has the same birth date as Fry, then doesn't this create another distortion? Some have been bothered by these distortions, saying it throws other parts of the show into question, like the DNA scanner in episode one.

Fry's family, you would think, is the only one that has this phenomenon of distortion. The Waterfall and Turanga families are free of this distortion. But what about the Farnsworth family, which ties into the Fry family? After all, Prof. Farnsworth went back to 1775 and seemed to kill his ancestor, David Farnsworth. The only way the Prof. could still be alive is because "it's possible that although David Farnsworth was a relative of the Professor, he wasn't one of his direct ancestors" as the Infosphere claims. Still, this would create another distortion, as the crew members did "alter history when they travel[led] back in time to the American Revolution," without a doubt.

You could say that makes the episode, "All the President's Heads," even more relevant to genealogy than "Roswell That Goes Well" because Prof. Farnsworth is trying to spruce up "his family tree, eager to show anyone willing to listen - and plenty who aren't - all the amazing people he's descended from," as noted in an approving review by Alasdair Wilkins in Gizmodo. However, other reviews say that in Roswell That Goes Well, Fry "climbs his family tree." Hmm.

What are your thoughts on this? Are there any family trees from other shows you'd like to share?

#blended family #genealogy #futurama #family trees #family history #pop culture #reviews #farnsworth #professor farnsworth #hubert farnsworth #philip j fry

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ladykeane · 1 year

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im sorry but

This is Profhim in a nutshell

IYFKDYKDFHKCKCLMFAAAOO 🤣🤣🤣

I see your hand and raise you Zoidberg x Prof Farnsworth

#profhim #himtonium #powerpuff girls

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kokorodachidanii · 1 year

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Well Bender and his pal Fry, they like to roll the dice... (Not really.)

Once upon a time in a magical mystery place called New-New York, there were two pals named Fry and Bender, who aren’t gay and thus can’t be shipped.

One day the two straight dudes wandered far from home, and despite Professor Farnsworth and Captain Leela’s many, MANY warnings, waltzed into the 7th layer of Dante’s Inferno, better known as The Devil’s Casino.

Inside, the two heteros actually managed to win something decent at the craps table!

“Hot Diggity Damn!” exclaimed the casino’s mysterious, cloaked, voice-amplifier-wielding manager. “These bois are straight-up beatin’ the system!!!”

“Nice streak boyos,” laughed a newcomer. The bois gasped, it was actually the REAL Satan! Like, The Robot Devil Himself!! He even owned the casino, if that wasn’t obvious. “Now how about I spice things up with some Carolina Reaper like offer?” he suggested with a toothy, shit-eating grin.

“Win one more throw and all the loot in this hellhole of an establishment is yours!” Robo-Dev boomed. “But if you screw this up... I’ll have your succulent sippy souls. Deal... or no deal...?”

Bender, blinded by easy swaggalicious earnings, nodded and grabbed the manager’s children for a throw. “For fuck’s sake Bender, NO!!!!!” cried Fry, for he understood how the Robot Devil is an even bigger Cheaty McCheapskate than the Regular Devil, but it was too late!

“... SNAKE EYES!” laughed the Devil whilst slamming the floor. “You done fucked up now!!” The dudes trembled in fear as he looked over them. “Now pay up you gay crettins!!!!”

“Okay first of all, it’s cretin. If you’re gonna threaten us, do it properly,” Fry scoffed.

The unlucky boyos pleaded for their very existences as beings in the mortal realm.

“Th-There’s gotta be another way to undo Bender’s fuckup!” Fry stammered...

“Y-Yeah, what he said, but without the ‘Bender’s fuckup’ part!!” Bender added.

“Hmm... Perhaps there is...” RD snickered, pulling out a crusty yellowed piece of paper from his cloak. “I have here a list of my debtors who have simply fucked off and haven’t paid up. Collect their succulent sippy souls for me and I just might give you a pardon, just like I did to Roberto.”

“Now get going!!!” Satin roared, leaving an imprint of his foot on the spooked bois. “You have until the goddamn witching hour to collect every one of those succulent sippy souls! Or else I’m going to be the one to solidify yours and crunch them up like crispy chips of the drinkware variety!!”

Fry and Bender were spooked senseless and dashed off like two Forrest Gumps in a 5K relay.

“C’mon Fry!” panted Bender. “We gotta go find the Prof!! He’ll know how to unfuckup our fuckup!!!”

“You mean your fuckup, you greedy dickhead,” Fry huffed.

#futurama #cuphead #shitpost #wake up new au dropped

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empresskaze · 4 months

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Prof Farnsworth voice: Good news everyone!

If you sent me an emoji prompt ask this year, I have matched them to their memes! They're in my drafts and I'll hopefully kick them all out....soon? I have one dating back to January....

#kaze thoughts #I'm so terrible and asking for prompts and then not writing them XD #hell I still have s1 TUA prompts I'll probably never write...#but I cant bring myself to delete anything

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andronetalks · 6 months

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Scientists Discover Previously Unknown Mechanism Significantly Impacting Earth’s Climate

SciTechDaily By THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM OCTOBER 18, 2023 The research was conducted by Hebrew University’s Ph.D. candidate, Kaushal Gianchandani, under the guidance of Professors Nathan Paldor and Hezi Gildor from the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University, in collaboration with Prof. Ori Adam and Sagi Maor from the Hebrew University along with Dr Alexander Farnsworth and…

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#Alternative #News #Science #Space #World

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theworkprint · 8 months

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Futurama Goes West for Not the Best Episode

Get ready for shootouts, saloons, and back rooms!

The third episode of Hulu’s revival of Futurama is entitled “How the West was 1010001” (that’s the number 81 in binary), and it’s an OK episode overall. There are some really good jokes, some solid throwaway gags, and a plot that manages to feel vaguely important. We find out that Prof. Farnsworth (Billy West covering the Thallium buyer, Doc Fiesta, the Road Runner, and Zoidberg among others) has…

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#amy #Bender #Bitcoin #Dwight #fry #Futurama #Hermes #How the West Was 1010001 #leela #professor farnsworth #Roberto!#The Robot Mafia #The Wild West #Zoidberg

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theartoflorcan · 1 year

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The mad scientist type is my fave. Prof Hubert Farnsworth, Rick Sanchez, Victor Frankenstein, Dr Weird, Algernop Krieger, Herbert West, Dr Jekyll, etc, all with questionable morals but great creativity.

Mad scientist was also my desired career path for the longest time when I was younger.

Done for ArtClubIE 's My Favourite Character prompt.

#art #drawing #illustration #sketch #ink #character #favouritecharacter #myfavouritecharacter #scientist #madscientist #science #madscience #weird #strange #creepy #macabre #horror #irishart #irishartist #dublinart #dublinartist #ArtClubIE #lorcancassidy

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packedwithpackards · 1 year

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From slaveowners to liberators: the Packard family and slavery

Prof. Farnsworth describes how Fry is his uncle, branching off an ugly and filthy branch in the Futurama episode "All the President's Heads" (S8, e10). This is how I could feel about my ancestors who participated in enslaving other human beings, but I do not feel that way in the slightest.

Recently on Twitter, I said that Zachariah Packard, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grand uncle was the "only connection to slavery I have found so far other than Theophilus Packard, husband of famed E.P.W. Packard, seeming to support slavery," responding to a tweet linking to my article on this blog about how Zachariah was a slaveowner. The 1771 Massachusetts tax inventory, only recently made available, serves as further proof of his slaveowning. Not only was Zachariah a slaveowner but so were his sons Nathan and Nathaniel, his daughter Abigail, and his wife Abigail, due to the stipulations outlined in his last will and testament, along with other parts of his probate like his inventory! These enslaved peoples (named "America Pierce," "Peter," and "Ann") went from person to person, then disappeared from the record as none are listed in Nathaniel's will in 1794, except for a 1790 census for Bridgewater listing an "America Pierce" and a "Peter Pierce."

Zachariah was not the only one involved. For one, Captain Samuel Packard (my great-great-great-great-great grand uncle) sailed a ship to the coast of the African continent in 1797, "looking for Black Africans to enslave...contrary to Rhode Island law," forced to sign a pledge he would leave the slave trade behind, which he seems to have honored. Secondly, Charles Chilion Packard, my great-great-great-great-great grand uncle, of Charleston, South Carolina (but born in Plainfield) "had the ten slaves from the estate of his wife’s deceased first husband" in 1820. Indirectly, the Packards that lived in New England, specifically in Massachusetts, were involved in that the region depended on a “trading system that serviced the wealthier slave-based economy of the West Indies,” which constituted an interconnected trade network.

At the same time, there were those who were directly opposed to slavery, like my great-great-great-great-great grand uncle, William Packard, organizing "a petition asking the United States Congress to abolish slavery and the slave trade in DC." He also not only attended "several abolition meetings in Northampton through the 1830s and 1840s, likely starting the Cummington abolitionist society. His strong sentiments for abolitionism were shared by his uncle, Rev. Theophilus Packard (my great-great-great-great-great grand uncle). This Theophilus, was "vice president of the antislavery society in Massachusetts, in the 1830s" and would be a dedicated anti-slavery crusader for years and years. This differed from his son, Theophilus (my great-great-great-great grand uncle) and his wife, E.P.W. (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) Packard (my great-great-great-great aunt in-law), who seemed to scowl at her sentiments that slavery was a sin. She also compared marriage to slavery, a comparison many made at the time despite the fact it was deeply problematic and carried with it horrible connotations. You could also say that William Henry Packard (my great-great-great grandfather), who fought in Louisiana during the Civil War (along with a host of other Packard ancestors), was effectively on the side against slavery, along with another distant ancestor, my great-great-great grandfather Lawrence Weber (not a Packard), who fought in a gunboat to stop Confederate blockade runners. [1]

There were other Packards I found, including one Reverend E. N. Packard (whose full name is Edward Newman Packard and lived in Dorchester, MA), who is my great-great-great uncle, and Adelpus Spring Packard (my great-great-great-great uncle), a professor of Bowdoin College, both in opposition to slavery rather than in favor. After all, there were two Packards in Topeka, Kansas (Cyrus and Sarah Burrows) who sheltered "runaway slaves" time and time again.

Until next time, as this post opens up a lot of avenues for further exploration on this blog, without a doubt!

Notes

[1] I am referring to a family history narrative which I haven't published at this point and would not be appropriate for this blog because the individual is not a Packard. But I thought it was relevant enough to mention.

Note: This was originally posted on May 31, 2019 on the main Packed with Packards WordPress blog (it can also be found on the Wayback Machine here). My research is still ongoing, so some conclusions in this piece may change in the future.

#e.p.w. packard #elizabeth packard #slavery #slaveowners #enslaved people #black lives matter #black history matters #rhode island #slave trade #abolitionists #underground railroad #cummington #massachusetts #northampton #anti slavery

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lefemmerougewriter · 2 years

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Time Keeps Slipping: Carmen's Devious Plan Manifests Itself

This story uses characters from Futurama and Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? It is the second part of my "'How to Handle Time': Carmen Sandiego and the Exploits of Planet Express" series, the first fan fic series I ever wrote! Its a time travel adventure between characters from both shows, an exciting story bringing together the stories of those from two of my favorite shows!

Romantic pairings: Philip J. Fry/Turanga Leela

Friendships: Zack & Ivy

Words: 3.9k

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360144/chapters/46061998#workskin

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/1254809895-how-to-handle-time-carmen-sandiego-and-the

Characters: Ivy, Zack, The Chief, Yancy Fry, Bender, Leela, Prof. Farnsworth, Philip J. Fry, George Washington, James Madison, Player, Zoidberg, Amy Wong, Carmen Sandiego

The Chief says in a voiceover: "Where we last left off, Zack and Ivy traveled to 1787 to stop Carmen Sandiego from setting Constitution Hall on fire. But, they got there too late, with her evil deed done. In an accidental act, they killed a man named Yancy Fry, leading to a spacetime disruption and an alternate timeline. Both Zack and Ivy were kidnapped by a group of people from the future."

Planet Express building, New New York, May 1, 3013.

Leela, talking to Zack and Ivy, demands of them, "Now, what were you two doing in 1787?"

Zack responds in stride, "Man, we are from the ACME Detective Agency, in the year 1999. We were trying to stop Carmen Sandiego, the master thief. We almost stopped her in another one of her devious acts before you all intervened!"

In a retort, Bender adds, 'you keep mentioning that name, but it just sounds like a story to cover up your murder. So, I'll..."

Prof. Farnsworth cuts off Bender, asking them: "Wait, did you time travel to 1787?"

Ivy, responds with a smile on her face, telling the professor: "Yes, we did!" Pointing to a device on the ground, she tells him they used the Chronoskimmer and adds, "We are telling you the truth! We didn't mean to kill Yancy, it was an accident!"

Bender and Leela walk away, with Fry, who now exists due to the fact that Yancy was not killed by the falling board from Constitution Hall, enters the room. With a degree of skepticism, he adds ,"I don't trust either of you and don't know why you mucked around in the past, causing me to disappear from existence. Its nothing ever good! I mean I became my own grandfather and the Prof. here not only killed Eleanor Roosevelt by mistake but he killed his own "bad" ancestor, David Farnsworth. Luckily you can't do anymore damage in those handcuffs." He then walks away and outside the room.

Prof. Farnsworth, studying the chronoskimmer, says, "I know most of my crew around here are angry at you, but I trust your story of time travel, and don't think you meant to kill Yancy, just a honest mistake. Now, tell me about this Carmen Sandiego because I cannot remember that name for the life of me."

"Well, Professor," Zack says with stride, "we can arrange that for you. Player, infoscan Carmen Sandiego and her misdeeds. Bring up everything you can. We can't let anyone else be a killer of the mood!"

Addressing the Professor, the Chief says, "Nice to meet you. So, in our time, 1999, Carmen Sandiego is a master thief. She has traveled several times before, always disrupting the space-time continuum. We stopped her before, but on one of her more recent heists, she stole elephants from Hannibal, and tried to steal the Roman Colosseum, using her time machine which powered a set of rockets. Another time, she mucked about in U.S. history, stealing horseshoes off Paul Revere's horse, moving the boats filed with tea from the Boston Harbor, which were supposed to be hacked open in the Boston Tea Party, to Japan, and stole the key from Ben Franklin's lightning experiment, ending all digital technology as we know it. That is only a small sampling, but it's clear that she is up to no good! So, Professor, will you help us track her down?"

Prof. Farnsworth responds with a smile, saying "Why certainly. My new time machine detects any time disruptions. There was one I just found, in September 3008. Now, let's get in the time machine..."

Just as he says this, there is a flash of light: Carmen Sandiego appears before them. She tells them, "You won't be able to stop me. I'm into a little acquisition today. Time is the one thing that is in my side, detectives and...friends."

Prof. Farnsworth, Zack, and Ivy all look in disbelief as she disappears with the Planet Express ship and her henchman tie up all of them, while also finding Fry and Leela, who just happen to walk into the room at that moment. They are all transported, tied up and knocked out, through time, to the year 1999, the present. When they wake up, they are at the secret V.I.L.E. training facility in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

With the henchmen moving away, their task completed, Zack turns to Leela and Fry, saying:

"I know you don't like us or even trust us, but we have to work together if you want everything to go back to normal. I don't like anything that ruins the mood, man."

There's static. A TV blares: "this just in, the missing founding documents of the UN, NATO, and other organizations have been returned." The announcer continues, adding: "we have one citizen to thank for this deed: Carmen Sandiego, a woman with a mission who heads a new foundation called the Sandiego Giving Fund. She is a real model citizen and a hero in our trying times!"

Reeling from the news, Ivy exclaims, "That isn't right! She's a thief who just wants to steal for the thrill of it. Chief, what news do we have on Carmen?"

"Well, we have reports of her henchmen near the U.N. building in New York City. There is also a ceremony tomorrow at the U.N. where they are giving her a medal for her achievements, and all the documents she returned are on display."

Responding to The Chief's remarks, Leela says, with an air of skepticism, "While I still don't trust either of you completely, I want to stop this crimson shadow as much as you and stop any future time disruptions."

Zack adds, "Player, C5 us to the UN building in New York City!"

All of them (Fry, Leela, Prof. Farnsworth, Ivy, and Zack) soon arrive in New York City, just as the ceremony is about to start.

They can hear the announcer say, almost like its an award show, "And the award for the best preserver of cultural heritage in 1999 goes to an outstanding citizen, Carmen Sandiego. While she was once a world-famous thief, now she has shown to have gone on the side of good."

The doors of the U.N. General Assembly burst open, with Ivy at the front, declaring to the guards, "stop her, she's a thief!"

Carmen, displeased by the interruption, turns to them saying "Hello, detectives and friends. Your timing is always impeccable. But you aren't going stop me because...time...will keep slipping for you. You won't be able to shine a light on this one, with the tube guiding the way."

Suddenly, a blast hits the UN building, causing the place to shake. Carmen slips out the window, with the award in hand, with her grappling hook hitting her ship, a flying car of sorts, clearly repurposed with parts from the Planet Express ship. All of the documents that were on display are sucked up into the ship, using a lighted tube. As she is about to speed away, Leela uses her Wristlojackimator to fire a tracking device onto Carmen's ship, that not only tracks its GPS location but through time.

With Carmen disappearing with a flash of light, soon there is another spacetime disruption, even worse than the first one. All the screens disappear, like an apparition, including the Chief, and the screen on Leela's Wristlojackimator.

Prof. Farnsworth exclaims, "It's the television! All the TV screens are gone! The original television, created by my ancestor, Philo Farnsworth, must have been stolen by Carmen Sandiego. We have to stop her."

Ivy, thinking about it a little more, has an a-ha moment, telling the Professor, "That must be what her clue meant when she was leaving the U.N building, escaping out clutches!"

Leela responds, with her Wristlojackimator, which has become an earpiece, saying: "I tracked her to San Francisco California, by the Golden Gate bridge.'

Taking that to heart, Zack says, "Player, C5 us to San Francisco!'

The whole group arrives in San Francisco, at the spot where Carmen used to live as an orphan. However, this is not a trip down memory lane, but rather it is a building titled "The Carmen Sandiego Hall of Wonders."

Ivy, realizing what has happened, tells them all, "I know why Carmen stole all those artifacts. She wanted to have her own museum, with herself as the curator!"

The whole crew walks into this tiny museum and finds an early television, the original copies of US Constitution, UN Charter, James Madison's diaries about the Constitutional Convention, NATO founding document, and much more, on display. The front doors of the museum close behind them and Carmen welcomes them, showing them around.

Zack, shining a flashlight in her face, tells her: "Your time is up Carmen, and it's time to shine a light on your misdeeds!"

Prof. Farnsworth, adds in suit that "Stop messing with my ancestors! Get her!"

After being temporarily blinded, Carmen says with a smile, "As much as I'd like to stay and join in the fun, your time is up. Sayonara!"

Ivy, with a degree of familiarity, says, "She's getting away again!"

Leela, now fully on the side of the ACME agents, having forgotten her previous dislike of them, shouts, "Oh no you don't, le femme rouge! You won't escape on my watch!" She then fires her gun at Carmen's grappling hook attached to her ship, which snaps, but Carmen still gets away on her hang glider fitted with rockets. She gets away once again.

Zack, says with a dismal sigh, "Well, at least we got everything back she stole. Now we just have to fix the timeline and prevent this entire crime from happening in the first place!"

Fry, says with newfound confidence, "Me and Bender will go back to 1787 and return the stolen documents from Constitution Hall, since my ancestor lived in that time after all."

Leela then adds, "And I'll go back with Prof. Farnsworth to make sure she doesn't steal that TV."

Following that, Ivy says, "Well, me and Zack can stop her from stealing from the UN building. We will all meet at ACME headquarters tomorrow morning."

The next day beckons and they all meet back together. Everything has been returned to its rightful historical place.

Ivy, thinking back to the beginning of their mission, asks, "There's one thing I don't get? Why were her guards stealing uranium from Los Alamos, and what did she steal from the past other than those documents from the Constitutional Convention?"

Responding to Ivy, the Chief adds, "Well, gumshoes, while she didn't steal anything other than those few documents from the past, she clearly used an explosive of some kind, one that I've never seen! The stealing of the uranium from Los Alamos, which you both foiled, was just a distraction she pulled to get is going in the wrong direction."

Prof. Farnsworth has a realization: "That's it, it must have been the Spheroboom! If that device is the hands of anyone other than a mad scientist like me," he says as he cackles devilishly, "who knows what they would do with it!"

Thinking back, Leela adds, "I remember how, when we fought those scammer aliens, we fired it from the Planet Express ship, thanks to Bender's switcharoo, and destroyed them. That must be where she stole it from. We'll get it back and stop her. You can count on us.'

Saying with a tinge of sorrow at their departure but glee that the mission is done, the Chief adds, "Well, Zack and Ivy can accompany you to 3011, and everything can go back to normal."

Thinking it over, Fry responds in jest: "Thanks for the offer Chief, but I feel comfortable going on our own, we don't need you both to accompany us. We trust you now and hope you trust us now."

In response, the Chief hands Fry the device, adding, "here is a Chronoskimmer which only goes forward in time, to May 1, 3011, so you can all return to your time. Let us know if you ever see Carmen Sandiego in your time, just let us know using this cross-dimensional communication device. There will be no grandfather paradoxes with this device!"

The Planet Express crew quickly says their goodbyes, and speeds away to the future, to the year 3011.

As soon as they leave, Zack, thinking he has the knack and is in a killer mood, says sheepishly, "Sis, it didn't turn out all bad, as you had said. You know, if Leela had lived in the present, and didn't have a boyfriend, perhaps I would have asked her out"

Laughing with indignation, Ivy tells him, "Oh, little bro, you have so much to learn about women, but I still love you anyway." She then gives Zack a noogie on the head, lovingly.

As they both fade away, Player types "Carmen, you were foiled once again and don't know how to handle time. Next time I'll nab you, Carmen.

Carmen types back. "Player, it's about the thrill of the game, a challenge to steal what others can't. And unlike you, I have all the time in the world."

THE END.

Note: Some of the dialogue, for Ivy, Zack, the Chief, and Carmen are inspired by lines from the last three episodes of the 'Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego' series, titled Cupid Sandiego, Can You Ever Go Home Again? (Part I), and Can You Ever Go Home Again? (Part II). Part of the plot is also inspired by the episode 'Timing is Everything' where Carmen is hailed as a hero by people in the future, which I thought was a worthwhile topic. For the characters from the 'Futurama' universe, I've taken inspiration from the dialogue from the last few Futurama episodes (Murder on the Planet Express, Stench and Stenchibility, and Meanwhile), using the transcripts on Infosphere, so that the characters sound like they would have in the show itself. The "Goodbye, Waking World" line is actually one uttered by Leela in The Sting, but knowing the show very well, it came to my mind when writing this story. I took some liberty with dates in the 'Futurama' universe, as the date of the battle with the Nudist scammers is not known, and neither are other dates. I did the same for dates in the 'Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego' universe as well, as no exact dates of the last season of the show are ever firmly established. For other facts, I took information from the Mission page of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. I hope I didn't make Carmen too evil. The time machine Carmen uses in this story was last featured in the 'Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego' series in the episode "Timing is Everything," just so people know what I am referring to in this story.

#Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego #carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego fics #futurama fics #crossovers #time travel #acme #alternate history

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historyhermann · 2 years

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Digital libraries, virtual libraries, and libraries...in space?

For Joshua Kazemi, writer and developer of Recorded by Arizal, one of his favorite lines in the prelude are in Log ii, where Dante says, “I miss going to the libraries and just reading for fun. Information with no thought of application.” I'd like to expand on that in this post. Sadly libraries don't show up directly in any episode, but it is implied. That connects to the internet itself, which can pander to people's "lust for violence" as Fry put it in Futurama, or Prof. Farnsworth said, in the same show, a place to get credit card numbers (implying the gathering of information). So, in this post, let me talk about some digital (or virtual) libraries in shows that I've watched so far, and in one film... it will be a surprise!

Let's start with Bravest Warriors, since libraries come up in three episodes, with the first one a physical library, which falls out of the scope of this article. Let's start with the episode "Nothin' Stays the Same." In this episode, Beth, one of the show's protagonists, asks the ship for "library access retrieval mode," looks at everything about "negotiating peace treaties with hostile aliens." She keeps going back to the library to get more information so she can defeat the monster. I mentioned this before, in one post, but only briefly. And Beth is successful! Go libraries! Yay! So, that's a library success story if I ever heard of one.

Then there's the episode "War Without Tears." In this episode, another one of the show's protagonists, Danny, uses the holo library (the same one that Beth used in the earlier episode) to learn about free will. He later comes to the conclusion that free will doesn't exist but people's feelings do, with the entities occupying the bodies of Chris, Beth, and Wallow depart, going to another universe when they learn about friendship. That brings me to another topic, which I'll talk about in the rest of this post.

Library in the film, Solaris. Clips of the library scenes from the film can be viewed here and here.

I'd like to talk about the library in a Soviet sci-fi film, Solaris, which focuses on a library of the mind within the intergalactic space station. [1] In this wood-paneled library, one character, Snaut, quotes from the novel Don Quixote, and a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "Hunters in the Snow", is hanging in the library, as noted by IMDB's trivia page for the film. But there is much more going on than this. David Hanley writes in Off Screen about the same works of art which hang on the walls of the station, which contains a bust of Plato, who believed that everything on Earth was "merely a false, illusory duplication of an “ideal” form (in Heaven)," which is echoed in the "series of flawed imitations" shown in the film. Adding to this is a review by Derek McCallum, who notes that the library itself connecting to life on Earth and having a distinctive color scheme. On the same page is a review by Allison James, who argues that the drawings, photographs, etchings, and a painting in the library represent a time when "romantic sensibilities" had a great value in the sciences and arts. The library itself, she writes, becomes a museum, a receptacle of these artifacts and also a place where "elements of the human psyche" that are just remembered, not used in the daily life of this future setting are stored. James further notes that the library is where those who occupy Solaris interact and gather, showing that the rational and scientific world outside of the library itself, in her words has "lost a sense of community, shared moral values and aspirations to purely objective relationships." Jonathan Jones of The Guardian adds that the contents of this library are "suspended over an endlessly changing and apparently sentient alien ocean," a place complete with the haunting imagery of Earth itself. The library is different from the rest of the space station, almost like an ordinary room and human-friendly, a place where the emotional tension of the film reaches one of its high points, to summarize some arguments made by Vladimir Tumanov in the Film Philosophy journal.

While Khensu shows Akila, Brian, and Cleo holograms in the special collections room, a room specifically focused on Ancient Egypt, in the PYRAMID library, in the Cleopatra in Space episode "Clubbing," that isn't a virtual or digital library. A better example is when Akila is studying in the library in the episode "Akila Says No." We see around the library and people taking out records, like was done in the Jedi Temple Archives (falsely called a "library") in Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of Clones. Even so, it is not a virtual or digital library, but a brick-and-mortar one. Those are the only ones I can think of for now, but there will likely be more as I watch even more animated series and anime! As always, suggestions on what I should write about are welcome.

Notes

[1] It's more extensive than the 1971 film, The Andromeda Strain, says. In the film, one character, Mr. Mark Hall (played by James Olson) asks “where is the library?” to which his colleague, Dr. Charles Dutton (played by David Wayne) responds: “No need for books. Everything’s in the computer.” And the movie goes on, as there is no more discussion. Later on, the computer does have an error and overload when too much information is inputted by the scientists, the “heroes” of this film in this top-secret facility in the Nevada desert called “Wildfire.” The fact that everything is stored on the computer is not mentioned in any reviews of the movie I have found, and as such, perhaps people should revisit this movie for just this reason, as it is still relatively enjoyable. We have gotten to the point that everything is “in the computer” like in this film, not only with libraries and other public institutions but more and more with archival institutions in recent days.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine

#futurama #digital libraries #digital library #bravest warriors #films #soviet films #solaris #cleopatra in space #the andromeda strain

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