All language subtitles for Tune.Into.The.Future.2020.720p.BluRay.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

By

In the early days, ie,

before nineteen
nineteen hundred and thirty,

There was a lot of skepticism.

Today, most scientists take me seriously.
scientists take me seriously.

Well, it's a little
more complicated than that.

This is Hugo Gernsback.

Some of you may know him as this
know him as this guy,

seen here
predicting the future.

Some of the things he saw coming
saw coming include Skype,

interactive television, drones,

online dating, space mining,

social networks, silent disco,
and, of course, jetpacks.

My grandfather was a...
he was a seer.

I mean, he was able to
to predict the future.

By

He was an inventor.

You know, he invented
some things that...

that never went anywhere.

Like this flying car.

Or the orchestra of smells.

And whatever this is.

He was a publisher,
a very prolific publisher.

It basically defined the pulp era.

I publish the latest
science fiction news,

as silly and crazy as it may
crazy as it may seem,

because sooner or later,
it will come true.

By

And it attracted a young audience

that was destined
to change the world.

By

Gernsback was the founding
of science fiction,

and in fact he coined the term.

Although some would
would call it the greatest

Science fiction nightmare.

Hugo Gernsback really
lost in history.

And it is a pity that

has been forgotten in this regard,

because I was trying to
something quite significant.

As you can see,

there are some explanations to be given.

So let's tune in to the
life of Hugo Gernsback.

The first stop, a small country
country called Luxembourg.

Our story begins with a gift.

The year is 1890.

For reference, this is the year in which

Luxembourg has
its first Grand Duke,

the folding carton
folding cardboard box was invented,

Idaho and Wyoming become

states, and this is what a computer looks like in 1890.
computer looks like in 1890.

On August 16, Hugo celebrates
celebrates his sixth birthday.

At this moment it is still
is called Gernsbacher,

and she has finally
hair has finally grown, since

was almost completely bald until he was
bald until he was five years old.

But we digress.

An electrician hands you a box with the
box with the following contents.

An old, leclanché, drummer

wet, some cable,
and electric bell.

Connecting the
components fills you with

joy, that more than
60 years later,

I would still remember
how the vision of the

green spark from the
bell switch

excited him more than anything else since then.
than anything else since.

The vision of the green spark of the

bell switch excited me

more than anything else since then.
since then.

This spark literally
ignited me in

electrical things, and
I could never forget

this particular day
in my entire life.

I was very young when...

he, well, he decided that...

he was interested in...
in electricity and science.

I wanted to be the next
Thomas Edison, already

you know, to manufacture
new machines that

would change the world and
and make him rich and famous.

Once he had that in mind,

that was the path
I was going to take.

I think he was pretty
courageous about it.

But sacrifices must be made,

and decides that the
school can wait.

Its only impressive results
impressive would be the number of

of absences from class.

I would never complete
any study,

or receive a diploma.

By

by

Hugo Gernsback clearly
had a privileged upbringing.

His father was a
wine merchant who was

had moved to Luxembourg
before his birth.

And he was running a successful business,

then the family was quite wealthy.

This kind of idea
of creating things.

And developing things,

I was quite free to do so.
freedom to do so.

His father encouraged him.

He did not introduce him to
the wine business,

So Gernsback
was really alone.

With few friends and two much
much older brothers,

one of whom died tragically when Hugo was only six years old.
when Hugo was only six years old,

is a loner.

By

He was a great admirer of Mark Twain.

And when he wrote his first novel,
he signed it "Huck Gernsbacher."

as a tribute to the author of
Huckleberry Finn.

The novel is about
an unfortunate child.

Who keeps getting into trouble,

and then use science
to get out of the problem.

It remains unpublished
to this day.

As a child, he managed to
locked himself in a cellar,

and I needed to find
a way out of that basement.

And this is where his creative ideas
creative ideas,

because he happened to have
some batteries with him.

By

I'm not sure what
his father thought about it.

But because he used his scientific
his scientific techniques,

was able to get out of the basement.

Many of the stories
we receive about their

life are a kind of self-propagated
of self-propagated myths.

There are stories he told about

over and over again, until

that it was the only story that

we had about who he was and where he
who he was and where he came from.

During these years, the

isolation of young Hugo did not

is not only social,
but also geographical.

The family moved
from the city center to

the then underdeveloped
underdeveloped Bourbon Plateau.

The only buildings are

the Gernsbacher estate and a convent.

Somehow he manages to
to make friends with the nuns.

And offers to install
a buzzer system,

that they accept,
but only after obtaining

special permission from the Pope

to allow the child to access
to their more private rooms.

With the product of your trade,

he sets up a laboratory

in the attic of the Gernsbacher's
of the Gernsbacher family.

By

At the age of 17 he composed
this patriotic march

playing in the background,
but soon decides

than a musical career

would only stand in the way
to becoming an inventor.

By

Hugo's growing ambitions

will soon take him beyond the small borders of his
the small borders of his native country.

While the Luxembourgers have

their own priorities,

Hugo begins studies
electrical engineering

in Germany.

Returns a year early,
again without a title.

But it brings back a new type of
new type of battery,

that he developed there.

Try to patent it,

but your application is rejected.

I wanted to be in control.

I wanted to be able to succeed.

And I think he wanted to,

always projects an image of... self-confidence,
self-confidence.

By

The Luxembourgers are, of course, world
are, of course, world famous.

For taking three steps forward and
forward and two backward.

For an analytical
analytical mind like Hugo's,

take five steps
to advance one step

Naturally, it will not work.

And then his father dies.

By

That same night,

the rabbi summoned to
comfort the grieving family

drops dead on his way home.

This cursed episode causes
the whole family scattered.

The mother returns to Germany,

Brother Sidney makes
a fateful trip to Belgium.

And for Hugo,
the choice is obvious.

There is also a
name that has to be

It is also invoked at
this point, which is Edison.

You know, he's going to the country
of Thomas Edison.

By

by

by

When Gernsback
stepped off the steamer,

He wrote this character of
Huck Gernsback,

for him to be,
like, super American.

I think he felt he could
I could conquer the United States

United States being better at being American than...

than the Americans.

He really was something of a character.

I wanted to project, um, I think, a

air of mystery about himself.

It is in February 1904 that

Hugo settles in New York.

He is now 19 years old.

This is the year in which the
city opens its first

subway line and Madison Square Garden
Square Garden hosts

the first large-scale
large-scale bodybuilding competition.

Surprising as it may seem,
bodybuilding will actually play

a key role later in this story.
later in this story.

By

This is 1904.

The United States continues to be a
kind of a rather coarse, crude, rough-and-tumble country.

but very inventive, a vibrant society
vibrant society, a very vibrant culture,

but it is still
difficult at the edges.

By

Before delving into Gernsback's
Gernsback's new home,

let's take a quick detour

and recalls the
drum kit he developed

during his brief
Germany.

This is a bit technical.
But bear with me.

This is one of the most
most interesting artifacts.

Held here at Syracuse
Syracuse University

Special Collections
Research Center.

We think it is,

one of the first batteries
designed by Hugo Gernsback.

When I was still in Europe,

had an elaborate design

for a new type of dry cell
dry cell battery.

What was different about it?

It is that the batteries at that time....

Gernsback finally
obtains the patent

was rejected in Europe,
but his career in

the battery business
business would be short.

In a curious incident,
he succeeds in convincing a manufacturer

to hire him as head of research...
as head of research...

I said go away!

But he is fired just hours after
hours after

start working
when the owner believes

mistakenly that it is spying for
spying for the competition.

He decides to become self-employed, but
but, because of the

Unfortunately, he quickly
discovers that, in

In reality, he is not of the same caliber as his hero, Edison.
caliber as his hero, Edison.

He liked to show off, but
was not at the same level

because he simply did not
had the practical skills

to implement their ideas.

I believe that one of the
true strokes of genius

of Gernsback was
realization that the

science was not just something
something that was done in

laboratories by
specialists, who also

were doing, you know, teenagers
in their basements and garages.

When it [started], there was little or

no material available for

experimenters in the U.S.

Since the death of his father
father, Hugo's brother,

Sidney, has been busy
to set up a business

wholesaler of electricity and
chemical products in Brussels.

At my instigation, we founded the company

importer of electronic
electronic products, which

imported all kinds of material from
material from Europe.

The things he was selling were very

affordable, and
even if you were alone

a guy in your room, you can

imagine that there were other types

lonely people all over the world who

were as excited as you were about what you were doing.
as you were about what you were doing.

And so, Hugo, without knowing it, is sowing the seeds of the

the seeds of his future
future publishing empire.

What makes the catalog of
catalog of companies

importers of electronic
electronic products be it

particularly interesting
is that it is the type of core that

all its other magazines grow.

I knew that people
wouldn't just be,

you know, flipping through their catalog
dispassionately.

They would become obsessed.

People built their own radios.

People were interested in the way
the way in which the amateurs were becoming

interested in computers in the
computers in the 1970s, and...

You know, who was Steve Jobs
originally, but an amateur?

Who ends up founding
Apple Computer?

By

by

Hugo excels in the
construction of simple things.

With vague applications,

and let an army of
army of enthusiasts

explore their potential.

By

by

Gernsback eventually

accumulates more than 80 patents,

but it is its design
for a small one,

radio device
that will soon be

to propel your career
in a new direction.

Telimco is accredited
by many people

as the first complete radio set

sold to the American public.

The Telimco type works.

It is easily disturbed by

electromagnetic signals
from the office elevator,

and creates massive radio
massive radio interference, but it is inexpensive.

Professional transmitters
cost thousands of dollars,

and Gernsback sells Telimco

for a fraction of the cost,

which is exactly what would get him
would get him in trouble again.

Began to advertise

this wireless transmitter
transmitter for only $7.50,

and the office of the
Mayor's Office

was flooded with complaints

of indignant people
who were convinced

that this had to be a fraud.

/It would become
one of Hugo's

favorite anecdotes of all time.

By

One day, a thick
Irish policeman came in.

He said, "I'm going to
clean you bastards up."

"What's the big idea of
you phonies to sell

a wireless equipment
and a receiver,

when you know very well
that it cost $100,000

for one of these
transmitting stations?"

Then we gave him the
handset and told him:

Now you hold it and
walk wherever you want.

Tell us how many times the bell in your hand
the bell in your hand.

Call him six times.

Believe it or not, that's why....
That day was pretty good.

It rang six times.

One day I did it eight times,

but that day was pretty good.

Well, anyway, he scratched
anyway, he scratched a

his head a little and
looked at the assembly

from there, and in
those days, For

make the decorations a little more

interesting, it had some very
very nice wires.

You know, it looked a lot better.

And he looked at them and said, "I believe you are

a bunch of
of fucking criminals.

What are these cables for?"

That outraged him, and
should have,

because it meant
that the policeman did not know

no science, I didn't know
nothing about wireless radios.

Um, and I think you saw in that

interaction a
kind of stubbornness.

American stupidity

I really wanted to conquer by popularizing
popularizing science.

Gernsback would tell that story
story as the point of

inflexion to undertake
an epic quest for

educate the public about
new technologies.

Which is convenient,
because now

knows that it is better to talk about

technology than building new technology.
new technology.

I think we have
to remember, In

really, how mysterious the radio was.

The mechanical world, in a sense, the
in a sense, the mechanical world

of Edison, the phonograph
of the phonograph, the light bulb

that shines, i.e. has a tangible
a tangible presence.

While the radio,

I don't know, where does it come from?

You know, why can I
receive this message?

Where do these voices come from?

Where is this invisible
invisible ballroom of the ether

that somehow [I can
hear but cannot access?

So you have to imagine
this young Hugo Gernsback.

Walking in New York,
coming from Luxembourg.

He goes to all these
department stores with

your Telimco and shows them to
and shows them to the sellers.

And it is somewhat surprising
that he was able to

selling the idea to
people without

had any kind of conceptual
conceptual framework

to even
understand what it was that

was making this kind of
magical looking box.

Gernsback spends the next
following years to explore

options to reach a wider
a wider audience.

The breakthrough occurred in 1908.

Henry Ford is starting
production of the historic Model T.

The first fully animated
fully animated film is made.

And in 1908 also died the

first person in a plane crash.

Despite lacking
experience in

actual publications,
Gernsback decides that

needs a magazine
to spread its message.

The EICO catalog,
of course, is made

paper and has pages,
so that will do the trick.

While magazines such as

Scientific American published

articles on
new developments

Gernsback went much further.

And he decided that he would publish
much more speculative articles.

One of my favorite issues
of the first magazines of

Gernsback is the April 1911 issue of
April 1911 issue of Modern Electrics.

There is a design there for
a kind of a team of

portable wireless telegraph
he had built himself.

And if you go back three
pages, you will have the

first delivery of the Ralph
124C 41+ from Gernsback.

May I interrupt and say that
this is a play on words?

When you talk about it, you would say:

"Ralph, one to
foresee for another".

That it is one of the
first works of the

modern American
American science fiction.

He always wanted to be a writer.

Perhaps that was
secondary to wanting to

inventor, but that was one of his ambitions.
was one of his ambitions.

And of course he comes up with this
comes up with this story,

Ralph 124C 41+,
improvised from scratch,

Let's face it, from other
science fiction writings.

Yes, try to rewrite
rewrite a

novel with, shall we say, mixed success.

The first major contribution
contribution he made to the

science fiction was
his own short novel,

Ralph 124C 41, which is
frankly a terrible novel.

I mean, it's barely legible
by today's standards.

But as a catalog
of amazing predictions

or speculation,
worked very well.

The story revolves around
a lone inventor.

In the year 2660.

By

is an entertaining story

of a rather standard type.

It is full of suggestions
of fantastic new ideas.

The most famous is his
schematic explanation.

From an early form of radar.

But it is an incredibly dry read.

It is not something that...

just, you know,
a pleasure to open it

Ralph and read carefully,

but they read almost
as if they were one more

of its editorials on future technologies.
technologies of the future.

You know, in the United States
United States there was this whole wave of

of what they called a
sort of phantom airships.

People were watching aircraft,

and they would say that they can see men

handling flyers and looking through telescopes.
looking through telescopes.

They are almost like the first
flying saucer scare.

They were these phantom aircraft.

But it indicates a restless
for something new.

So I think
Gernsback really

was right because I believe that people
that the people who

were building
the radios were the

who wanted to tune in
the future. And he got them.

I think science fiction has always
has always been based on a crowd,

a group of people who were
were the first to adopt the

people who like to see how things work.
like to see how things work.

There is horrible exposition
in many novels by

science fiction that are
simply lists of

how a given imaginary technology
technology works.

Because for that
reader, they love it.

They love to know how it works.

And so I think there is
an inherent curiosity.

There is a desire to know.

I like to defend
like to defend Ralph.

As a real and living character.

Um, he is considered a
sort of a cardboard character.

That it is only a device for
scientific lectures.

A socially awkward person

trying to strike up a conversation
with a beautiful woman

He might find that
there is nothing for him.

Talk except for science.

"Now that we are
on a date, Alice,

let me talk to you
for two hours

about this wonderful new
new solar power plant.

So in that way, I think
Ralph is a real person,

and perhaps a real person
similar to Gernsback himself.

This, by the way, is Rose.

They were married in 1906.

Since the publication of the first
first installment of Ralph,

Letters have been arriving
from professional inventors,

teenagers who
seeking to learn more,

and people who are simply
are interested

in alien civilizations.

Hugo realizes
that he has discovered something.

It needs a new magazine.

It is now the year 1913,
which, by the way, is a good

year for people who crash
who crash in airplanes,

as he sees the first pilot
first pilot out of an airplane

and parachute to safety.
parachute to safety.

Radio is a new industry
new industry, it provides

a pathway to the middle
the middle class, for the

upper working class
and the lower middle class.

It also brings immigrants.

It is a very common immigrant
immigrants' literature.

This is often invisible
to modern readers,

but many of the earliest writers
writers are immigrants

Irish, German immigrants,
Jewish immigrants.

Then you can
feel the interest

for social mobility in the literature.

Hugo begins to publish not only the

letters it receives,
but also the

names and addresses
of the senders.

The surrounding material, and here it is

where Gernsback is crucial, the

editorials, the
letters page, the

is absolutely about making
connections between people.

This did not happen simply because
simply because most of the

magazines did not have that format at the time.
letter format at that time.

He made that happen.

At first it was probably just a marketing idea.
marketing idea.

I doubt he thought, "I'm going to

inventing the first social network."

It's more like, "I'm going to sell

many more of these radios.

And what that allowed the
radio amateurs to do was

contact each other without
contact each other without going through Gernsback.

And that was brilliant.

What he developed were

communities that were very empowering.

They can obtain
a different type of

charisma in an almost alternative reality.

They would become your
identification letters, of the

same way that today people become
people become his avatar,

your Twitter ID,
or your Instagram account.

These people
were mostly

outsiders who were
as outsiders.

And it meant that
from the beginning there was

a spirit of
acceptance of the stranger.

I did a lot to help the

radio amateurs and awaken them
to their opportunities.

That earned me the name
name of father of the

wireless technology for amateurs
wireless technology for amateurs in those days.

Technology is a form of
form of empowerment.

Technology is
a way in which the

weak can become really strong.

You don't have to be handsome,

you don't have to be strong.

You become a hero by

to build something wonderful.

One of these heroes is Gladys

Kathleen Parkin,
15, with the

wireless device
that she built herself.

She was the youngest and one of the
and one of the first successful applicants for a

U.S. visa. License
government-issued radio license.

I was really looking for
that everyone, but

particularly
the youth of the

will help to create the future.

And people imagined
imagined themselves

as young Edison
or young Teslas.

Hello.

It's about time we
we mention it.

So let's go off on a
a bit of a tangent about

Gernsback's strange friendship
Gernsback's strange friendship with Nikola Tesla.

I remember when
I was quite young, such a

I was 8 years old or so, and I was going to the

my grandfather's office,
and there my mother

pointed out Tesla's
Tesla's death mask.

I remember being perplexed,

because I could not imagine

why anyone would do such a thing.

This was something my grandfather

decided to do immediately.

As soon as he learned
learned of the death

Tesla, arranged for this to be done.

My grandfather's relationship with

Tesla was very
important to him.

Both were

immigrants, um, both inventors.

He was literally
spellbound by Tesla.

Narrator
These are just
just some of the

ways in which the fanatic
Hugo describes Tesla.

Extremely
meticulous, well-dressed,

culinary expert and
gourmet expert.

Able to quote great literature

in several languages with precision.

Shortly after their first meeting
meeting, Hugo starts to get annoying.

Tesla to convince him
to write

his autobiography for The
Electrical Experimenter.

Tesla reluctantly accepts,
but accompanies each delivery

with endless delays,
curses and tantrums to

as writing progressively gets in the way of
progressively in the way of

of his invention.

After only six deliveries
deliveries out of a total planned

24, Tesla abruptly abandons
abruptly abandons the project.

The reason?

A misplaced comma
in the printed edition.

Tesla is
starting to deal with

something that will become
more important

as the 20th century progressed,

which is, if you will, the power

invisible, invisible energies.

In a way, it's
like the anti-Edison.

So, if we examine
the logo that

Gernsback has in his
first publications,

it always occurred to me
that it looked a lot like

a kind of modernist and very
modernist and very

stylized torch of the Statue
of the Statue of Liberty.

And I think that, in a way, Gernsback has

reworked in this type
of pulsation, radiant globe.

It makes me think of
some of the devices

of Tesla and in these
incredible types of

conductors of electricity
through space.

At a fundamental level, both are

idealists, both are utopian thinkers.

My grandfather was fascinated
with the Tesla process.

It is said that Tesla
had eidetic images.

He was able to conceptualize and
and visualize very clearly

anything I could think of.

It is a very lucid type of image.

Some people have it when they
have it when they dream.

My grandfather was a psychic.

He predicted things.
How did he do that?

I think they went to him a lot.
You know,

during sleep, during the time I was dreaming.
time I was dreaming.

And I think this could have happened
have happened in part to Tesla.

By

When Tesla lost everything,

every year during the vacations,

he would come to the office

and my grandfather gave him money.

(Narrator) In 1920, mainstream America discovers radio.
America discovers radio.

The first commercial radio stations
commercial radio stations

in Detroit and Pittsburgh,

and westinghouse Corporation

begins to sell the first national radios in
national radios in stores,

15 years after Hugo sold his first Telimco set
sold his first Telimco set.

Not to be left behind,
Gernsback does what you think

Gernsback would serve.

Create your own radio station
radio station, WRNY.

But first, meet Dorothy.

They married in 1921.

WRNY was a kind of short-lived
short-lived experiment

duration that Gernsback had,
and there was a lot of

interesting things they were working on there.
they were working on there.

They built one of the

first keyboards

electrical, called Pianorad.

For the electronic music
electronic music fans among you

you may be interested to know that
a certain Robert Moog started his

career building
theremins after purchasing the

DIY instructions from one of Gernsback's
from one of Gernsback's latest magazines.

To be a pioneer in radio
and electronic music,

of course, is not enough for Hugo.

The latest experimental technological fad
in the 1920s is television.

WRNY began to make one of the

first television
television

we have on record, I believe, in 1925.

The image transmitted has

approximately the
the size of a postage stamp.

It would be another 30 years before
before only half of the U.S.

Households would even
would even have a television.

I wanted to educate the masses by

all possible means:

writing articles,

selling material for

experience, through radio and
radio and television...

That was his vocation: To be

preacher of science.

If he were alive today, he would be in

Internet and social
social networks.

It is easy to imagine
how you would use any

available platform
to deliver his sermon.

I want to reject
the feeling of

Gernsback as a prophet, which is

important and should
be remembered today

because he predicted radar or
predicted the advent of television.

I think it is important
because it taught the

people to think about
these things of the future.

And people's hunger
for the future is growing.

More and more readers
are flocking to their magazines.

For speculative stories,
the rarer, the better.

Hugo complies with the
the demands of its readers

and start new magazines.

Given the large number of
of strange ideas

published by Gernsback,
he occasionally ends up

with a functional invention along the way, almost by accident.
almost by accident.

He came up with a way to
hearing through the teeth,

that you put this device in your mouth
in your mouth and bit it

and the vibrations that
generated through

the amplifier would
through your teeth.

Uh...
It was never commercially released.

I believe that was true
for many of his inventions.

In fact, the same technology
the same technology.

In the ephemeral Google Glass.

There is a kind of
bone conduction piece.

On the arm of the glasses he wears

exactly the same principle that Gernsback was
Gernsback was working with.

Um, but the idea originally came up
in this Gernsback story

He wrote about the Martians.

By

When a visitor goes to Mars,
this person realizes

who did not listen with their ears,

were listening
with their brains.

He was a guy who had a thousand ideas.

I mean, it doesn't form
not even half of an idea

before it is already
available as a commodity.

And that is something that is so

charming about him and his universe.

This is called teleportation.

Teleport?

- Transportation.
- Transportation.

Teleportation.

Either way you want to do it.

And very often it was exposed to the

ridiculous, as freethinkers do.

It is a prototype of what we
we would think of today.

As a modifier, taking
components, elements already

existing, um, hacking them
and mixing them in a way

that creates an interesting ideal that has conceptual value.
that has conceptual value.

It is in this spirit of
hacking and mixing that

Gernsback suddenly
an idea suddenly occurs to him.

On a hot July day in 1923,
While

builds one of his
gadgets in his pleasant

air-conditioned living room,
try to imagine how

would be a magazine entirely
devoted to science fiction.

The following month, El
special fiction issue

Science and Invention's scientific
Invention hits the newsstands.

The response from
response from readers is lukewarm, but

even so,
register the trademark of a magazine

with the elegant
name of Scientifiction.

But it fails to
to get enough

subscribers even to launch the
to launch the magazine.

Not that the title helped.

For another two and a half years
and a half of agitation,

Gernsback is still
looking for a way to

market their amazing
amazing stories of the future.

And there it is.

Without prior notice and
without prior publicity,

decides, on its own,
that in 1926, the United States

Unidos is ready for
for amazing stories.

By

Suddenly it appears
Amazing Stories,

and the whole game changes.

There was a kind of
of instinctive genius

about amazing stories,
particularly that year.

If we look at 1926,
this is the year

when Fritz Lang's Metropolis
Metropolis by Fritz Lang is screened for the first time.

A film that really

The American public
found it indigestible.

By

He is giving the
American imagination.

Something you want.

It's... It's instantaneous.
It's flashy, it's fast,

it's colorful, and it's very sexy.

These are tropes that
suddenly resonate

with the people at the time,
and move the reader

not just say that these are going to be
are going to be great adventures,

because you could have great adventures
adventures in the Wild West,

You could have great adventures
as cops and robbers.

On the streets of New York,
but great adventures

with the mind, great adventures
engineering adventures,

Great adventures
with technology.

By

Then in the magazines,

we see people
creating a language,

all of which is highly
highly experimental.

Gernsback creates
a platform for

this, but that means
means that some

of the things it publishes are garbage.

In addition, we are facing
a generation of writers

who are not science fiction writers as such.
science fiction writers as such.

Gernsback failed to
attract pulp writers

to write for the Amazing
to write for Amazing

Stories because it didn't pay them well enough.
paid them well enough.

It is fascinating to read the

magazines he compiled.

They are, in a sense, everything that gives

bad reputation
to science fiction.

We looked at it today,
and yes, there is casual sexism and

some notable racism in some of these stories.
some of these stories.

We can look at that
and recognize it as

cultural artifacts, which is

reflecting their time in some way,
could not pass.

But there are times
when it does.

There are times when
that you receive stories that

make you look beyond cultural stereotypes.
cultural stereotypes.

Science fiction magazines
fiction magazines actually start

during one of the great waves of feminism
of feminism in the United States.

There are female doctors in the
early days of science fiction.

There are women lawyers in science

early fiction, presidents.

But I found a fascinating story
fascinating story that actually

was about someone making the transition
transitioning from one sex to the other.

The science fiction of the
the 1920s and 1930s that

Gernsback helps promote
is actually much more

socially radical than it has ever been given credit for.
has ever been given credit for.

Immediately, there were people who

I thought, "No. This is not the guy,
This is not the guy

of things I want my child to read.

And the children were smuggling
Amazing stories in

and reading it attentively under
bedding, I imagine.

It is under their
respective sheets where

two teenagers called
Jerry Siegel and

Joe Shuster are
impressed by the

cover of the August 1928
1928 issue of Amazing Stories.

The illustration of
a Doc's story

Smith called The
lark of space

inspires them to create their own

superhero, a caped man
in a cape named Superman.

This appears for the first
first time in an issue of Amazing

Stories, which is also the first
first edition that has

the first Buck Rogers story in the
Rogers in the same issue.

Amazing stories
The publication of the

first stories of
Buck Rogers has such a success

which soon generates a direct competitor
called Flash Gordon.

Some 40 years later,
a young filmmaker would attempt to

to get the rights to that franchise
franchise but is denied.

So he decides to write his own
own epic space opera.

He calls it Star Wars.

What really sells Amazing

Stories are the revolutionary

Illustrator's covers
Frank R. Pablo.

Their iconic designs
in striking colors

capture the shopper's attention
shopper's attention at the kiosks.

It is fair to say that
Hugo had many

followers but not many friends.

Frank Paul was one of the few.

Born in 1884,
the same year as Hugo,

in what was still
was Austria-Hungary,

he is a fellow
European immigrant.

By

Their collaboration lasts
49 years and produces

Nearly 1,000 designs
that shape the look.

Science fiction for
generations to come.

By

by

Paul comes up with floating skateboards,

planet-destroying lasers,

and spacecraft
with a familiar shape.

I'm not sure if my grandfather

It could have been as successful
success as it was without him.

The two of them,
I can't think of them apart.

Paul dies in 1963.

In a rare public display of
public display of emotion,

Hugo concludes the
obituary to his friend

with the words: I miss him
more than I want to admit.

Frank R. Paul is credited with
is credited with the first

Color images of space
space stations and satellites.

And probably
even the oldest

representations of flying saucers,

three decades before a pilot named Kenneth
named Kenneth Arnold takes off

The U.S. obsession with UFOs
obsession with UFOs.

It has a tremendous effect on

the public's imagination.

He prepared the ground
for what was to be a

enormous, enormous cultural
cultural influence during the

1950s and 1960s.
The flying saucer, the UFO.

The flying saucer, as

describes Arnold,
the fascinating thing is

that does not make any noise, there is no

external propulsion signals
external propulsion and does not produce smoke.

It is beyond the
mechanics of the aircraft.

It is almost electric.

It's... It's similar to Tesla
in the way it operates.

Again, we've...we've seen
Gernsback starting something

and suddenly we have a
real science fiction

fantasy that takes place in the skies
the skies over the United States.

The legacy of this is actually much more
much more complex,

subtle and unexpected than we might
we could imagine

when we... when we come back
and look at the first publications.

But it all starts with
the idea that you can say

science through stories.

Amazing stories
would go down in history.

As Gernsback's
Gernsback's greatest success,

at least during the three
the three short years it lasts.

Hugo's daughter
Bernette Eugenia,

He was only three years old.

Within the following
following six months,

would also lose its entire
publishing business.

Remember that bodybuilding
bodybuilding competition we mentioned

When Hugo arrives in
New York 25 years ago?

One of its main promoters was
promoters was Bernarr.

And that is not a typographical error.

He changed his name to
sounded like the roar of a lion.

McFadden,
a physical culture editor

and health magazines,

Well, he's been watching
Hugo for some time now.

Among the many strange
and strange branches

Gernsback's editorials, there is one

magazine called Your
Body magazine that would be her undoing.

In short, for McFadden, Your Body is a

competitor and McFadden
doesn't like competitors.

Its publishing house is in good financial health, but Hugo
financial health, but Hugo

has its own priorities
on how to spend the proceeds.

First, he pays himself a good
himself a good salary.

Then he spends most of what's left on his TV station.
of what's left in your television station.

It then falls behind on its debts to
debts to distributors,

printers and paper suppliers.

All that's left for
McFadden is to convince three

suppliers to declare bankruptcy and
to declare it bankrupt and

court orders Gernsback to sell the
to sell the company.

McFadden would pioneer
in fake news with

the first tabloids called
New York Graphic and

True Story, where the stories are
stories are the opposite.

Attempts to start a religious cult
called Cosmotarianism, based on

eugenics, the Bible, and nudism in rural New Jersey.
in rural New Jersey.

And when that fails, he then runs for

president's agenda to deport
to deport immigrants.

He does not get the
Republican nomination.

When his daughter dies
of an illness

McFadden is relieved.

His weakness was
dishonoring the family.

Sounds a bit like a caricature of a
caricature of a comic book villain?

Well, guess what?

A villain in a story that

appeared 11 years later in the

science fiction comics by

Gernsback's name is Eric MacFadden

and looks exactly like
Bernarr McFadden.

Gernsback takes revenge
when the hero of the

history uses his powers to ridicule
to ridicule MacFadden.

But according to Hugo's grandchildren,

the subject would always remain
taboo in the home.

In October
1929, the market for

values collapses and
triggers the Great Depression.

Four months later, a young astronomer discovers
astronomer discovers Pluto, which

unleashes a craze for interplanetary
interplanetary fiction stories.

We are now in the year 1930.

Hugo is 46 years old.

Always the entrepreneur,
takes advantage of the

spirit of the times
and takes advantage of

wonderful stories and
a fleet of new magazines.

And maybe it's worth saying
worth saying that he didn't...

the first science fiction magazine
first science fiction magazine.

Initiated the first five
science fiction magazines.

But he discovers that
can no longer use

your beloved Scientifiction
of Scientifiction.

He thought it would be smart to protect
that term with copyright.

And of course, when he
lost control of the

company, the term rights went with that company.
term rights went with that company.

It is in the first issue of
Science Wonder Stories where

uses the term "Science
fiction. For the first time.

In the mid-1930s, almost

everyone was talking about
science fiction.

The United States is slowly
slowly out of the Great Depression

and begins to discover
all that Hugo has in store

preaching for 30 years.

Too late, there is
water is left, friends.

The contest ends in
exactly seven minutes and...

No one has ever cooked
over a stove of

firewood by the light of a kerosene
kerosene lamp.

Message from our time to theirs.
to theirs.

And here we have, ladies and

gentlemen, approaching

greet them, under theirs.

This is America saying
that the bad times are over.

You know,
We're in the money again.

But it is an opportunity to

the public to go and visit
and visit the future.

A whole new universe was being
a whole new universe was being created.

It is at this point that
the very nature of

science fiction is starting to change.
beginning to change.

The growth of
science fiction is

produced during the
period in which people

struggled to survive during the Depression.
during the Depression.

And so these golden visions of the future
golden visions of the future.

And the future was this
wonderful land

for which perhaps
we could all fight for.

The type of businessmen
optimistic of the years

20 gave way to the people
people of the 1930s,

gave way to military and industrial
military and industrial heroes,

I guess from the 1940s.

Technological development
became the province.

From the military,
of the corporation.

And so this idea that, by

playing with radio waves,

Somehow you could invent
a time machine or something.

He began to lose more and more
credibility.

Possibly the biggest change
change: The ideological change.

In science fiction it would have been
been around 1944 and 1945.

In the case of nuclear energy

or radiological fallout...

People living near potential
potential targets,

such as military bases and chemical
chemical plants, can be...

Science could be the enemy.
be the enemy.

Gernsback had never
thought of it that way.

Its purest,
simplistic science fiction

had mutated into
something quite different.

It was almost as if he was a
Frankenstein's monster.

And he had lost
control over it.

By

He really couldn't answer.

To this changing taste
among readers.

By

In the 1950s he published
Science fiction plus.

But even then he hadn't realized
realized that the trend of the stories

science fiction films that followed
his formula was over.

He was very,
very committed to the

that their writers eventually

called the Gernsback deception, which

is that every
aspect of science

fiction that he published
in his magazines

had to be logical,
and it had to be verifiable.

Everyone knew
Gernsback, they all respected Gernsback.

Gernsback and none of them wanted to
to write something like Gernsback.

Even the old
Hugo's old trick of

founding a club no longer seems to work.

Something has changed.

He still sees science fiction as a tool.
fiction as a tool.

To educate people about
people about science.

But fandom has become an end in
become an end in itself,

that endures to this day.

I believe that the enthusiasm

It's what sets science fiction fans apart.
science fiction fans.

And they are passionately
in love with, um,

whatever they are in love with
they are in love with and

are, like true lovers,
able to stand on the rooftops

and shout it out,
sometimes quite literally.

And they wear T-shirts,
and they get the tattoos,

because they are looking for
other people

to share love with them.

By

because they
loved being together

and talk and share
experiences,

And I don't think Gernsback would
would not have liked to do that.

The only time he went to a
science fiction convention.

It was when he was named
guest of honor.

And although the field would recognize it

as the father of
of science fiction,

he prefers to be the...

father of wireless
wireless technology.

By

Science fiction grows

moves out,
and leaves his father behind.

By

The first time
I ever saw Hugo Gernsback

or I really noticed him,

Do I remember seeing
seen a photograph?

Of a man dressed in what looked like a wetsuit.
what looked like a diving suit.

And it was a very strange suit,

with, like, eye slits,
and a private air tank.

And I thought,
My God, who is that?

You know, and it turned out to be

Gernsback in his insulating suit.

And before you ask,

yes, he actually builds
one of these for himself.

The sounds easily overwhelmed him.
easily overwhelmed him.

He would have to retire to
his thinking room.

By

Once I started
thinking about autism,

I started to go back in time.

To try to find
autistic people

that may not have been recognized or diagnosed
diagnosed at the time.

What I discovered not only
was that autistic people

and people with autistic traits
had been involved

in the computer industry
from the beginning,

but before that
they had been involved

in the amateur radio
radio amateurs and also

had been avid
science fiction readers.

And as he delved into the

history, I realized that the

only man who was in the

top of that pyramid was Hugo Gernsback.

Like Gernsback, the people who

often surrounded them
misunderstood them.

They were considered unfriendly.

They were considered
impassive, cold and insensitive.

We hear this repeatedly
in Gernsback's descriptions.

Writer James Gunn said:

"I think it's a strange mix.

of salesmanship
and personal reserve.

Autistic people who
are not very good at

find out what they want to talk about
the people around them

in a sense, it will rehearse

conversations
plausible in advance.

I think Gernsback
was doing the same thing.

I think the character
Hugo Gernsback's character

was, in a sense,
a scripted creation.

Seeing it at home,
seeing it in the office, um,

he... he was more or
more or less the same.

Um, he was formal.

I never really saw him let go.

He... seemed quite serious and reserved during...
serious and reserved during...

during my lifetime.

By

This, by the way, is Maria.

They married in 1951.

At a time when most married couples stayed together
married couples stayed together

throughout his life,
Gernsback was divorced twice.

The search for
the perfect partner

It has been occupying Hugo for most of his adult life.
most of his adult life.

Your solution?
Science, obviously.

Sexology was the first truly medical
truly medical-based journal.

A... promote, information

about sex.

From Gernsback, the focus
is again focused on

speculative content,
and Sexology will soon be

becomes a beacon for sexual outsiders.
sexual outsiders.

For the first time they find a

accessible publication
that takes them seriously.

By I was a child when

I saw copies of the magazine.

It should have been a
really sexy magazine, and it was....

really boring.

I mean, it was like
if sexual matters

were treated as radioelectronic
radio-electronic issues.

Which brings us to the

Hugo's method for

find a happy romance.

Scientific mating, or
as we might call it today...

Computer dating, I mean,

There is another thing that
predicted, in fact,

because he did it at a time when computers
computers barely existed,

is barely coming to fruition.
to fruition.

Computers, by the way,

have been quietly evolving
quietly in the background

since we saw
the back in 1890.

Here is that computer
again from 1890,

and here is a computer of
71950.

1890, 1950.

They have grown a little.

Hugo's latest magazine,
radioelectronics,

would outlive him
until January 2003.

The final issue would be
published as Poptronics,

97 years after the first
electroimport catalog.

By

Radio-Electrónica stands out
for publishing two articles

He is credited with launching the
home computer revolution.

One is about the
Mark-8 computer,

and the other on the so-called
television typewriter.

This incites the rival,
popular electronics,

which in turn evolved from
Gernsback Radio News,

respond by publishing an article about the Altair 8800.
article about the Altair 8800.

A man named
Paul Allen would show him that

to his friend,
a certain Bill Gates.

They decide to write
programs for Altair and, for

to sell them, they found a company called Microsoft.
company called Microsoft.

Reading Gernsback today
is instructive for us

when we feel that the incursion
incursion of the new media

in our lives is completely overwhelming.
is completely overwhelming.

It was someone who came up with
who came up with a

means to explain
what happens when

new technologies emerge
in our daily lives.

When the telephone first appeared
first appeared more than 100 years ago,

There were many people
who reported the phone

because it is mechanical.

We will no longer talk face to face
face to face and we will neglect

to the people closest to us.
close to us.

But then people got
got used to the phone.

They began to use it and started

to say, wow, I like this.

We love the phone.

And with mobile, you can
reach more people.

And with the Internet, not only
you can reach 10, 20, but

that you can reach a billion
million people on the Internet.

All these technologies
exist, not only

during events that shake the world
shake the world, but

also during the little ones, you know,

intimate, banal,
Mundane moments of

our lives, when you are waiting
you are waiting in the

hospital waiting room or when you wake up in the morning.
when you wake up in the morning.

Our relationship is
completely smooth

with these machines, with these devices.

The truth of the matter is that the

technology in
in reality simply

validates existing behaviors and
characteristics that already exist.

I don't believe for a
second that all of a sudden

the whole world is in the
in the clutches of the

of some kind of vast collective narcissism
collective narcissism,

who need to take
photographs of themselves

all the time.

These are the people
who were already being reviewed

in mirrors and glass tables

long before the smartphone
the smartphone came along.

They are moments, huge moments.

They are like massive cultural
massive cultural car crashes,

you know, and whose
result sometimes

You won't notice it for
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

We are human beings.

We are people who
live in stories.

We communicate with stories.

And what did Gernsback do?

It was to say,
here is a new human experience,

the world of science and
science and technology,

and we can communicate it
by telling it in stories,

wrapping stories around it,
setting stories in it.

By

My time is approaching.

I have to get away,

So I just want to leave you with
a few words about the future.

If you think you have had
exciting days,

Much more exciting days
more exciting days ahead.

Gernsback, um, he was so, I think,

It is intuitively connected and

instinctively
with their time and

somehow happened with that time, and that's
that time, and that is very sad.

It simply faded into the past.

So, although the
Hugo Award bears his name

name, people tend not to think
people tend not to think about it anymore.

In its Luxembourg

remember him as such.

Hugo Gernsback Street, one

secondary road little

used, without numbers
and addresses.

A cinema that projects
countless tropes of the

pop culture influenced by
Gernsback, turns his back on it.

Hugo Gernsback
also has no grave.

Horrified by the
the idea of his body,

to be eaten by insects, it makes the

arrangements to be donated
to Cornell University.

Faculty of Medicine
after his death.

Donating your body to science
science is the ultimate

sacrifice in terms of
promotion of science.

This is the last thing
I can do.

I am no longer here, but at

least you can
learn something from me.

I will never be buried.

I don't like the idea.

I do not believe that anyone
should be buried.

It is... it is a vain
glorification of humanity

that doesn't have, in my book,
has no reason to be.

So, if someone really wants to
really wants to go

to heaven, I invented a system to do so.

After you're dead, you're going to

in a very nice spaceship, you will

coffin, the coffin is placed in a coffin.

away from the sun and you are
launched into space.

And you can really go
to heaven that way.

Frozen.

Hugo's body did not go to space
space, but his name did.

In 1970, Astronomer
Donald Menzel

name a crater
of the moon with the

name of Gernsback,
in gratitude

to Hugo's financial support and encouragement.

But there is no need to
to take out your telescopes tonight.

Gernsback Crater is
virtually invisible from Earth.

The gift he left us
Gernsback is so vast

that, in reality, it is almost impossible
impossible to see the end.

What Gernsback
was to stimulate

the mind and encourage
people to think

on what was the
potential of science.

Gernsback devoted his entire

career to educate the public,

in science and technology,

because I wanted to empower them

to participate in these changes.

You can be part of it.

That's the first thing
I tell the kids.

You don't have to be strong It doesn't make

you don't have to be beautiful, you just have to be

courageous and persistent.
With love for science.

I believe there is great power in

scientific literacy.

We live in an era
of what is now

called design fiction, which

means that you can
design objects

of the future, or of a past

imaginary, or of a...

a parallel universe, or
from another planet, and you can

build them, if you have the
ability to connect an Arduino

and... and a cool looking ray gun...
attractive-looking ray gun...

and show people
people how they could

be really the future, and in a certain

way to prove it to you,
is really significant.

It has a... a
real purpose

didactic, which is
to make the

people that the future is a destiny, the

future is a place you can change now.
you can change now.

We have to
boost education

scientific; otherwise, more and more
Otherwise, more and more

people will be excluded, and we don't want that.
excluded, and we don't want that.

We must be able to
make sure that the

public understanding of
nuclear energy,

understand the Internet,
understands security,

understand all the things we are talking about today.
we are talking about today.

But once we
we understand the concepts

basic, then we have the
we have the intense

debate that continues, and that debate

continues forever, and
wisdom comes from there.

Respect for scientific
scientific authority,

respect for
virtually any

type of authority,
in fact, the respect

by the facts themselves,
has actually decreased.

That would have outraged
Gernsback.

He saw science as
something that transcended,

in a way,
the filth of the

human affairs and
provided a clear guiding light.

Through the sea of life,
and through the chaos of life.

And then the idea that
someone would simply discard

the science of climate change,

or simply discard
the science of autism,

for that matter,
would have outraged him.

We need Gernsback now

to restore the public's faith,
confidence and hope in science.

I think it will be another
another few hundred years.

Before we see how important
important it really was.

You know, he... he has to
mythologize himself before he can do it,

you know, integrate into
our history of civilization.

By

by