Alternate Futures

Evidently this image was commissioned for a feature in Scientific American, but I can't locate the relevant article on their website. It's a stunning juxtaposition of two drastically opposed notions of what the future could look like. The two imagined futures are somewhat sensationalized but because of this the image makes its point.

The image comes to us via Mondolithic Studios.

Looking at this I can't help but be reminded of a drawing I came across many years ago at the Indiana State Fair. The drawing-- one of the most interesting I've ever seen-- depicted an epic landscape that gradually morphed from an ancient world at one end to a post-modern cityscape on the other.

The vantage point of the drawing was from within a stone temple-- picture a stone floor the length of the drawing in the immediate foreground augmented by a handful of stone pillars that served to break up the landscape into segments. On the left-- the 'ancient' portion of the landscape-- the temple in the foreground is new and pristine; on the right-- the 'post-modern' cityscape-- it is crumbling and in ruins. In the 'middle ground' of the image we see the bulk of the landscape itself-- a lush primeval rainforest at the extreme left, an ancient civilization at middle-left converging on a modern city at middle-right and finally a futuristic metropolis at extreme right. In the background we have a mountain range, a vast ocean, and a beautiful orange sunset.

I don't recall the name of the artist, who was no more than a high school student at the time. In fact I had asked for a print of the drawing, but these apparently never materialized and I have since lost touch. If you ever come across a drawing matching that description, you know who to talk to!