ConanBaltar wrote:I still get chill bumps on Spaceship Earth. And I'm no less awed simply walking around the park itself, with all its interesting architectures and futurist artifacts.
It's not an accident that when you think of the remaining inspirational aspects of Epcot, you think of the remnants of Epcot '82.
In a sense, Epcot as it was in 1982 has ceased to exist merely because reality caught up with fantasy.
I don't agree at all. Our "space station" is a creaky mobile home, our submarines are cramped and unpleasant, our agriculture is wasteful and damaging, we're still burning dead things for fuel, humanity is still besieged with war and genocide...the hopeful world of Horizons isn't reality, it's still fantasy. It's also still one potential future.
And I think that people aren't as "awed" with the future (or, "abstract future") as they used to be.
Again, I cannot disagree more strongly. If Epcot were to actually provide us with an inspirational and thoughtful vision of the future, we
would be awed. You can't create a vision of the future, sit on it for 25 years, then say "Well, that didn't work," because it's no longer cutting edge. Epcot needs to evolve, but that doesn't mean throwing in the towel.
Epcot no longer impresses us because it's no longer trying to do what it set out to do.
Remember that EPCOT was unveiled the same year as
Blade Runner, a film which would define the dystopian perception of the future for years to come. From the beginning, science fiction has always featured both optimistic and pessimistic visions of the future.
Walt grew up influenced by HG Wells and Jules Verne, but he didn't focus on the negativity. In the same way he created Disneyland as a reaction to dreary and unpleasant amusement parks, he created optimistic visions of the future to counter fears of an endless Cold War or, worse, an era of atomic devastation, both of which were very real fears at the time.
7habitz wrote:Perhaps one issue several of you are already touching on is the fact that technology is all around us every day. In the mid-80s, visitors to WDW had never seen most of the technologies represented there.
I don't buy this line of reasoning for a second. Yes, if all Epcot wants to show us is, for example, computers with manual input devices and monitors, then, yes, big deal. Faster computers with faster Internet connections and better graphics aren't going to impress anyone.
But Epcot was never about gizmos, it was about whole new ways of thinking of living. The family in Horizons wasn't blown away by space travel. For them it was just like going to the mall. They created a whole new reality.
And even when technology was highlighted, it wasn't constrained by contemporary tech. We still don't have the 3D phones shown in Horizons, but the effect was a simple trick from the 19th Century, used in a new way. Epcot needs to look several generations beyond our current tech to present new ideas, even if we can't even begin to do them for real now.
In short, if Epcot isn't wowing us with new ideas, it's not because we're jaded, it's because they aren't trying.
On the original topic of "informing", that doesn't begin to cover what Epcot was about. You can see this clearly with the Nemofied Seas. Crush has some interesting information about saltwater and whales and such, but that's not what the Living Seas was about. It wasn't just an examination of what exists, it was about the interaction between humanity and all that stuff. Even though the tech that powers Crush is cool, it's really just an uninspiring marine science lecture.
For this reason, I must admit that I was not a huge fan the original Universe of Energy. It didn't attempt to inspire, it merely explained the state of things. That's educational, sure, but it failed to make you feel hopeful about the future. The most inspiring thing about it was the use of actual solar panels, and that was obviously current, not future, tech.
That's not to say that newer version is not infinitely worse, but that's another issue entirely.
js3901 wrote:...the large advances started about 30 - 40 years into it, especially moreso in the last 20 years or so.
I don't agree with this at all. Significant technological breakthroughs occurred in every decade of the 20th Century, and did so for centuries before that. Progress looks different when you're in the middle of it, but you can't name a time in the last 200 years (at least!) when things were not in constant flux. Just look at the Carousel of Progress!
This is why we need something like Epcot to get us thinking big about what's to come. Forget smaller electronics and more helpful appliances...
...imagine a world where no one uses fuel that damages the environment, where electricity and clean water are free for everyone, where urban landscapes become a functional part of the ecosystem, where landfills and smokestacks are a thing of the past, where societies interact as easily as the guests and cast members of World Showcase, where cancer and AIDS and tuberculosis are minor nuisances, where children everywhere get a strong education and have a firm grasp of the scientific process and logic, where society values teachers and scientists half as much as drunken teenage pop stars, where you could visit Disneyland Mars on Saturday and have popcorn and take pictures at the bottom of the Marianas Trench on Sunday...
Would any of us be bored to see this reality portrayed? These aren't the kind of things you've seen in a Sharper Image catalog, these are real future possibilities that can and should be presented to us by Epcot.