The Secret History of the Future

By Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture Technology History

What's The Secret History of the Future about?

Examine the history of tech to uncover stories that help us illuminate the present and predict the future. From the world's first cyber attack in 1834, to 19th century virtual reality, The Economist's Tom Standage and Slate's Seth Stevenson find the ancient ingenuity that our modern digital technology can learn from, and expose age-old weaknesses we are already on a course to repeat. Only by discovering what time has to offer can we really learn about ourselves, and can we reveal the secret history of the future.

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Introducing: Thrilling Tale...

05.27.2020

Hey Secret History listeners! We'd like to introduce a new show from Slate, Thrilling Tales of Modern Capitalism. Each episode dives into the history of a brand that shapes the way we live and work. This first episode is about ...

The Secret History of the Future episodes:

05.27.2020 Introducing: Thrilling Tales of Modern Capitalism Hey Secret History listeners! We'd like to introduce a new show from Slate, Thrilling Tales of Modern Capitalism. Each episode dives into the history of a brand that shapes the way we live and work. This first episode is about ...
12.16.2019 Introducing Cautionary Tales Hello, Secret History fans! Here's an episode of another show we think you might like: Cautionary Tales from Pushkin Industries. Learning from our mistakes can be hard. Learning from other people’s mistakes...well, that’s a lot more fun. In Cautionary Tales, ...
11.26.2019 Introducing What Next: TBD Hey Secret History of the Future fans! We're excited to introduce you to another show we think you'll like. It's called What Next: TBD, and it's a weekly show about tech, power, and the future. Secret History's very own Seth ...
09.04.2019 S2E10: New Media, Old Story Radio was originally a social medium, as early radio sets (each of which could transmit as well as receive) turned cities into giant chatrooms, populated by Morse Code-tapping enthusiasts. But the excitement of this democratic, digital platform did not last, ...
08.28.2019 S2E9: A Brief History Of Timekeeping The first mechanical clocks were made to summon monks to prayer. Ever since, timekeeping technology has often been about control and obligation. But underneath a mountain in Texas, a new kind of clock is being built that’s meant to alter ...
08.21.2019 S2E8: Salvation In The Air At the dawn of the 20th century, chemists dreamed of extracting nitrogen from the air and turning it into a limitless supply of fertiliser. Sceptics thought they were crazy -- it was possible in theory, but it was unclear if ...
08.14.2019 S2E7: A Bug In The System The first ever computer program was written in 1843 by Ada Lovelace, a mathematician who hoped her far-sighted treatise on mechanical computers would lead to a glittering scientific career. Today, as we worry that modern systems suffer from “algorithmic bias” ...
08.07.2019 S2E6: Dots, Dashes, and Dating Apps In the 19th century, young people wooed each other over the telegraph. But meeting strangers on the wires could lead to confusion, disappointment, and even fraud. Do modern online dating apps have anything to learn from telegraph romances? Learn more ...
07.31.2019 S2E5: Mars on Earth Polar exploration was the Victorian equivalent of the space race. Major powers vied to outdo each other, funding expeditions to the most inhospitable parts of the world as demonstrations of their supremacy over nature and each other. Today, the resulting ...
07.24.2019 S2E4: Meat and Potatoes The potato seemed strange and unappetizing when it first arrived in Europe. But it grew into a wonder food that helped solve the continent’s hunger problems. Can its journey tell us what to expect from current efforts to replace animal ...
07.17.2019 S2E3: Unreliable Evidence In the early 20th century a new forensic technique—fingerprinting—displaced a cruder form of identification based on body measurements. Hailed as modern, scientific, and infallible, fingerprinting was adopted around the world. But in recent years doubts have been cast on its ...
07.10.2019 S2E2: Second Wind For thousands of years we sailed our cargo across oceans using zero-emission, 100 percent renewable wind. Then we switched to ships that run on oil, creating a global maritime fleet that pumps greenhouse gases into the sky. Could we go ...
07.03.2019 S2E1: A Familiar Tune The 19th century invention of the phonograph left composers worried they might not be paid for recordings. The 20th century proliferation of digital sampling outmoded old copyright laws. Can these previous tech disruptions of the music business teach us how ...
06.26.2019 Season 2 Trailer What can 19th century polar exploration teach us as humans plan missions to Mars? Do modern online dating apps have anything to learn from romances over the telegraph wires? Dig into the past, and you’ll find surprising lessons about what’s ...
11.07.2018 S1E10: Infinite Scroll The Renaissance scholars couldn’t keep up with new information (“Have you read the latest Erasmus book?” “I don’t have time!”) and needed a better way to organize it. Thus came the invention of tables of contents, indexes, book reviews, encyclopedias, ...
10.31.2018 S1E9: A Little Less Conversation Some people thought the laying of the transatlantic cable might bring world peace, because connecting humans could only lead to better understanding and empathy. That wasn’t the outcome, and recent utopian ideas about communication (Facebook might bring us together and ...
10.24.2018 S1E8: VR or It Didn’t Happen In the Victorian era, plaster casts became a way to preserve important artifacts in 3-D. Now, virtual reality promises to preserve places and experiences. But who decides what gets preserved? And is the technology an accurate recreation of the experience, ...
10.17.2018 S1E7: A Clock in the Sky In 1714, British parliament offered a huge cash prize to anyone who could find a way to determine longitude at sea. And it worked, sort of ... several decades later. Are modern contests (DARPA challenges, the X Prize) offering riches ...
10.10.2018 S1E6: From Zero to Selfie In 1969, an anthropologist introduced photographs and films to people in Papua New Guinea who’d never seen themselves represented in media before. It changed their conception of the world. In modern society, social media floods us with imagery at a ...
10.03.2018 S1E5: Human Insecurity The French telegraph system was hacked in 1834 by a pair of thieves who stole financial market information -- effectively conducting the world’s first cyber attack. What does the incident teach us about network vulnerabilities, human weakness, and modern-day security? ...
09.26.2018 S1E4: The Fault In Our Cars The first pedestrian killed by a car in the western hemisphere was on New York’s Upper West Side in 1899. One newspaper warned that “the automobile has tasted blood.” Today, driverless cars present their own mix of technological promise and ...
09.19.2018 S1E3: Fork Fashions and Toilet Trends It took a long time for the fork to go from weird curiosity to ubiquitous tool. How long will it take for current technologies -- like the Japanese-style bidet toilet, or heads-up displays such as Google Glass -- to go ...
09.12.2018 S1E2: The Body Electric We’ve used electricity to treat our brains for thousands of years, from placing electric fish on our heads to cure migraines to using electroconvulsive therapy to alleviate depression. But over time, our focus has shifted from restoring health to augmenting ...
09.05.2018 S1E1: The Box That A.I. Lives In In the 18th century, a device called the Mechanical Turk convinced Europeans that a robot could play winning chess. But there was a trick. It’s a trick that companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook still pull on us today. Guests ...
08.06.2018 Season 1 Trailer Examine the history of tech to uncover stories that help us illuminate the present and predict the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices