Technology
Boldly Into the Future
Marvelling at the Marvel Universe™; Pixel Time; Privacy inside the Panopticon; Cut-through Advertising; Meta™ injected tracking code; Click-bait; All the news that's fit to tweet and make the socials pop
While Technology could often be an asset, what you tended to see was never quite what you got.

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Keys to ascension
Those who could afford to do so, raced toward an off-grid future


Cars on the Eastern Distributor at Woolloomooloo [Jul-2018 173KB]
Reeks & Wrecks in Dumpstercopia
A sustainable future could only be found in scavenging, scrapping and repairs


Cardboard packaging in Blue Anchor Lane at Circular Quay, awaiting transport to an interstate landfill [Nov-2017 626KB]
Radical self-reliance
The best thing a person could do was marry well and inherit big


Indigo Slam at Chippendale [Jul-2017 105KB]
0xDEADBEEF
It took only a couple of generations to advance from room-sized behemoths to teraflops in your lap


The 1963 ICT 1301 mainframe display at the Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin NZ [Nov-2017 190KB]
Let them drive cars
How was the world's largest network of private toll-roads ever going achieve it's projected ROI if people weren't strongly encouraged use them?


Abandoned bus at Opoho Road, Dunedin NZ [Dec-2017 516KB]
Stasi without the politics
HD-CCTV; IP address logging; Cookie tracking; SMM Profile Harvesting; Google Chrome & Android; EFTPOS transaction records; Data-mining; Phone-hacking; Location-sensitive personalised marketing; Mandatory QR Code scanning; Live facial-recognition surveillance; The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program; The unassailable cult of predicting future demand by trying to know everything about what everyone has ever done


CCTV, Satellite, UHF and cable communications at Marrickville, in Sydney [Sep-2012 248KB]
X-out & scroll
First they came for the factory workers, then it was our turn


Gomo Sportswear prior to its demolition to make way for Granville Place [Jul-2017 555KB]
All our tomorrows
Don't be afraid — we loved you more than our grandchildren! You were our greatest and most cherished asset, an organic talisman that gave us light and warmth and votes and windfall profits, and glistened so beautifully in the dying sun…


Anthracite in Lithgow, NSW [Jun-2019 156KB]
Force carrier
Sometimes we just couldn't contain ourselves


Electrical junction box at Chippendale, Sydney [Jul-2017 447KB]
Induced dependency
To what extent was a person's sense of belonging determined by the world around them?


Pitt Street Mall passageway [Aug-2018 328KB]
Streaming fermions
Everything depended upon the action of wave-particles which two hundred years earlier no-one could imagine exist


33kV AC transmission tower outside the Penrith Transmission Substation [Jul-2011 193KB]
Faisal's gambit
The engine warning light came on in October 1973, but we covered it over and kept going


Abandoned shops (since demolished), Parramatta Road Homebush [Jun-2016 172KB]
Cut-through messaging
Make your mark, repeat, move on


Vandalised rail-car at the Zigzag railway, subsequently destroyed by the 2019 summer bushfires, Clarence [Jul-2019 522KB]
Remarks
Engineering new pathways to wealth
A culturally unbalanced society where BScs and BEs were displaced by BAComs, CPAs, LLBs, MPsychs, FRACGPs and BA(Hons)MT


Sand-blasting and repainting the Sydney Harbour Bridge to replace the decades-old lead-based paint [Jul-2011 221KB]
On the road to serfdom
Productivity-enhancing infrastructure was just a bullet-point away


Locked-down pedestrian crossing button, near QVB Sydney [Nov-2020 114KB]
Off-line storage
Acres of tank-farms to cache our dreams


Storage tanks at Tempe [Sep-2012 369KB]
Chariots of freedom
You could only be what you drove


Custom licence plates, Sydney [Jul-2023 444KB]
Brand garbage
2000-08-07 purchase Omega Speedmaster Automatic watch (35105000) #56462628 $2150; 2001-01-13 repair under warranty for loud rattling inside watch; 2005-03-29 repair due to watch stopped $595; 2009-08-03 repair due to watch requiring movement replacement $655; 2017-07-20 watch gains 10 minutes every hour, Omega quote to replace movement and watch hands $1295 (+ $75 courier fee); 2017-07-25 quote declined and watch returned without repair; 2017-08-15 watch thrown into landfill at Blaxland Waste Management Facility


A luxury wristwatch achieved its destiny as a piece of garbage at Blaxland [Aug-2017 316KB]
Moving forward
Monorails; Supersonic airliners; Jet-packs; Hover-boards; Space-elevators; Bubble-canopy aero-cars; Submersible cars; Cars with a KITT computer; Fully autonomous vehicles effortlessly navigating suburban streets…


First Lane at Hurstville, Sydney [Sep-2016 370KB]
Well maintained infrastructure
Continuous work had to be done to sustain our vibrant economy


New Canterbury Road Lewisham and Light Rail construction Sydney CBD [Jul-2016 372KB]
Stack overflow in Math Library
Mate, I dropped “maffs” in school as fast as I could!


At the One Circular Quay construction site, Sydney Cove. The site had been abandoned for months because the offshore developers had run out of money [Oct-2017 484KB]
A fist full of medication
Many of us were only kept alive by pharmaceuticals which didn't exist as little as 20 years ago


Six days worth of heart, diabetes & cholesterol pills, Nepean Hospital Kingswood [Jul-2023 499KB]
In the days of the citizen journalist
Broadcast-quality equipment was no longer required to craft good stories


Media-workers at the Sydney Opera House [Jul-2014 210KB]
Remarks
Rust-belt agriculture
I'd rather put my trust in looking at the sheep and seeing how it performs, than in some number dreamed up by some scientists on a bit of paper
(Merriman, 2012)


Farm sculpture, Cathedral Street Woolloomooloo [Jul-2018 616KB]
Perpetual congestion
Once the great symbol of individual freedom and personal mobility, the car has become a ball and chain. Slow, expensive, and surrounded by endless others, automobiles have taken us as far as they can
(Hume, 2012)


Weedon Avenue garage at Paddington [Mar-2017 331KB]
Scheme Number 218
It took only fifty years and an extra $AUD 300M to rectify most of the Stage III issues (SOH Renewal, 2022)


Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall exterior [Dec-2018 376KB]
Astounding Science Fiction
Superconducting NbTi coils; Holmium magnetic flux condensers; 4°K liquid helium insulated within a liquid nitrogen jacket; A suitcase-sized helium condenser; A FFT-processing rack more powerful than a dozen 1980s mainframes… A 3T magnetic field from a machine the size of a family SUV, to obtain non-intrusive millimetre resolution 3D internal body images


The 3T MRI scanner at a medical imaging practice at Penrith, in Sydney [Sep-2013 77KB]
∇×H
The implementation of renewable energy struggled beneath a mantle of ignorance, obfuscation and lies


Distribution cables (since demolished) in College Lane, at Stanmore in Sydney [Sep-2012 374KB]
Built for comfort
Cruise control ✓ Loudspeakers ✓ Touch-screen TV ✓ Dual petrol tank caps ✓ National flag ✓ Oversized padded seat ✓


Indian Roadmaster motorbike at Mandible Street, Alexandria [Aug-2019 460KB]
The flipped classroom
A tremendous benefit of student BYOD was the ability to collect quality data to inform our effective & evidence-based focus on Action Learning, along with facilitating the continuous improvement in teaching skills and excellence to accommodate student growth and achievement


At the State Library of NSW [Oct-2014 411KB]
Project attention deficit disorder
Every Prague Spring had its tanks


Construction cranes at the Central Park development at Broadway, in Sydney [Oct-2012 228KB]
Tip of the spear
The most inspiring thing about the Kamikaze was that every problem had exactly the same solution


Lockheed A-12 engine aerospike at the Intrepid Museum, NYC [Oct-2017 49KB]
The well-connected domicile
LCD in the bedroom; OLED in the lounge-room; Playstation, XBox, iPhone, Galaxy, Note, iPad, iOS and Android everywhere else


Home entertainment in suburban Kingswood, in Sydney's West [Sep-2010 415KB]
Accelerated obsolescence
Yesterday's broadcast-quality equipment was reutilised as landfill


Tape-based off-line editing equipment in a dumpster at Darling Harbour [Jan-2013 167KB]
Beat the bowser
Our vehicle preferences said a lot about what really mattered


Toyota sedan vs. Mazda dual-cab ute, Penrith car park [Mar-2021 515KB]
Hazard perception test
There was an emotional component about driving vehicles that spoke of freedom, independence and to be in control of one's own destiny


2013 Ford G6E Turbo wreckage, Blue Mountains [Mar-2014 454KB]
Congestion busting
At election time Very Fast Trains were on everyone's agenda


Bushfire wreckage, Zigzag Railway Clarence NSW [Jul-2019 587KB]
Start your holidays in hell
School holiday check-in queues snaking out the door; One flight cancelled, the next delayed; Overweight baggage fees; Overhead locker-bin arguments; Footy players kicked out of first class and threatened with being put off the plane; Waiting 40 minutes for take-off clearance; An oversized gentleman kicking your seat from behind every time he turns; Barefoot passengers using headrests as Ottomans; Screaming toddlers, scrolling teens and impassive parents; No-warning reclining seats; The window-seat view of the port side ailerons


Jet aircraft on final approach at Rockdale [Dec-2013 517KB]
Lifespans & outcomes
Living longer lives no longer needed to be an issue


Anzac Day marcher, Liverpool Street Sydney [Apr-2018 171KB]
The upgrade escalator
Every nine months there was always something just that little bit better


York Street escalators, Wynyard station [Jul-2018 333KB]
Gain traction in an attention economy
100 km/hr in 2.85 and a top speed of 340 km/hr — shame the NSW speed limit was only 110 km/hr


Ferrari 488 Pista, Pitt Street Sydney [Nov-2022 338KB]
Rattle & roll
With a maximum cruising speed of 130 km/hr, you could theoretically travel between Sydney and Melbourne in 7½ hours. In practice it took 12. During the trip, you could rock yourself to sleep to the sound of squeaking bogie springs and rumble from the turbocharged diesel-electric engines, while your 1980s XAM sleeper car jerked about on back-country tracks and even occasionally became airborne, landing a moment later with a satisfying kaboom


XPT trains at Sydney Central terminus. After decades of service, they were due to be retired in 2023 [Apr-2019 440KB]
Nostalgic Futurism
The Eighties didn't quite get the future right


The now dismantled Sydney Monorail at One Dixon Street, Sydney's Chinatown [Jan-2012 151KB]
For a better tomorrow
Technological progress turned out to be a bit of a chimera


Dalek ornament at Wilson Street, Lawson [Aug-2021 670KB]
From lab to stage
What was once esoteric technology confined to a research lab, was now routinely used for entertainment


Stage technician, Campbells Cove Sydney [Jan-2019 234KB]
Remarks
Fighting a war for the future
Skilled workers were redundant in a branch-office economy


3801 heritage locomotive at Central [Oct-2022 292KB]
The fruits of ascendancy
Electric vehicles solved one problem by creating a multitude of others


Enmore Road mechanic spare parts automobiles [May-2023 476KB]
Waves don't vote
Roughly 2TW of energy was freely available in the form of coastal wave-power, but it was ignored because fossil fuel production was electorally more important


The abandoned 2006 Oceanlinx Mk1 Wave Generator prototype at Oilies Beach, Port Kembla. In June 2017 it was eventually towed out to sea and sunk [Sep-2014 326KB]
Think small
A charismatic and perfectionist architect; Engineers hamstrung by 1960s tech; A meddling public broadcaster; Timorous bureaucrats; Conservative politicians out for revenge… The Sydney Opera House looked magnificent from afar, but up close it was riddled with problems caused by years of indecision, controversy, compromise and bickering


Domestic fountain at Church Street, Croydon [Sep-2016 481KB]
Remarks
Peace through superior fire-power
Build it and they will die


Vought F-8 Crusader at the Intrepid Museum, NYC [Oct-2017 166KB]
We have some planes
All this technology, and yet aeroplanes could be made to vanish by merely flipping a transponder switch


Church Street cone sculpture, removed in 2021 by the Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 construction [Feb-2017 686KB]
It just works
Release now, patch later


Jensen Avenue at Dover Heights [Nov-2016 306KB]
Remarks
The Great Reset
Wearing face-masks was every academic's favourite nostrum, until it wasn't


Masked commuters at Granville try to get home after another network meltdown [May-2021 255KB]
Deferred consumption model
As we grew older, we could finally afford the things we wanted so much when we were young


A mint green 1977 BMW 633 CSi at the Classic Throttle Shop showroom at Milsons Point [Dec-2020 102KB]
Interconnected loose-ends
Sprawling cities were serviced by deliberately substandard public transport


Southern Cross station, Melbourne [Apr-2019 274KB]
Accidental monuments
Civil Engineering 101: slap it together as cheap as you can and then completely rebuild it later to solve issues you should have addressed the first time


Zigzag Railway upper viaduct, Clarence [Jul-2019 596KB]
Remarks
We do apologise for any inconvenience caused
Governments collaborated with unions to build a rail-system so fragile that even the slightest disturbance would cause city-wide meltdowns


Parramatta station during yet another Sydney train network failure [May-2021 187KB]
Fibre nescience
Do consumers really need data transfer rates that only fibre could provide?
(Liberal Party of Australia, 2013)


Mothballed satellite dishes in Rozelle, in Sydney's East [Jan-2013 296KB]
Edgy by order
Zeitgeist-y environments to have fun, be niche, leverage the likes & disrupt the new normal


Disposable bicycles on Pitt Str, outside World Square [Jan-2018 180KB]
The imperfect panopticon
Own nothing, have no privacy and life has never been better
(Auken, 2016)


Apartment courtyard surveillance cameras awaiting connection at Victoria Park. Revisited the site four years later and the cameras were still not connected… [Sep-2014 112KB]
Your privacy was taken very seriously
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner; The Information and Privacy Commission of NSW; The NSW Information Commissioner; The NSW Privacy Commissioner; The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Amendment Act 2012 (Cth); The Australian Privacy Foundation; The Cyberspace Law and Policy Community; The NSW Council for Civil Liberties; The Law Council of Australia Business Law Privacy Sub-committee; The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era Inquiry; The Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) to replace the National Privacy Principles and Information Privacy Principles; The drone "roundtable" inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs; The Royal Guide Dogs of Tasmania Privacy Officer


A Menckenesque kaleidoscope ensured that everyone in Wollongong could see you taking a bath [Feb-2011 290KB]
Big data and the cloud
Off-line storage by the petabyte → provided you could afford a network connection which was fast enough


Mobile phone tower and clouds from a summer storm, at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains [Dec-2012 113KB]
Option V for victory
The UPU Terminal Dues System was adjusted to ensure only developing countries got generous subsidies when exporting small parcels to the west


Airport Drive, outside Sydney International Airport [Oct-2019 129KB]
Computer says no
We could detect Gravitational Waves (LIGO, 2015), prove Fermat's last theorem (Wolfram, 2014) and even ridicule Wall Street's misuse of Gaussian copula functions (Wired, 2009) — but no-one could figure out the true cost of mobile-phone plans (WSJ, 2013)


Mobile phone users at Martin Place, Sydney [Dec-2014 320KB]
The sound of sirens
Everything you could possibly ever want, via your smart-phone


Mobile phone users, Sydney CBD [Mar-2015 279KB]
Carbon capture
Wholesale deindustrialisation led to scaling back carbon-related activities, eventually


The abandoned remains of the Illawarra Coke Company at Coalcliff [Sep-2014 416KB]
Fabricating nostalgia
A lot was written about the impacts of deindustrialisation, but few missed the unimaginative and dangerous work


Davy press at ATP Eveleigh Workshops museum [Sep-2017 438KB]
Retro-tech
Some Edwardian technologies weren't as clueless as we originally thought


The pantograph of a NSW Heritage “Set F1” suburban carriage, Central station [Jun-2019 92KB]
The fuse was lit
Our love affair with (ICE) automobiles came to an abrupt end


Georgina Street white paint, Newtown [Jun-2023 504KB]
Eloi wonderland
We gathered by the harbourside, sipping infused agave nectar and nibbling on sweet fuyu persimmons, and were amazed by the vast contraptions built by our distant ancestors


Sydney Harbour sunrise kayaks [Jan-2019 197KB]
Remarks
Orderly exodus
When we were finally done, we got into our white vans and disappeared


Toyota HiAce vans await delivery at Penrith [Apr-2017 310KB]
Pan Atomicus
48 tonnes of reactor fuel blown into the sky; 500K liquidators to clean up the mess; 335k evacuees; 6k+ deaths; 90k+ animals culled; 20× increase in mutations; 2600 km² exclusion zone; €2.15G for the New Safe Confinement; $235G in damages; the collapse of the USSR… The effects of 1986-04-25 are with us still (National Geographic, 2019)


Heritage locomotive at Central Station, Sydney [Jun-2019 126KB]
Meaningful social interactions
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, LinkedIn, 4/8Chan: elaborate frameworks were created to ensure you could never be alone


Stargazer lawn at Barangaroo Reserve, Sydney [Aug-2016 563KB]
Remarks
Gaming the system
The Volkswagen “dieselgate” story, in which the company helped their cars pass emissions tests under special conditions that they later failed when the car was driven normally, was not an isolated incident
(The Conversation, 2015)


Befouled VW automobile, Summer Hill [Sep-2015 567KB]
Aerotropolis now
Cheap and easy air travel was assumed to last forever


Sydney International Airport in twilight [Nov-2017 77KB]
The spam massif
We facilitated a global network of unsolicited urgent messages


Sydney University public noticeboards [Oct-2017 525KB]
Honest mistakes
Just because we were reckless didn't mean we didn't care


The MV Baragoola before (Sept 2018) and after (Feb 2022) sinking, Waverton [Feb-2022 589KB]