Back to the future at Gig Harbor museum

"I think there's a world market for maybe five computers."

— Thomas Watson, IBM chairman, 1943

Bill Gates wasn't even born when that statement was made. Who knew then what we know now — who could even imagine it, especially this poor IBM mucky-muck whose comment is part of a fascinating, playful Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition now at the Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Museum.

There are many amusing predictions in the exhibition — prognostications from people you'd think would have known better but did not — highlighting the hubris of prophecy.

Running through Feb. 19, "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future" explores ideas from educated guesses to pure speculation.

A number of topics are considered, including computers, transportation and architecture (think "The Jetsons").

The Smithsonian and state humanities councils, including Humanities Washington, developed the exhibit with a common goal — to give small museums a way to promote local heritage through a larger subject.

In this show, five colorful kiosks, provided by the Smithsonian, feature historical photos and exhibits. These are augmented by carefully researched displays the Gig Harbor museum staff created, contributing their own take on futurism — including a showcase of local inventors.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Some of the most popular space toys in the 1950s were plastic robots.

It all begins outside the tiny museum with an astonishing sight: a huge "spaceship," on its side as if crash-landed. Very Buck Rogers, the silver ship gleams in streamlined curves with fins like a '57 Chevy. Listen for a low rumble. From within pulses an unearthly yellow light.

Pay the modest fee and enter one of two rooms for the show. (The exhibits require so much juice from this small museum, bathroom lights remain off so they don't trip the breaker.)

Dominating the first room are Smithsonian kiosks focusing on robots and computers.

There's a photo of Elektro, the Westinghouse robot made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. At his knee is a robo-dog, and both are overseen by a smiling housewife in skirt and heels. This highlights a curious truism about visions of the future: Clearly, science outpaces social progress. "You tend to see Mom in her modern home wearing a dress while Dad leaves for work by jet pack," says Jennifer Kilmer, museum executive director.

Remember ENIAC?

Gig Harbor Peninsula Museum

Where

Smithsonian Institution and Humanities Washington are responsible for the Gig Harbor exhibition of "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future." It runs through Feb. 19 at the Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society and Museum, 4218 Harborview Drive. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors or students (13-18). 253-858-6722 or www.gigharbormuseum.org

Getting there

From Interstate 5 in Tacoma, take the exit for Highway 16 (Bremerton and Gig Harbor). Cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and then take the Olympic Drive exit to Gig Harbor. From the end of the off ramp, turn right and follow Soundview Drive down the hill to the water. At the stop, turn left (Soundview becomes Harborview Drive). At the three-way stop, turn left and follow the signs to the museum.

Lunch stop

Need a place to ponder the future? Gig Harbor has several family-style restaurants to choose from but for those older than 21, try the historic Tides Tavern, 2925 Harborview Drive. Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Right on the water, with magnificent views. Go for a window table with harbor scenes and boats at anchor. Every day you can get homemade clam chowder, but if it's Saturday, order the chili. It really is like Mom used to make. 253-858-3982 or www.tidestavern.com

More information

www.gigharborchamber.com or 888-553-5438

Uh-huh, and we can assure you, sir, that if you'd invested otherwise, your progeny would now be buffing their nails in Hawaii. Computers get their due in this exhibit.

A photo from a 1954 Popular Mechanics story shows what scientists thought a 2004 computer might look like. It resembles the control panel in a nuclear plant, inexplicably with a steering wheel, apparently their version of a mouse.

And check out an impressive picture of the 1946 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). These days, laptops are more powerful and take up a lot less room. ENIAC weighed 30 tons and filled 1,800 square feet.

Local invention is highlighted in a hometown display listing more than 200 patents from Gig Harbor brainiacs. Ron Thompson's "GoDogGo" is a bucket that holds tennis balls. It automatically launches balls, thus Fido exercises while Dad polishes the family hovercraft.

Pragmatic inventions abound such as improvements to commercial fishing gear.

Other ideas are less glorious, such as that of a Gig Harbor resident who made the leak-resistant diaper, or another who stumbled upon a method for retaining softness in raisins. Hardly sexy, but aren't you glad someone thought of it?

In the back room, the museum offers Smithsonian displays on futuristic transportation and architecture. Like the Airphibian, a 1946 contraption that sold itself this way: "A woman by herself could convert the Airphibian from plane to car or vice versa in just five minutes."

Moving on, courtesy of Dr. Strangelove no doubt, we find the 1946 "atom-bomb house," streamlined to resist shock waves and blast. They thought of everything in those days except, perhaps, disarmament.

In the back of the room, visit a small cubicle with two chairs where you can watch all or part of a very funny and smart TV documentary made in 1999 by Barry Levinson. It features clips about what was imagined for our future, plus commentary from contemporary thinkers and comics. Matt Groening, the "Simpsons" cartoonist, wonders why so many images of the future are "all about living in a world without nature."

Old footage also depicts a man offering a cigarette to a giant robot who enthusiastically puffs it to a nub, his metal head disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Apparently, robo-smoker didn't get the memo.

The centerpiece of the show is a detailed exhibit looking at utopian communities that blossomed in the Northwest during the late 1800s and into the 1900s. One, called Home, on nearby Key Peninsula, was successful for a time, its members dedicated to individualist philosophies. But the experiment was dissolved by court order in 1921, a ruling that outlawed communally-held property.

One more of those not-so-prescient quotes from the clueless, this from a Decca executive after he rejected the Beatles: "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."

If it can happen to the Beatles, obsolescence can happen to you.

What will your future be like? The museum offers predictions compiled by University of Washington alumni-magazine editor Tom Griffin: By 2088, books will be obsolete and people will download them, on demand, onto a personal display panel. Also — made believable after the last election — the United States will cease to exist as we know it but restructure into national territories.

Leaving this meticulous, insightful exhibit, you can't help but wonder, what in the world is next?

The exhibition offers a wise warning from science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke:

"The future isn't what it used to be."

Connie McDougall is a Seattle-based freelance writer.