The Metafilter comment that was a short sci-fi story

January 12, 2011 9:57 AM

Help me find an old Metafilter comment! It was in response to a FPP whose subject I've forgotten. The comment itself was styled a short story where far into the future, people have banded into primitive tribes, each one holding onto a few remnants of technology today. These items are highly regarded even though they have no idea what to do with them. One item was a canister that they never opened but could hear the rattle of something inside.

As the planet descends into another Ice Age, they end up freezing to death despite trying to outrun the winter/Ice Age.

After a long while, alien visitors come and find the canister amongst other items. They eventually figure out how to play it and it ends with the film clip or music clip being something ridiculous, something from today's culture. It was a nice play on science fiction.

I know this is a long stretch, but maybe someone had it favorited? I'm guessing the FPP was on some recently abandoned or retire technology.

posted by mlo to MetaFilter-Related at 9:57 AM (10 comments total)

This reminds me of a published sci-fi short story where some aliens arrive on Earth and the only thing they have to tell them what humans were like is a Mickey Mouse cartoon. The aliens were some sort of aquatic reptile who liked lounging on beaches soaking up the sun. Can't remember what the story was called though.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:24 AM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

That sounds about right!
posted by mlo at 10:27 AM on January 12, 2011

Arthur C Clarke's History Lesson
posted by mlo at 10:29 AM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yep.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:55 AM on January 12, 2011

If it does turn out to be a Metafilter commentrather than the aforementioned Arthur C. Clarke story, my money is on it being from robocop is bleeding.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:59 AM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think someone had copied and pasted the entire story into their comment, so in my head I remembered it as a comment someone wrote.
posted by mlo at 11:33 AM on January 12, 2011

It's possible someone posted an excerpt at some point, but I tried searching against keywords from a few random passages and none of them turn up hits. The story itself was linked to by name at one point in a comment, back in 2008.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:10 PM on January 12, 2011

So, regarding "History Lesson" -- which Disney film? Live action, or an animated feature? I've always thought the latter, because of the cars, specifically due to one they showed in Driver's Ed featuring Goofy, but I've never heard a positive identification.
posted by Rash at 1:22 PM on January 12, 2011

Rash: "So, regarding "History Lesson" -- which Disney film? Live action, or an animated feature? I've always thought the latter, because of the cars, specifically due to one they showed in Driver's Ed featuring Goofy, but I've never heard a positive identification."

Having been through almost the entire Mickey series this afternoon, I don't find much to match.

However, the beginning that Clarke describes is remarkably similar to the beginning of the 1927 short "Trolley Troubles" which starred Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. The short does begin with a crowd scene which eventually focuses in on Oswald. It also has what could be seen as a violent run in with a cow on the tracks and the trolley does take a rather fantastic trip through the country. He does misremember the ending; in Trolley, Oswald doesn't end up in a city, but with his trolley submerged and him swimming behind to catch it. And there is no head-on collision.

Also, this being before Disney did his own distribution, the end wouldn't have said "A Walt Disney Production" but "An M. J. Winkler Production." But I think the description is close enough that this one is at least the one the that Clarke was wrongly remembering.

The cartoon in question on Youtube.

It's also perfectly possible that the film was a series of shorts, not just one. The ending might be to a different cartoon, and" the little biped" that "stared back at them with its characteristic expression of arrogant bad temper" surrounded by a circle might be Donald Duck, shown at the end.
posted by zarq at 1:57 PM on January 12, 2011

If it had been an original comment, it would have been a Comment Fable. The wiki is the place to start looking for those.
posted by Chuckles at 5:25 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]