PARES

hs

§

Jimmy Pattison has taken
his men and flown to
Tsukuba, Japan. By. all ac-
counts of the wonders
wrought there by the Japa-
nese, our Expo honchos are
in for more than just culture
shock,

: The Tsukuba show is go-
ing to be a hard act to
follow.

of've talked to a couple of
guys who’ve been. there.
‘They shake their heads. in
awe.. One of them, Van-
couver futurist Frank

Ogden, never, “however, ata
loss for words, ° gives ° this

description.. :
“Tsukuba: ‘has the world” ’s

largest - television: set-—over .
100 feet high:‘It’s resolution. |

‘and ~ quality, © even at that

size,. are twice that of ‘any

set in North
‘America: ‘You can see’ it
clearly even in bright
sunlight,” he says... :

Phe:

television |

“set, known | affec-

tionately: ‘as . Jumbo’ “Tron,
actually ’ constitutes the Sony.

a 22” leat
§ ($560 with
plain feet)

4 - Friday, April 26, 1985 - North Shore News

ds organizing guided

they make ceramic. houses.

| 48" table with. |

strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

Checking out Expo

GS: the board of directors of Expo 86 has finally
gotten around to checking out Expo 85,

According to Ogden,
dozens of other pavilions are
making use of new and exot-
ic video displays. There are
3-D. screens, wraparound
3-D ‘screens: and ‘others
where the video is projected
on the floor and you look at
it from concentric circles
above.”
~-There is another theatre
where “there are no seats,
just a river. A boat comes
along and you get in. As you
ride’ along the: river, the
movie is projected around
you. ”

Ogden is: ‘sométhing of a

~ bete noire in: Expo circles for
~his: habit “of saying that

‘everybody should go to Ex-
po. 86 because “‘it’ll be their

“.Jast chance to see the past,’’

whereas the Tsukuba exhib-
ition really does open the
door o:. the future. :

To prove his point, Ogden
trips
through Nordic Tours—the

first one leaving May 12—of
'.Mot-just Tsukuba but. several
“, Other Japanese high-tech hot
spots, like ‘the Place’. where

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surance and cost $100,000.

He also plans to catch the
industrial robot exhibition in

But it is the Tsukuba
technological extravaganza
that excites Ogden the most.

There is a theatre built like
a pearl in an oyster shell,
and in it they can change the
play from Shakespeare to
South Pacific. Immediately
after one is finished, they go
right into the next one. The
actors and actresses change
costumes. They come down
and interact with the au-
dience. Meanwhile the
stagehands are changing the
furniture and the props—
and everybody is a robot!’”

It’s not just gadgets,
aither. Ogden adds: ‘‘They
have genetically altered a
single tomato seed so that it
grows into a plant 30 feet
high and 60 feet wide. It
bears 10,000 tomatoes. It
uses no soil. It’s
hydroponically fed. All the
nutrients are sprayed on the
roots.’

Perhaps: the single most
startling exhibit at Tsukuba

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BWXincsurteis!
Always wear a Personal Floatation Device when on the water.

‘ te The Canadian Red Cross Soci ny

is the HSST (High Speed
Surface Transport), the
magnetically-levitated train
designed by Japan Air Lines,
which will also be on display
at our own Expo next year.
As Ogden puts it, “the Jap-
anese have thrown away the
wheel.”*

Tsukuba, of course,
started out as Japan's
“Science City.’’ Located
northeast of Tokyo on the

Kango Plain, the largest flat.

stretch in the entire ar-
chipelago, the place was
largely the brainchild - of
MITI, the ‘‘invisible hand”’
within the government,
which has guided Japan’s
industrial development xe)
successfully since the Second
World War.

The scope of research be-
ing conducted as Tsikuba,
long before the exposition
began, is impressive, without

zero gravity tested, genes
spliced, nuclear particles ac-
celerated to nearly the speed
of light, new crops species
invented and micro-
organisms bred in every
imaginable type of artificial
environment.

The hope, from the Japa-

‘nese point of view, is that

Tsukuba will become a kind
of oracle to new approches
in technology. They want the
future to be user-friendly.

Observes Frank Ogden
cryptically: ‘‘Those who
resist any technology will be
victimized by it.’’ The Japa-
nese, he says, are sweeping
rapidly ahead of us, leaving
us in a dust of particle
beams.

Let’s see the expressions
on the faces of Jimmy Pat-
tison and the Expo boys
when they get home. Watch
out for a possible hang-dog
look. Take it as a,bad sign.

50% DISCOUN

doubt. Keeping in mind that . #

one out of every 12. resear-
chers on Planet Earth is now.
a Japanese, some 40 oer cent:

of the government’s national’
research budget funds the ©

20,000 ‘‘brains’” who work
there.

In the normal course of
business, Tsukuba serves as
the testing-ground for. the
glamour fields of high-tech
from.robotics,
biotechnology and aerospace
to nuclear fusion. With the
odd exception of the famous
5th Generation computer
project, which is located in
Tokyo, the site serves as the
command post of the Japa-
nese thrust into the Second
Industrial Revolution.

On a given day, typhoons
and tidal waves are. being
simulated, tankers ‘’sunk,’’

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