The whole of the Whole Earth Catalog is now online
I never grew up knowing the Whole Earth Catalog, but in the early '80s I was a precocious elementary school student who practically lived in any library I could get access to. My school library happened to have a copy of a particularly <i>magical</i> book that was loosely patterned after the WEC, the "Kids' Whole Future Catalog". <a href="https://paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/27/the-kids-whole-future-catalog-1982.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/27/the-kids-whole-future...</a><p>I obsessively checked it out of the library, pouring over page after page of exciting future and near future advancements, and in my little mind seeing a clear path from the Space Shuttle to the city of the future printed on the cover. It was one of those breathless books that showed humanity figuring out how to engineer every natural process, picture upon picture of far off space stations intermingled with then current hydroponics gardens and concepts well beyond that.<p>I found myself competing with at least one other child and the book never hit the shelf but for a few minutes as it was almost on permanent loan in somebody's backpack. My mother looked for a few weeks trying to find where to buy it for me, but never found a bookstore with it. It was like an object sent from another dimension, mean to teach children and guide them to an inevitable future Utopia.<p>It worked. I've worked in technology and R&D my entire career. I've <i>yearned</i> to bring about that future.<p>A few years ago, thinking back to this formative codex, I went about trying to find it and happened to buy a copy on Ebay which set about a small project to get the equipment together to scan it and put it up on the internet archive as no digital version of the book exists to my knowledge. I'm <i>almost</i> there, but haven't quite gotten everything lined up.<p>Many years later, I learned about the WEC and it immediately hit me that <i>this</i> was the adult version of the feeder league I had been participating in as a child.<p>I can't believe the WEC is out there now. I need to get my crap together and get the Kid's Catalog up as well.