The Past Is The Key To The Present

As any student of geology will tell you, those words are a mis-quote of Sir Charles Lyell who actually wrote that that “the present is the key to the past”, in that the geological processes that we see in action today are the same as were operating in the past, so (for instance) the deposition patterns in modern rivers will be the same as operated in ancient rivers hence we can discern the fossil course of ancient rivers by their deposition patterns (or dunes or whatever).

And I came to be reminded of these words watching an episode of The Avengers, “The Positive-Negative Man” (featuring the achingly sexy Diana Rigg as the achingly sexy Mrs Peel) where the concept of broadcast energy is invoked, in this case a method of using radio frequency energy to supply power to electrical equipment, or suitably insulated hit-men. And I thought, “where have I heard this before?” Well, ta-da! Here! And before that, all the way back to Nikola Tesla who himself inspired one of the 1980’s great songs “Tesla Girls” by one of the 1980’s great bands Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

“It’s a funny old world, saint.”