Fun Find Friday
January 14, 2011
Location:
Epcot: Future World West
While walking from Spaceship
Earth to Soarin' you will most likely walk over
the following picture:

"What is it?" you may ask. It is
actually two things. One obvious, the other not
so obvious.
Let's start with the obvious. If
you take a closer look at the ground you will
realize that there are several different layers
present. The middle layer is simple at first
glance. Just an ordinary grey circle that is the
center of this ground display.
The next section (a darker
section of the circle) is broken up into five
sections. Each section is a different quote by
someone famous in history:

You see, keeping with the whole
Future World theme, Imagineers decided to pay
tribute to the people of the past that made
their "Future World" the one we live in today.
The next layer is where things get really
interesting though. Here you will find five
small circles spread out from one another. Each
circle has the words, "Prehistoric Era" written
upon it and an invention that came out of that
era:

As you look at each layer you
will realize that each is connected to a certain
era in history and in each era you have the
inventions that helped make the future easier
for others. For instance, in the Middle Ages you
only have one invention present, the printing
press, while the Renaissance Period brings us
six inventions including the telescope.
As soon as you reach the
Industrial Revolution (12 inventions) and 20th
Century (14 inventions) you begin to realize how
far the world has come in the last 200 years.
However, the timeline present isn't here to show
us what great work mankind has done over the
last 3 million years. If you really take your
time to look at the inventions of the past you
can see that they helped the inventions of the
future even if those future inventions are now
in our past.

This ties in with Future World
perfectly due to the fact that we are looking
ahead at the future, while still acknowledging
those that helped us get to where we are today.
I know what you are thinking,
"You said there was a not so obvious thing
present as well!" There is. In the very center
of the circle is the foundation of the future.
Every invention that has had an impact on
history revolves around one thing and that is
the future.
At the same time, you have to
think of Walt's original plans for Epcot where
all of Walt Disney World would revolve around
this Experimental Prototype Community of
Tomorrow. So my friends, next time you are in
Epcot stand in the grey circle in the middle
because when you do, you'll be standing in the
exact center of Walt Disney World and you can
know that everything is revolving around you at
that moment.
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Mickey Monday