X Minus One - The Roads Must Roll (#32)

[@TralfazConstruction]

This one is a sentimental favorite of several road trips. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents were right about the enjoyment of radio in their day. It's difficult, today, to comprehend just what a big deal these programs were in their day.

[@rorywillis7228]

These are just too good!

[@TralfazConstruction]

@@rorywillis7228 They most certainly are. These are priceless and can be enjoyed in half-hour or so blocks. What treasures they are.

[@simonmcgrath4112]

Keep these stories rolling along or else ule have a strike on ur hands, isn't that right men!!!

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

I'm not sure I've ever in my life heard an idea stupider or more insane than replacing the country's highways with hundred-mile-long conveyor belts.

[@DressedForDrowning]

I have. It's from an Isaac Asimov short story when there was only 1 book left in the world.

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

@@DressedForDrowning That one I can more easily believe. A bacterium mutates the ability to eat paper, generating enough heat from the digestion of cellulose that when a colony of the bacteria grows to sufficient size, the paper catches fire; this kills most of the bacteria, but enough survive as hibernating heat-resistant spores in the smoke that they arrive on other books and begin eat-burning them as well; only one book in the world was kept in an airtight glass case in a fireproof building that ensured it wasn't destroyed by the bacterium and the resulting wildfires. Boom, I just fixed that idea. Now figure out a rationale for why giant conveyor belts are somehow safer or more cost-effective than highways full of vehicles.

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

​@@paulkieran2308It's a similar level of stupidity to "The Wall" in the movie Pacific Rim, where the world governments shut down the giant robot program to fight the alien kaiju monsters, because building a wall around *the entire Pacific Ocean* is somehow deemed to be more cost-effective. Which, admittedly, it's hard to say definitively that the giant robots are *cheaper* exactly, but the Wall idea is still so flat-out ridiculous that the idea of building a 200-foot-tall racial stereotype to punch a flying deep sea iguana to death with its rocket fists, that somehow seems more plausible than a large-scale construction project employing most of the world's transient laborers.

[@Chartreuse03]

This is one of my favs. Especially how they adapted the Caisson song 😆

[@karenbrooks5945]

Great story

[@donaldwhittaker7987]

Heinlein was excellent.

[@DigitalEelRich]

Excellent story.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

In the Science Fiction Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 short stories of 1929-1965 which completely includes the Golden Age of Science Fiction (late 1930s through the 1950s).

[@arcadiaberger9204]

Hear them hum! Watch them run! Oh, our job is never done! For the roadways go rolling along! While you ride, while you glide, we are watching down inside, So your roadways go rolling along! Oh, it's Hie! Hie! Hee! The rotor men are we! Check off those sectors loud and strong - ONE! TWO! THREE! Anywhere you go, you are bound to know That the roadways are rolling along KEEP THEM ROLLING! That your roadways are rolling along!

[@daveismoseley]

Who run barter town?

[@fattymcfatso1083]

The protagonist here is basically Heinlein himself.

[@thdn8127]

The prototype for Kirk.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

@@thdn8127 Yeah. The typical Heinlein hero. Johnny Rico.

[@DressedForDrowning]

I think this is so in many of his stories.

[@JamesKlas]

However, it does have some allegorical points

[@davidarundel6187]

The CCP , should have read this story , as they may not have had a 20 lane , 5+ miles long traffic jam ; and they have high speed rail to most cities .😂😄🤭 What , no mag-lev cars in this vison , 🤔 Sounds like those 'travelators' in airports were utilized and expanded on , so no cars , just moving sidewalks , called "roads" - wonder how many lanes to reach 100 mph ?

[@fattymcfatso1083]

20 lanes . . each at 5 mph difference . .

[@thdn8127]

Social sexual hierarchy on display.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

You know the story is from 1940 right? In just a few years Heinlein would have female characters in positions of authority. He was ahead of the curve but this classic was an early story.

[@carlogomez8899]

Oh relax...

[@strawwormcariama3280]

Perhaps, you could suggest an alternative.

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

Stupid premise, uninteresting plot, cardboard characters, annoying song repeated several times, and no outro. Easily one of the worst episodes.

[@JamesKlas]

One of the dumbest stirie9sl i have ever heard