#TOYNBEE TILES MOVIE#

Thus the message might be that humanity ought to strive to colonize Jupiter-as in Kubrick’s work-or something greater, to survive. Some tiles allude to a mass conspiracy between the press (including newspaper magnate John S. ‘ ‘The Toynbee Convector,’ alludes to Toynbee’s idea that in order to survive, humankind must always rush to meet the future, i.e., believe in a better world, and must always aim far beyond what is practically possible, in order to reach something barely within reach. Toynbee, who proposed that civilization must have a challenge to respond to in order to flourish. Toynbee or Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘The Toynbee Convector’ (about a man who travels to a utopic future). ‘Toynbee’ may refer to historian Arnold J. The material used for making the tiles was long a mystery, but evidence has emerged that they may be primarily made of layers of linoleum and asphalt crack-filling compound. Toynbee-tile enthusiasts believe that a native Philadelphian created the tiles because of the large number that appear in the city, their apparent age, and the variety of carving styles. Some of the more elaborate tiles also feature cryptic political statements or exhort readers to create and install similar tiles of their own.

#TOYNBEE TILES MOVIE#

They contain some variation on the following inscription: ‘TOYNBEE IDEA, IN MOViE `2001, RESURRECT DEAD, ON PLANET JUPITER.’ They are generally about the size of an American license plate (roughly 30 cm by 15 cm), but sometimes considerably larger. Since the 1980s, several hundred tiles have been discovered.

The Toynbee tiles are messages of unknown origin found embedded in asphalt of streets in about two dozen major cities in the United States and four South American capitals.