Futurama's Many Crossovers and References.

The other day, as the class was learning about the history of television, Santiago called to attention the fact that Professor Farnsworth being named so was no mere coincidence.  In fact, this fictional cartoon character was named after the unrecognized inventor of the television, Philo Farnsworth.  This got me to thinking, if futurama has a character named after the inventor of the TV, what other references to inventions, technology, and pop culture are made throughout the shows history...

Look Familiar?

                                                                ...If it does, that is because the class viewed a clip of a movie called "2001 Space Odyssey."  In the movie, this artificial intelligence interface was named HAL, and it was the life support, auto pilot, and main control system of the ship in that movie.  Well, in futurama, they named this AI interface AL, and thats not the only similarity.  The episode in which this appeared was basically a tribute to HAL.  To prove my point, AL even tries to kill the people on board of the space ship.  

Along these same lines came another interesting crossover that could happen in the future.  The other day I attended the presentation by Carmen Hall about video mapping.  In the presentation she mentioned something about a music player that translates the sounds into light, creating something similar to the many music playing software, where the lights and designs move and change according to the music. I don't remember what this device was called, but I find it interesting none-the-less, because I believe futurama calls attention to this as well.  In a few episodes, there is an instrument that creates image from the sounds that is played upon it.  They call it the holophoner.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I believe this is a reference to something that was before its time, and not really acknowledged as something historically significant.  However, futurama takes this idea, and makes it into something that is completely within the realm of possibility for technology progression in the next 1000 years.  This is where I arrive at my overall statement.  I believe futurama takes ideas from movies and technology, in order to depict a realistic scenario of our future, and no matter how satyric the show is, it is in these examples that we find they take their depiction of the future quite seriously.  They created a futuristic show that people would believe to be possible, so they took ideas from our modern life, and blew them up so they would fit in their futuristic world!