Go here to see a Toynbee Tile.
Here is an excerpt from a good article about these 'urban equivalents to the crop circle'-the article can be found here.
"...Weird things are happening at major intersections in downtown Cincinnati -- unnoticed by police or passers-by until it's too late.
Someone is planting bizarre messages on tiles embedded in the road surface. What the tiles are made of, who is placing them and how they get away with it -- all of these questions remain unanswered. What is known is this: We are not alone. The mysterious tiles have been spotted in roads throughout the Western Hemisphere...The red, white and blue Toynbee Tiles have appeared in Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C., each city having at least 25 embedded in intersections within their municipal boundaries.
It doesn't stop there. Similar tiles have been spotted in Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, Indianapolis, Atlanta and as far south as Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile..."
Arnold Toynbee was an English Historian who believed mankind's perception of it's future was integral to the making of that future. That's a gross oversimplification of his thoughts, of course. His way of thinking is best illustrated by a story by Ray Bradbury titled "The Toynbee Convector"-in this story a man claims to have gone into the future and witnessed a world free of problems and existing in peace-a utopia. Upon hearing this people around the world begin to work together to ensure that this comes about. Only in the end do we find out the man lied. An excellent synopsis of the story can be found by clicking the title above.
The tiles are called Toynbee tiles because they frequently say the same thing-(see the image at the beginning of this entry,) referring to Toynbee's ideas as they are exemplified in Stanley Kubrick's cinematic vision of Arthur C. Clarke's short story, 'Childhood's End', 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sometimes though, the tiles just seem to be kvetching. The tilemaker just railing on in a paranoid manner, exhorting those walking overhead to "kill all Journalists" (Indrid hopes that DOESN'T include bloggers!) or going on about the "hellion Jews."
Yet they can be found from NYC down to Rio?
Curious-at the moment a Google search only returns a few hundred hits.
Yet they are there. In some people's minds, everywhere.
Surely John Titor might know something, but it appears he's long gone.
Either way, kids, when you're next crossing an intersection in Rio de Janeiro, or New York City, or Atlanta, be sure to stop and look for the Toynbee tile.
And don't mind that city bus that just lost it's brakes.
Just embrace your future.
