Looking for info about Frank Ogden (AKA Dr. Tomorrow)

HI all.

About 18 years ago, a man named Frank Ogden–aka Dr. Tomorrow–gave a presentation at the Lester Centre of the Arts. He billed himself as a futurist, and he really inspired me to pursue an interest in technology, particularly computers and the Internet. I even wound up buying one of his books, called “The Last Book You’ll Ever Read.”

I haven’t heard any news from or about him in many years, and since he was in his mid 70’s when I met him, I have to wonder if he is still alive or not. He was based in Vancouver, living on a high-tech houseboat.

I was wondering if anyone had any information on him. Is he still alive, and if so, is he still active? I can’t seem to find any recent information about him on the Internet. And considering what a proponent of the Internet he was when I met him, well, I think you can figure out the rest.

Anyway, if anyone knows what the story is, I’d appreciate a reply.

Try and email him here: drtomorrow@shaw.ca

His website? drtomorrow.com/ … looks like Geocities-era.

Not making fun of it, I love that these sites still exist. I wish Geocities never went away. They’re a glimpse into the recent past. Like Mad Men for websites :smile: Here’s another example: xzonedirectory.com/drtomorrow.htm including his phone number and address. The good ole days of the web.

Anyway, latest thing I could find from him on the web was here: traffic.libsyn.com/xzone/20120911_seg1.mp3 a podcast interview from November 2009. His interview starts around 8:00 or so.

bonus points for the Futurama reference, Memeposter.

I still have the disc promo package promoting his future cyber university.

http://vimeo.com/15968481)

Yeah, I had seen the website, but as Mig said, it looked like something from the mid-90’s, and didn’t have any recent information, nor could I find anything else recent. Hell, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry.

"Ogden broadcasts a live one-hour weekly videostreaming future show each Saturday morning at Internet Beat 708 (PST 8 a.m. 20th Century time) directly from his floating Cyberden via the Internet narrowcast network: www.mediaontap.com. He also produces seven other Web-TV shows under the Cyberspace University Tomorrow Channels., appearing via the mediaontap Network. "

drtomorrow.com/

Hahah! Narrowcast! I guess that was before podcasts.

And the use of the “internet beat” dates that paragraph to circa 1998 or so. Crazy memories!

That site doesn’t have anything to do with him anymore, I don’t think.

Yeah, no kidding. Every once in a while, I pick up his book and look through it. It brings back a lot of memories for sure; mostly a sense of anticipation about all the myriad possibilities the future held back then. Especially since the Web was still in its infancy but held so much potential. Hell, we didn’t even have an ISP in Rupert at the time–the best we had was BBSes. Anyone remember The Junkyard, Pyramid, or The Titanic? And what about that one with the GUI that took about two minutes on a 14.4 kbps modem to load a single page? Then when Kaien Computer Solutions brought in Internet service via AWINC (via Kelowna I think), I’d sit in front of my little 486 sx 25 Compaq Presario for hours just surfing around. And then when I went to UVIC I got what I called “The Monster”–a massive tower computer from Gateway (they were still called Gateway 2000 back then) with a 100 Mhz Pentium processor, 4 MB of ram and a whopping gigabyte of hard drive space! Man, those were the days!

Like any “futurist,” his predictions were really hit-and-miss. Some of what he wrote was spot-on, some was not even remotely close to reality, and most was somewhere in between.

I found it particularly interesting that he devoted an entire chapter to Japan. In fact, that was a huge reason why I wound up coming over here.

When I get the time, I’ll go back to the book again and post some of the more interesting quotes. I only wish I still had the floppy disk the book came with (and a drive to read it with) so I could cut-and-paste as needed. Oh well…

I remember the junkyard/pyramid! I also have a walkman and my daughter is going to get it for her 13th birthday (11 more years) and I am going to laugh hysterically while she tries to figure out exactly what it is, then for her 14th birthday maybe ill find my dads old 8track player.

When I look back at technology from when I was a kid it amazes me how far we’ve come and how different things were even 10 years ago. I mean shit I remember when an answering machine was kind of a big deal or having to find a pay phone to make a phone call. now even my 80+ year old grandpa has a cell phone.

Apparently, his houseboat is for sale.

vancouveruniquehomes.com/Pro … Details/97

Maybe he’s retired, or ill, or has passed on? He seems to have fallen off the map. Looks like he put his houseboat up for sale in August 2007:

web.archive.org/web/200708171221 … tpage.html

And the last real update on his site was in January 2009, where he started offering a one-on-one seminars:

web.archive.org/web/200901170657 … tpage.html

He would be in his 90s now, right?

[quote=“MiG”]Maybe he’s retired, or ill, or has passed on? He seems to have fallen off the map. Looks like he put his houseboat up for sale in August 2007:

web.archive.org/web/200708171221 … tpage.html

And the last real update on his site was in January 2009, where he started offering a one-on-one seminars:

web.archive.org/web/200901170657 … tpage.html

He would be in his 90s now, right?[/quote]

Yes, he would definitely be in his 90’s. I’m thinking the same thing as you MIg; he’s either not well, retired, or no longer with us.

I vividly remember his presentation, and talking with him afterward. Definitely a life- and perspective-altering experience to say the least.

If he has passed on, I wonder if there’s an obituary somewhere…

OK, here’s something interesting: I just saw a comment by him on a news story about war veterans seeking compensation for being imprisoned by the Japanese during WWII and their subsequent treatment by the Ministry of Defence and Service Personnel and Veterans Agency. The comment is dated September 15, 2011, and he says that he’s over 90 years old.

Maybe he is still around. I wonder if his old shaw.ca email address is still active?

(defencemanagement.com/news_s … p?id=17453 for the story.)

Frank Ogden / Dr. Tomorrow

 Frank Ogden / Dr.Tomorrow passed away today, in the early morning at the age of 92.     He passed away peacefully without any pain, and will be missed..   

 His predictions of a future to come came at a time when the internet was young, and were always vivid and full of possibilities...

 He will be sorely missed.

Jim Semenick / Assistant to Frank Ogden… Dr. Tomorrow.