iSteamPhone: iPhone exploded by 15th Century ingenuity, steam

From the people who sold you the "Exploded iPhone" schematic t-shirt comes this off-white remix, the "iSteamPhone", in which the iPhone is reimagined as some sort of anachronistic da Vinci invention.

$26 for the shirt; $16 for a poster, with shipping. (They're $20 and $10 if you can somehow make them materialize at your corner matter maker.)

[#1 posted by michaelportent , January 28, 2009 9:50 AM]

Now quick - somebody send this back in time to Leonardo da Vinci and just blow his mind. Maybe he'll invent the iPhone sooner so it'll be cheaper now.

[#2 posted by Alpinwolf , January 29, 2009 3:58 PM]

Pretty! Would you have to haul around a steam generator or reservoir for that?

@#1) I've oft fantasized about where tech might be today if history were given a nudge here or there.

Just a nudge, mind. I know it's fantasy, but teleporting every textbook at MIT, Oxford, and the like, into the ancients' laps seems too much like cheating. =P

Like providing hints and tips on calculus to Archimedes.

Or building an emergency reservoir with lots of buckets for the use of the caretakers of the Alexandria library. And a big stout emergency gate against intruding war and Really Dumb People, though I repeat myself.

Or introducing da Vinci to Nikola Tesla's work, and trigonometry. Mein Gott!, how far would he have taken his ideas with more than Man's arms and legs to power his toys?

Since we began passing tales of our forebears, great men have stood on the shoulders of giants. What if all the preceding giants had not been limited by their location in the timestream, sometimes hamstrung by the very society around them? Or by simply missing one key concept, something every high school graduate should know today, standing between them and the next huge leap forward?

It boggles...

The art also reminds me of a great episode of the canceled show Journeyman, where a 2006-ish digital camera was temporarily lost in the 70's, and computer technology was, shall we say, significantly affected.

[#3 posted by irsean , January 29, 2009 4:03 PM]

Sure, as soon as I design a device that will interface my Flux Capacitor with the new Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. Anyone have a slice of lemon I could borrow?

[#4 posted by Alpinwolf , January 29, 2009 4:08 PM]

Would it be easier to seek out an actual lemon slice?
Or improbably change a convenient spork into one?

I'm impressed that you have the gold brick covered.

[#5 posted by tedric , January 29, 2009 7:40 PM]

I was daydreaming this exact concept just the other day! I don't have the graphic design skills to illustrate it myself, but the picture here is almost exactly what I was imagining when I wrote this blogpost. I even called it 'steamPhone,' although the mechanism I envisioned was a steampunk cross between clockwork and electrical circuits. If anyone from Apple is reading, I would pay through the nose for a limited edition iPhone that was dressed up to look/feel like this.