Paul Laffoley. I, Robur: Master of the World. 1968.
Many of Laffoley's enduring concepts are prophetically Incorporated into his earliest works. This one is from the late 1960s and has all the usual themes - mega and nano engineering, physically alive architecture, energy devices, genetic engineering, transdisciplinary convergence, the UFO geometry, klein bottles and the Bauharoque/Utopic themes. The painting is an homage to Paul's favorite sci-fi film, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', (which was based on 'Master of the World' published in 1904, one of the last novels by French pioneer science fiction writer, Jules Verne.) This is combined with Paul's first description of what they now call a 'space elevator' except extending all the way to the moon, and connecting the Earth to the Moon with a double-layer orbital geodesic-sphere around each planet. -Michael Coleman