Update: We can still make Obama a hologram. The Facebook page for holographic studios is back. Go there and to the fan page for the Obama Hologram to Learn How You Can Help.In the heyday of holography, back in the 1970s, there were four schools dedicated to the holographic arts around the world, and five studios in New York City alone. Today, there are only a few left in the world. And no one is holding the candle higher than Doctor Laser.If you haven’t plunged your teeth into the latest episode of Motherboard, our auroral junket into the laboratory of Doctor Laser, what’s the matter with you?You don’t know from amazing until you see it. The lab is a wonder cabinet of dancing 3D imagery and flashing lasers, converted from a former blacksmith’s forge (killer in its own right) and packed to the gills with homemade holography equipment..Doctor Laser (Jason Sapan as he’s known when his lab coat is off) has made holograms out of everyone from Andy Warhol to Isaac Asimov. Now he’s on a mission to make a hologram of Obama.If Doctor Laser succeeds in his pursuit, Obama would become the first sitting president of the United States to pose for a hologram. (Bill Clinton sat for a hologram portrait after his presidency.)At Motherboard, we uphold that holograms rule, and that to not make a hologram of Obama would be a disservice to these United States. A hologram portrait is, in effect, the most detailed and realistic portrait money can buy. Should our gift to future generations not be a sustained call to ameliorate the bond between science and society? What could possibly mark such a bond more accurately than a hologram, the freaking John Hancock of science?A hologram portrait of the President could be cause for a new badly needed investment in science and technology education. And it would prove of course to be a small lesson in the history of the laser (invented in the United States 50 years ago), and generate greater public awareness around the nearly forgotten art and science of holography.Remarkably, there are less than 100 people on Facebook who “like” Doctor Laser’s commitment to make a hologram portrait of Obama. We’d like to assist in changing that.Here’s how we can make this happen: Go to the Facebook page The First Presidential Hologram Should Be Obama, like it, and then contact the White House to demand an Obamagram (Holobama?). For example:Dear President Obama,As you have no doubt been briefed countless times, holography produces the most detailed and realistic representations technologically possible. A hologram portrait of you by the esteemed and good Doctor Laser would be a fitting way to represent this historic and wired presidency, and allow future generations to know exactly what the leader of the United States looked like at the dawn of this high-tech century.And lest you be concerned about lasers being aimed at your face, or being in any way associated with Will.i.am, remember that hologram lasers are safe, and that Bill Clinton and Gene Simmons and even the Queen know how rad this is.Will you wait until the president and premier of China sit for their holographic portraits? Or will you join us now, in the 21st century?Yours,
AmericaSee yet more Motherboard coverage of holograms.
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AmericaSee yet more Motherboard coverage of holograms.