Editing Toynbee tiles (section)

=== Possible subjects ===
==== Arnold J. Toynbee's "The Idea" ====
According to letters written by the tiler, allegedly uncovered by Toynbee tile researchers in Philadelphia in 2006,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://resurrectdead.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=92 |title=Resurrect Dead Message Board – Toynbees ideas – here they are, folks! |publisher=Resurrectdead.proboards.com |access-date=2010-10-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826024214/http://resurrectdead.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general |archive-date=August 26, 2011 }}</ref>{{unreliable-source-inline|date=March 2015}} "Toynbee's idea" stems from a passage in Arnold Toynbee's book ''Experiences'':

{{quote|Human nature presents human minds with a puzzle which they have not yet solved and may never succeed in solving, for all that we can tell. The dichotomy of a human being into 'soul' and 'body' is not a datum of experience. No one has ever been, or ever met, a living human soul without a body... Someone who accepts—as I myself do, taking it on trust—the present-day scientific account of the Universe may find it impossible to believe that a living creature, once dead, can come to life again; but, if he did entertain this belief, he would be thinking more 'scientifically' if he thought in the Christian terms of a psychosomatic resurrection than if he thought in the shamanistic terms of a disembodied spirit.<ref>{{cite book|first=Arnold|last=Toynbee|title=Experiences|pages=[https://archive.org/details/experiences0000toyn/page/140 140–1]|url=https://archive.org/details/experiences0000toyn/|chapter=Religion: What I Believe and What I Disbelieve|year=1969|publisher=Oxford University Press|lccn=74-75754}}</ref>}}

==== Ray Bradbury's "The Toynbee Convector" ====
Another possible interpretation is that the Toynbee reference comes from the [[science fiction]] writer [[Ray Bradbury]]'s [[short story]] "[[The Toynbee Convector]]",<ref name=upi /> which alludes to Toynbee's idea that in order to survive, humankind must always rush to meet the future and believe in a better world, and must always aim far beyond what is practically possible, in order to achieve something barely within reach. Thus the message might be that humanity ought to strive to colonize [[Jupiter]]—as in Clarke's work—or something greater, to survive.

==== Arthur C. Clarke's "Jupiter V" ====
[[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s short story "[[Jupiter Five|Jupiter V]]" involves a space ship named the ''[[Arnold J. Toynbee|Arnold Toynbee]]'' on a mission to Jupiter. It contains many ideas and concepts Clarke would later reuse when writing ''2001''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.weirdretro.org.uk/the-mystery-of-the-toynbee-tiles.html|title=World: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles|work=Weird Retro|access-date=July 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/AnthonyPerattPhysicsOfThePlasmaUniverse_201901/|title=Physics of the Plasma Universe|first=Anthony L.|last=Peratt|date=1992|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=New York|isbn=0-387-97575-6|via=archive.org}}</ref>

==== David Mamet's "4 A.M." ====
Playwright [[David Mamet]] has spoken of his belief that the tiles are an homage to one of his plays, and has described it as "the weirdest thing that ever happened". In his 1983 work "4 A.M." (published in the collection ''Goldberg Street: Short Plays and Monologues'' in 1985), a radio host based on [[Larry King]] impatiently listens to a caller who contends that the movie ''2001'', based on the writings of Arnold Toynbee, speaks of the plan to reconstitute life on Jupiter. The radio show host quickly points out the factual errors in the caller's assertion and the logical fallacies of his plan.<ref name="mamet">{{cite news
| last = Epstein
| first = Daniel Robert
| title = David Mamet
| publisher = SuicideGirls.com
| date = 2007-12-02
| url=http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/David%20Mamet/
| access-date = 2007-02-13 }}</ref>

Researchers for the 2011 documentary ''Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles'' claim to have uncovered several pieces of evidence that predate Mamet's play, including a 1980 call by the tiler to Larry King's radio show.<ref name="resurrectdead">{{cite AV media | title=Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles | publisher=Land of Missing Parts Productions | date=2011| people=Foy, Jon (Director)| medium=Documentary}}</ref> They cite a 1983 article in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' which mentions a local man "contacting talk shows and newspapers to spread the message" about bringing the dead to life on Jupiter, as depicted in the film ''2001''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Deleon|first=Clark|title=Pennsylvania Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff|date=2008|publisher=Morris Book Publishing, LLC|location=Guilford, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-7627-4588-3}}</ref>