When some of us were children, technology promised us flying cars and colonies on Mars. Instead, we got lines of people waiting for the latest smart phone, 24-hour on-demand TV programs, hackers stealing our identities, and terrorists recruiting deluded children by exploiting sophisticated social media websites.
What happened to optimism and imagination and innovation?
In case you are too young or maybe too old to remember those exciting days in which technology promised – and we believed in – unlimited progress, read this article published in the December 1969 issue of National Geographic. The author of this article, Dr. Thomas O. Paine, then serving as the Administrator of NASA, boldly declares,
“I believe that men will drive onward in the years ahead to Mars, to the moons of Jupiter, and to other new worlds in our vast solar system. Some of these destinations are attainable in this century, some even within the next two decades. If we give full rein to our growing space capabilities, we can rapidly establish a bridgehead in the heavens in the next dozen years.”
Like I said, what happened?
I want my flying car.
