Science fiction writers are so intent on imagining fantastic futures for
Humanity, that we have looked up from our keyboards to find that we have ended
up wandering into a less-than-fantastic future...
In one of my favorite short stories in the magazine
STUPEFYING STORIES, “We Don’t Plummet Out Of The Sky Any More”, author M. David
Blake bases his work on the fact that despite fantastic predictions, we do NOT
have practical flying cars yet! Implied in that lament, is the issue it
encompasses – the lack of technology capable of bringing such a thing about. The
situation begs the question of “Why not?”
It’s my contention that we’ve wandered into a mediocre
future in which the greatest advances in technology have to do with us being
able to take endless pictures of ourselves and our dogs, as well as talk to our
“friends” while sitting in a room across from ANOTHER set of “friends” who are
also not talking to us but their other “friends” who are not in the room…
We have somehow wandered into a future that creates endless
iterations of video games and gaming systems but continues to be OK with a
lame-o “space station” (actually a collection of aluminum cans wired together
and in perpetual danger of being abandoned because space stations don’t aid
“friend” communication nor do they entertain me…) that is neither
state-of-the-art, nor particularly impressive.
Infighting even among practitioners of the future – the SF
community – have helped derail the fantastic futures SOME OF THEM HELPED
IMAGINE. For example, David Brin once dazzled me with a fantastic vision of a
future in which genetic engineering and bold steps into space allowed us to
meet alien beings both wonderful and frightening. That same author now decries
any attempt whatsoever to contact that selfsame alien life (http://www.davidbrin.com/setisearch.html).
The glut of horrific “dystopian” futures pandered by myopic
elder-angst to our best dreamers – teens who see much of the future as POSSIBLE
(and who needed to be “put in their place” by old folks too disappointed in
their own generation’s performance to feel comfortable allowing the NEXT
generation the opportunity to do better than they did) – has made a bold
attempt to preempt the effort of any of those dreamers to make the world a
better place.
And so we have this lame-o present, full of near-sighted
scientists whining about the current state of “science education” (http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/10/possibly-irritating-essays-science.html);
and after an announcement that a pick-up-truck-sized fusion reactor is imminent…hordes
of nay-sayers HOGPILE on it in general jealous whining driven by the fact that
someone ELSE might make more money and be able to take a selfie with the
President then text it to their buddies in the next room...(http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-bash-lockheed-on-nuclear-fusion-2014-10).
Speculating on the future rarely takes in the attitudes of
our future selves. While we’re adept at naming our generations – GenX, The Me
Generation (my generation of Boomers), The Greatest Generation, Millenials, Gen
Z, et al – the title is based on when they were born. Then we assign attributes
to those folks and call it a day. The Me Generation, which happens to include
most of the authors of the “teen dystopian” novels I’ve talked about before
(and which same Me Generation “poo-poos” the concerns of people like me and Neal
Stephenson (http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/)),
is largely part of the effort to break up the landing strip of the only people who
can really DO something about the future.
Teenagers and kids in late elementary school are the ONLY
ones who can shake off the siren call of a mediocre future. It’s time we GAVE
them the tools to do so rather than taking sledgehammers to their runway.
Resources: http://theskunkpot.com/index.php/visions-of-the-future-19-past-visions-of-21st-century-metropolis-vintage-posters/,
http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/1939-the-electric-house-of-the-future.html,
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/letters-to-the-future--old-postcards-from-1899-reveal-accurate-predictions-of-life-today-131054580.html#5lcCvVz,
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/predictions-for-educational-tv-in-the-1930s-107574983/?no-ist,
http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Predictions_That_Back_to_the_Future_Part_II_Got_Wrong,
http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Predictions_That_Back_to_the_Future_Part_II_Got_Right,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999
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