Lessons for the Future

Okay, it's 2009.

Why the hell don't we have practical, reusable spacecraft yet? Oh, we have the space shuttles... but we're "retiring" those pretty soon and as spacecraft, they're not really practical. They're good for shots to one location and back. They can't - for example - go from the Hubble telescope to the ISS.

Why has it taken so long to plan another trip to the Moon? Why haven't we landed people on Mars yet?

Seriously. We have all kinds of crazy technology now. What are we doing with it?

We're blowing the shit out of each other and ignoring the impact of our technology on our world.

We're planning new and interesting ways of eroding privacy and messing with information distribution.

In short, we're using our technology for short-sighted power grabs and shell games instead of more forward-thinking endeavors.

By "we" I mean those who hold the positions of decision-making in the institutions of power in the world today. Sure, there's plenty of visionaries and entrepeneurs out there who have thoughts on how to implement new ideas, but it's hard to get very far when the real resources are being dedicated to squabbling and mediocre paths that just maintain a failing status quo.

I guess Star Trek is just making me antsy again.

We're on a tiny little globe that's important, but getting overtaxed. We, as a species, need to expand our search for resources beyond our world so we don't destroy where we came from.

Plus spaceships are just cool.