Requiem for the Once-Imagined Future

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "The underwhelming Discovery mission has the Wall Street Journal Online's Real Time columnists lamenting the space program's failure to realize the sort of intergalactic exploration they once imagined as kids through the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. Considering the Viking landers were digging around Martain soil back in 1976, 'we figured the place would be necklaced with orbiters and cris-crossed by rovers by now. Maybe there'd even be astronauts (or cosmonauts or taikonauts) tracing the courses of unimaginably ancient rivers.' Instead, we get a mission whose highlights were 'a) it came back; and b) an astronaut pulled bits of cloth out from between tiles.' At this rate, the columnists fear the innovations of the future won't be much more exciting: 'Maybe Real Time 2030 will fret about how our college kids do little more than steal full-res holographic porn when they're not getting their financial identities stolen by cyber-jihadists eager to build more backpack nukes.'"

forget space

[Anonymous Coward]

You want to talk about the short commings of the predicted future then forget space where is my ROCKET CAR!

full-res you say?

[vertinox]

Maybe Real Time 2030 will fret about how our college kids do little more than steal full-res holographic porn

Bah! If it doesn't have full tactile neural input, then I'm not interested.

There is hope!

[Ken Hall]

I, for one, am heartened by how much the shuttle has come to resemble the Millenium Falcon. At least in the reliability department.

Where are my flying cars?

[jonthegm]

I was promised flying cars by 2000!

Don't Forget C

[MrCopilot]

Instead, we get a mission whose highlights were 'a) it came back; and b) an astronaut pulled bits of cloth out from between tiles.

Lest we forget c.)Took out the trash.

Where's the Jetsons car I was promised?

[coastin]

It seems that some time ago in my past, I read on the the back of a cereal box that by the time I was grownup I would be driving one of those nifty Jetsons cars that hoover and fly. Do I really have to grow up to get one?

Re:forget space

[rbgaynor]

Be careful what you wish for rocket car [darwinawards.com]

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[Craig_P92669]

Because it wasn't funny. First post is always supposed to be funny.

Yes but...

[ravenspear]

Tanks for example are quite protected against nukes, and our vastly superior engineered bodies will not have much problems with nukes unless one goes off right by you (get better implanted radar!).

I can think of a few downsides to having a metal, indestructable body. For example, the sex probably wouldn't be as good.

Re:Yes but...

[myukew]

as this is slashdot i'll probably get some karma for saying

Sex is for the w34k!

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[Bun]

It is hard to imagine anything more repugnant than the 'trans-human' cyborg 'life' you are describing here.

Re:As Gregory Benford's Corollary Says:

[Anonymous Coward]

"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."

Re:Yes but...

[xs650]

Au Contraire, the sparks would fly.

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[Digital Vomit]

And I bet you any money that, when we reach this stage, we still won't have any damned flying cars!

Re:Project Orion

[Quiet_Desperation]

Orion Buff: I'm here to get approval for my spacecraft operations.

Government Regulator: OK. Now what was the propulsion method again?

OB: We explode nuclear bombs.

GR: (blank stare)

OB: Lots of them.

GR: (blank stare)

OB: You know... for the thrust.

GR: Yes. Well. I'm going to have to ask you to step into the, uh, spproval chamber and Officer Brunehilde will be along to strip sear- check your paperwork in a few minutes.

Re:full-res you say?

[davecrist]

wah?.... it's the tactile OUTPUT that would make it really interesting...

8)

Re:The problem is power

[Blakey Rat]

We need to invent that glowy crap on the back of every spaceship on TV and in the movies. The Millenium Falcon had no trouble landing and taking off from a planet without a fuel tank... you just turn on the glowy crap, and bam you're there. The starship Enterprise just makes the glowy crap flash really bright, and they're going faster than light itself! Even the Stargate uses glowy crap technology to bridge planets.

We just need to invent that glowy crap and everything else will fall into place.

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[Tumbleweed]

And I bet you any money that, when we reach this stage, we still won't have any damned flying cars!

Nah, much like the Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica, we will BE those flying cars!

I call dibs on the flying Lamborghini design from AutoMan!

Re:Transhumanism will never happen

[saider]

more words -

"where" "the" "fuck" "are" "we" "going" "to" "get" "that" "much" "workable" "material"

Re:I'll take the asteroid

[Pfhorrest]

...the mentality that the only careers worth having are those of criminal/thug, celebrity/whore, or lawyer/lobbyist/politician.

So you're saying there's basically just one commonly desirable job in today's market? ;-)

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[Psmylie]

"who put LSD in my coffee this morning?"

That was me, I got our mugs mixed up. My bad.

Re:If I had one wish...

[dzfoo]

Wow, that sounded surprisingly close to a Hallmark greeting card.

      -dZ.

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[cypherz]

Wow, that was the bestest post I've ever read! :-)

Socialism

[TheDurkinBoy]

I'd like to have a retirement, but a nerd on Mars will keep me warm instead. I'd like to buy medicine for my wife, but just raise my taxes to put a nerd on Mars. I'd like to buy a house that is safe, but instead you can raise my taxes for a nerd on mars and I'll be lickity-split happy and do you a little jig in my thread-bare overalls. Weee-doggy! A robot or man on Mars! NASA looks funded the same way China and Russia funded their space programs. Good thing we is the land of the free and home of capitalism and frown on socialism.

Re:Far greater things lie ahead

[archgoon]

Maybe I need an editor

You and the rest of slashdot. :)