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Originally Posted by GuyNamedGuy
SF writers such as Lester Del Rey and Robert Heinlein have been predicting this sort of thing since about 1940 - and 67 years later we're still sliding towards oblivion. As Heinlein himself put it, we're "Too fat, dumb and happy", like the Romans watching the Visigoths (or whoever it was that sacked the city) approach the city in 410 AD and doing nothing.
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Really? And here I thought it was all about politics!
No, seriously. I have always that the major roadblock in progressive development of this sort was because of fights between corporations and politicians who struggle to maintain a balance of power. There doesn't seem to be enough incentive to tip the scale one way or the other, so no one ever seems to do anything dramatic enough to make a difference.
Maybe the laziness is on our part for not pushing more, but from what I see in the press, there is a whole lot of pushing going on from the activist realm, but still no progress.
It amazes me that no major corporation has really invested in being the first out there with some cutting edge technology. Are they looking into it at all? Or do they really just not care?
I know that some of the issues with solar is about cost effectiveness. I think of software programmers and how there are beta testers that have a go at things and work out the kinks. I wonder if the big guys can think in that small of a way to make it all worthwhile?
Or is it still because the power companies don't want to reinvent themselves?
I mean, cars and highways is becoming so old-fashioned in a way, but people don't want to give up their cars and some of us can't. Not because of miles, but because of ability. I am physically incapable of riding a bike, especially with three little kids. So, where are the radical ideas of creating a transport that really works instead of continuing to rely on the same old, same old. Obviously, no one likes mass transit. So come up with something new.
There are hundreds of thousands of brilliant minds out there. Look at the software that is created, the books that are written, the medical advances, the wonderfully creative science fiction that is written!!
So where are the brilliant ideas that are going to save us from mediocrity!!!!!
