I have to admit, I am.
In the 70s when I was a kid, man had just walked on the moon, we’d launched the Voyager probes to the distant planets in our solar system, we’d landed on Venus, we’d landed on Mars. In a few short years afterwards we’d flown the space shuttle. Even the UK had Concorde and a burgeoning IT industry.
I distinctly remember thinking that the vision of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ looked distinctly pedestrian in 1985. Alas, 9 years past this point in fiction, there is no spinning space station in permanent orbit, no spaceliners to the moon, no moonbase, no AI computers. Nasa is being forced to choose between visiting Europa and Titan because ‘we’ can’t afford both. The UK is now a fading non-entity in the world, so much for ‘Great’ Britain.
Humanity used to be all about reaching for higher goals and exceeding expections. Sadly, we now have to content ourselves with a facile celebrity ‘culture’, empty political rhetoric and industrial turgity. We’ve lost Concorde, we’re loosing the Space Shuttle, and we can’t afford to ‘go boldly where no one has gone before’ because a bunch of bankers have shipwrecked our economy by spending money we never really had. Public transport is a mess, our education system confused and devalued by interference from so called self-styled ’experts’ who never work at the sharp end – ditto most other public sector organisations – and the private sector is no paragon of virtue either.
Technically we’re not much further forward. Speed increases in computers have hit a wall. Cars are mostly less efficient now than 10 years ago because we’ve demanded bigger and more complex onboard systems. Hey! Atleast we have the iPhone! A triumph of marketing and presentation over content and productivity. Wow.
We seem incapable of tackling the big problems: Environment, Over-crowding, transport, energy use, education, health, pensions. Where are the visionaries who will find a way to tackle these real problems?
Worse, the ‘next generation’ has lost its mojo too. Speaking to youngsters today makes you wonder who their heroes and heroines are. This article sums up the problem better than I can. Where are the Carl Sagans and the Patrick Moores? The Amelia Earhearts and the Margaret Thatchers? The Isambard Kingdom Brunels and the Robert Stephensons? People who can look beyond the moment and see a far far better place?
What’s more… Who’s prepared to put in the effort and hard work to create that vision and make it a reality? Name the people who have inspired you in the last decade. Delete any celebrities. What does that list look like?
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