Flying cars.

[KateLMead]

When I was a child a nation wide competition took place to find the best young competition writer.. The subject was The world in 50 years time. I was a winner
I wrote that "cars would fly, and be able to travel overwater. Today we see photographs of flying cars.. We already have cars that can go across water.. The only thing there that I got wrong was the time element flying cars have taken 50 years to materialise.

[Suff]

I recall reading Sci Fi 40 years ago. Out of the changes which happened from the turn of the century, the Atomic Pile or what we now call the Nuclear Power Station, the splitting of the atom and the development of jet engines and jet liners, optimism was that technology would continue to race ahead at the same pace or even faster.

In fact it has, but as life would have it, it has raced ahead in ways which could not have been envisioned 50 years ago. So whilst the SkyCar is now a reality, it uses 1970's Wankel engine technology which, whilst slightly more efficient than traditional internal combustion engines, still wastes more than 50% of the energy we put into it.

In the Engineering space we are still stuck in the age of steam, with some odd exceptions like the jet engines. Humanity has failed to get under the lid of the mysteries of the universe which are a prerequisite to conquering Gravity and Zero Point energy (cosmic energy). These are things that were believed to have been resolved by 2000, by the engineers of the 1930's. CERN and the LHR are going to be the tools of this next revolution and it's going to take a lot of time and, more importantly, money.

However the world has moved on in ways that could not have been predicted in the 30's, 50's or even 70's. Our integrated computer technology is significantly more advanced than was ever envisoned, yet, again, is also significantly less capable, in terms of robotics and engineering, than was thought to be the case. Mainly due to the fact that we have not cracked the portable power problem. Battery technology still sits almost in the 1940's. It is moving on now due to clean energy requirements and the need to store massive amounts of power in small places. But it's slow.

Where we have outstripped all expectations is in genetics and human engineering. The ability to grow spare parts and modify genetics were not even considered back in the days of "real" scifi because people didn't even know the world that existed at the genetic level.

As for the Internet, Facebook and the drive to atomic levels of storage, these were not even in the fancies of the fiction writers of the first half of the last century.

What has happened is that consumerism took over the world. Where engineering revolution was replaced with consumer evolution to keep people happy with the next tiny increment of technology. The pace of change has slowed if not the scope of change and the amount of changes.

The Scientists of the great breakthrough in the Atomic Age believed we would have cracked Gravity by now. They believed it was just a matter of the right mathematics and problem solving. in fact it is actually about understanding how the universe really works and we have barely begun to understand the inner workings of the building blocks of our universe. Once we do, another "revolution" in the technology of the human race will begin. Where energy is a byproduct of other discoveries and a new social order will begin again.

What that social order is, I hesitate to say, but I doubt it will be something we recognise as "good" from the current perspective. In my own lifetime I have watched the freedoms of my country be removed and a regime of control replace it. I'm pretty sure I don't want to see the socio political impact of "unlimited" power......

[KateLMead]

Oh suff, you are soooo clever.. I love your threads.xx

[Suff]

No, No, I spend a lot of boring time inside my head dreaming. Then looking up those dreams....

It can be fun though if you like that sort of thing.

[Aggers]

I agree with Kate.

You have an exceptional knowledge on subjects which the average person doesn't even comprehend,
and your posts are always intensely interesting.

Your predictions about the future of the human race may well be right but personally I'm quite happy
to have lived through the past eighty-odd years, and I can't see the future being any happier for mankind.

[Suff]

Aggers, that definition would fit a sad geek with no life.....

OK I admit it.....

[Lozzles]

[Kaz]

Funny that this thread should be here on my return, as Mick and I had quite a conversation on holiday about the old TV programme Tomorrow's World, trying to remember which inventions had actually become reality and which hadn't

Microwaves being one which truly took off, and jetpacks to travel around, for work and shopping, which didn't