X wrote on Jul 19
th, 2010 at 8:49pm:
there hasn't been a drastic improvement in the automobile for 75 years.
Hop into your 1935 Ford Cabriolet and drive to Plymouth and say that to Spanky's face!
PopSci has always fantasized about the future. Whether it's the "Car of the Future" or the "Plane of the Future" or the "City of the Future", PopSci's predictions have always been a bit dreamy. But hey, what visionary doesn't look at the future through rose colored glasses?
If you could tell somebody from 1 A.D. about the technologies we take for granted today, think about how they would imagine modern life. We can travel across the continent in a matter of hours. We can speak with people on the other side of the planet in real time. We can see inside your body and detect maladies without even touching your skin. They would undoubtedly imagine a society in which we've eliminated hunger, crime, pollution, etc.
Yet, here we are, 2,000 years down the road and we still deal with all of these social ills despite our unbelievable technological progress. When we look into the future, we too like to imagine a world where these issues will become obsolete, but it simply isn't going to happen. Human nature persists despite our best efforts and intentions.
-b0b
(...steps off the soap box.)