Its the Future. Are we there yet?

Do you remember all those interesting books and comics and movies of your youth about what the future would be like? At Disney Land in California there was a section called Tomorrowland and it had the ‘House of the Future” and what an interesting sight that modular unit was. Then there were the jet packs and flying cars and instant foods.

There was real talk of traveling to the far reaches of Outer Space and building colonies and living there while all we were sitting at home watching Science Fiction cartoons like the Jetsons and other programs like Star Trek and later on Battle Star Galactica and now there is a complete channel devoted to Sci-Fi.

So I ponder this thought. Have we not arrived in the future if we don’t have jetpacks and flying cars and household personal robots? THEY told us we would have these things in the future so when do we get to the future?

As I pondered this dilemma I started thinking that on the one hand we have these wonderful new devices called lap tops and flat computer screens you can play games on, just like they did in the Legion of Superheroes — which is definitely in the future, and we are already blessed (and/or cursed) with so many other technological wonders probably were not imagined by those who designed our future so long ago, but we don’t still don’t have the jetpacks and the flying cars. So does that mean we are not in the future yet? Are we just stuck in the perpetual now waiting for permission to say or go into the ‘future?

As I thought long and hard (and that squeaking, creaking high pitched whining sound you have been hearing is my thoughts) the realization that we have arrived in the future hit. The jetpacks and flying cars are out there as promised. There is the Moller Skycar. In 2007, Moller announced that the M200G Volantor a precursor to the Moller Skycar, capable of hovering 10 feet above the ground using 70% ethanol and 30% water for fuel and traveling up to 50 MPH would hopefully be on the market in the United States by early 2008. Depending on demand, Moller says, the M200G Volantor could cost under $100,000 and I will tell you right now it is never going to put on the market.

Why? Where are they? Why isn’t there one in every driveway? Well here is the depressing part, folks. We don’t have them, NOT because there isn’t any entrepreneur willing to make them. We don’t have them because “Some body” rejected them. “Some body” collectively said, “No thanks.” And why is that? Because “Some body” said they’re not safe.

I grew up with a “Crop Duster” Dad and lived around all manner of flying aircraft all of my life. I studied airplanes and have always had an interest in flying and the earlier airplanes and cars of our past were everything but safe. But airplanes and motor cars were invented and introduced to the public in a more adventurous age; when people didn’t think or stress about safety to such an obsessive degree. We want more safety, Nay! we expect and demand it now more than we did then. If cars and airplanes were introduced for the first time today they’d never get government approval. They’d never be able to jump through all of the regulatory hoops any new product has to overcome today because “Some body” would be out there braying about how unsafe and dangerous they are!

Need any more examples? I’ve got a few more of them. I show you in Part Two next week.