It's 2007. Where's my flying car, dammit?
No, Möller's ground-effect Jetsons personal flying saucer does not count. Even if the control system would let you get it above ten feet altitude, it'd probably be almost uncontrollable out of ground effect, and I'll bet it's noisy as hell.
Tags:
no subject
The design he created spun into the Supertrapp company, which he sold for millions.
He made two other tangential fortunes as a result of creating things for his flying car dream.
no subject
no subject
no subject
(Which is not to say it'll be unmetered. When does any US industry ever give anything away for free except as a sample to hook you?)
no subject
no subject
no subject
Obviously, nanoassembly/replication and limitless cheap/free energy would make a huge dent into material scarcity.
Until then, there's DMT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcqs9cDuN8). :P
no subject
no subject
no subject
Julie
no subject
Anyway, most future predictions I've seen from the past (what a mouthful!) have overestimated physics improvements and underestimated infotech and biotech improvements.
Except that they expected a magic bullet cure for cancer, instead of the piecemeal treatments we have now that, for many people and many cancers, together amount to cures.
Geez, and what about Frederik Pohl's Heechee books and organ markets. Yikes!
The problem with writing this shit is that unless a technology is taken for granted in passing and has little to do with the plot, you have to make it have a humongous scorpion sting in its tail. In real life, new technologies frequently have very limited "catches" to them--unless you have a Luddite perspective and just hate change.
Weber is right. Technology is the cure to technology's by-blow environmental (and other) problems.
But unless there's a huge downside, you rarely have a story. If you don't want a downside, a scientific or technological leap usually has to be purely ancillary to the story.
Which is why I like crossovers like spy stories or military stories set in a possible future. You can be more realistic with technological advances' up-sides and down-sides.
Julie
no subject
Of course, someone with connections in the industry could always simply ask Neal Stephenson. :)
no subject
http://www.moller.com/videom200x.htm