22 replies to this topic

[None of the above]

I was born in 1969.
That was the year we landed on the Moon. A time of some enthusiam for the future that brought along with it some rather grand hopes and expectations.

The year 2000 was often used as the benchmark for when these 'great things' would have happened and it wasn't an uncommon expectation that by 2000 'we' (humanity) would have banished poverty, ended world hunger and famine, world peace, we'd have colonies on the moon and be reaching out to Mars. Our technology would have 'saved us', science would have found the answers we need to make the world a perfect place and we'd be cpntemplating a new age of enlightenment...
Now obvioulsy these goals were a bit ambitious, but we don't seem to have made much progress at all!

[Kazoo]

The trip to the moon was more about politics and and race between who got there first then it was about science.

The U.S.A won and then they moved on. No one really believed that. They just said stuff like that to get the public interested to create national pride.

[None of the above]

Kazoo, on 02 October 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

The trip to the moon was more about politics and and race between who got there first then it was about science.

The U.S.A won and then they moved on. No one really believed that. They just said stuff like that to get the public interested to create national pride.

That's just not true.
Of course the moonshot was political, but the national pride and global pride in mankinds achievements was genuine and the belief in a 'great future' was certainly genuine.
As for the specific goals and hopes?
As I said a little tounge in cheek, some of these goals were somewhat ambitious, but they didn't seem impossible.
If your profile is correct then you are 15 years old.
You've never known anything but the current prevailing view of a dark and distopian future.
It wasn't always like that.
There was a time when we looked to the future with hope and expectation.

[and then]

Kazoo, on 02 October 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

The trip to the moon was more about politics and and race between who got there first then it was about science.

The U.S.A won and then they moved on. No one really believed that. They just said stuff like that to get the public interested to create national pride.

I guess humans make the greatest progress when faced with adversity.  The cold war was in full bloom and that race to the moon was about international dominance.
If we could, as a species, devote that degree of energy and idealism to the other things mentioned in the OP I think we would have accomplished some of them by now.  But human nature can never be excluded from the equation.  Truth is we have little to no ability to trust and we'd rather fight than abide peacefully.

[Kazoo]

Atlantia, on 02 October 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

That's just not true.
Of course the moonshot was political, but the national pride and global pride in mankinds achievements was genuine and the belief in a 'great future' was certainly genuine.
As for the specific goals and hopes?
As I said a little tounge in cheek, some of these goals were somewhat ambitious, but they didn't seem impossible.
If your profile is correct then you are 15 years old.
You've never known anything but the current prevailing view of a dark and distopian future.
It wasn't always like that.
There was a time when we looked to the future with hope and expectation.

*facepalm*

I don't even. First off you do know my current view of the people my age. No one thinks the future is bleak and distopian. Don't make that assumption. The same way I don't use your an ignorant cranky old man because your older.

And secondly they did not "seem" impossible. in 2012 we still would find it extremely difficult to colonize the moon. It was shown as "possible" to the general public for political purposes. The government is not about scientific progress. Especially the American government.  The government could give a rats ass about technology unless it helps them in a war or helps them get their messages across faster. The belief was real for sure among the general public. That does not change the fact the government never had any real plans to do that.

It was a hope and and a advertisement. Not a goal.

Edited by Kazoo, 02 October 2012 - 08:45 PM.

[The New Richard Nixon]

Young people only care about themselves that is a fact.

[Kazoo]

The New Richard Nixon, on 02 October 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

Young people only care about themselves that is a fact.

And all old people hang out in their front yards and shake their fist at children screaming "get off mah lawn!"

[None of the above]

Kazoo, on 02 October 2012 - 08:44 PM, said:

*facepalm*

I don't even. First off you do know my current view of the people my age. No one thinks the future is bleak and distopian. Don't make that assumption. The same way I don't use your an ignorant cranky old man because your older.

And secondly they did not "seem" impossible. in 2012 we still would find it extremely difficult to colonize the moon. It was shown as "possible" to the general public for political purposes. The government is not about scientific progress. Especially the American government.  The government could give a rats ass about technology unless it helps them in a war or helps them get their messages across faster. The belief was real for sure among the general public. That does not change the fact the government never had any real plans to do that.

It was a hope and and a advertisement. Not a goal.

Well you certainly show your age there.
I'll leave our discussion there I think.

[Kazoo]

Atlantia, on 02 October 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

Well you certainly show your age there.
I'll leave our discussion there I think.

You know many people who are older then me agree with this opinion.

What do you tell them?

[Hilander]

Kazoo, on 02 October 2012 - 09:03 PM, said:

And all old people hang out in their front yards and shake their fist at children screaming "get off mah lawn!"

What? Have you been run off someones lawn lately?

[Hilander]

Maybe the plans that we started out with haven't been made to happen since the moon landing.  However there have been many achievements in other ways.  Look how far the computer has come since then or medical advances, televisions, cameras, phones, spy technology, you can have your every move tracked and the ability to stick the enemy with a drone.

[None of the above]

Hilander, on 02 October 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

What? Have you been run off someones lawn lately?

That made me laugh so hard my teeth almost came out and I nearly fell out of my rocking chair.

[Kazoo]

Hilander, on 02 October 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

What? Have you been run off someones lawn lately?

Hopefully this is a joke I don't get and not you actually taking that seriously.

[None of the above]

Hilander, on 02 October 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

Maybe the plans that we started out with haven't been made to happen since the moon landing.  However there have been many achievements in other ways.  Look how far the computer has come since then or medical advances, televisions, cameras, phones, spy technology, you can have your every move tracked and the ability to stick the enemy with a drone.

Yeah, that's the progress I hoped for.

Makes up for the lack of flying cars

Edited by Atlantia, 02 October 2012 - 09:43 PM.

[Hilander]

Kazoo, on 02 October 2012 - 09:42 PM, said:

Hopefully this is a joke I don't get and not you actually taking that seriously.

It a joke because what you said sounded like a joke.