LegendSaber (June 10, 2008 at 5:05 pm)

... when did I tout the Internet as a 'fixer of all our problems'? You asked for progress and I gave it. As I said originally, they expected macro-evolution and got micro- instead. Rather than things becoming bigger and more powerful, they became smaller and more complex. The personal computer alone has probably improved the world more from a practical and individualist standpoint than any piece of technology mentioned in that video. And I'd still choose this world over that one any day.

mjjohnston121 (June 10, 2008 at 4:09 am)

And all of those have staggeringly little to do with transportation and the tangible "nuts and bolts" technology that the world actually runs on. Meanwhile Americans will be paying $4.50 a gallon to fuel technology literally from a century ago. The internet is great, don't get me wrong, but it isn't going to be a fixer of all of our problems, and shouldn't be touted as such.

LegendSaber (June 10, 2008 at 2:51 am)

It is presently possible to take a $300, 2 pound computer (ASUS Eee PC) into a Starbucks, watch a movie from Spain, have a debate with an Estonian followed by a discussion with a Swedish, form a friendship with someone from Japan followed by reading the blog of a Uruguayan, all without leaving one's seat. All in real time. The entire world is literally at our fingertips, and if you don't consider that astounding progress, I can't tell you what is.

mjjohnston121 (June 9, 2008 at 11:59 pm)

Name these astounding progressions. As I and El135o have pointed out, the technology that effectively runs the world every day has changed very little and grown more expensive...with relatively no change in sight. How exactly is that progress?

LegendSaber (June 9, 2008 at 8:37 pm)

We've progressed astoundingly since the 1960s, simply not in the manner they predicted back then. Our world has shifted from a macro-oriented society to a micro- one. Notice not a single mention of anything comparable to the modern personal computer. Though I'll also note that I can't imagine this as a serious attempt to predict the future. It looks like utter fantasy disguised as a documentary.

bigtank2185 (June 8, 2008 at 8:57 am)

"cargo rocket" ha ha, yeah

tgva325 (June 8, 2008 at 8:16 am)

Is a figuration, an exageration, but the movie showed more or less nearly that! Get real! I agree with you about fossil fuel problems, however, I cannot see how the "car centered" society will survive, an equilibrated transport system (with cars too, of course) is needed. No more super highways destroying cities like in the 60´s. No more hugh sections of lands dedicated to auto parkings.

El135o (June 7, 2008 at 12:26 am)

You must know then that NASA's 'new' design for its next generation of manned spacecraft is based on ... Apollo! From the 60s! Someone predicted that the 21st century would really be the Age of the Bureaucrat. There's rules in them thar hills ... I'd add the bean counter to that. Race you to the bottom line! That's called competition, these days.

mjjohnston121 (June 6, 2008 at 11:53 pm)

People these days just simply don't want to hear that in most cases we've progressed barely an inch from the 1960's, especially in the field of transportation, highway design and energy production. Most of the innovations these days are to reduce cost at the expense of the consumer...not to actually make things better or more efficient.

El135o (June 6, 2008 at 11:52 pm)

I also foresee, however, that enormous credit bill coming in sometime soon. Remember cash? It's the Information Age, but nobody's actually doing much communicating, either.