have you been let down by the future?

[Tony in Tarzana]

It's funny -- I grew up convinced there wasn't going to *be* a future, so I really didn't have anything to be let down by. Well, no, I take that back -- I spent years and years looking forward to the arrival of Halley's Comet in 1986, and when it turned out to be a fizzle, I was terribly disillusioned.

Yep, me too. I'd been hearing about Halley since I was a kid, and it was a major disappointment. If I live to be 100, though, I'll have something to look forward to since Halley is supposed to appear again in 2061.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

A big nothing

The comet Kohoutek

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I've been let down so low it's why I live in the past

Oh, remember the big hoo-hah about the greatest invention ever ever ever? Ever? In December 2001 we found out what IT was: the Segway. [huh]

 

[Senator Jack]

Yes, Kohoutek. My mother woke us up at 4 am to drag us down to the pier in the bitter cold, to see...nothing.

Regards,

Senator Jacl

 

[Matthew Dalton]

The idea of Flying Cars becoming mainstream scares the hell out of me. We can't even keep drunks, druggies and morons in general from causing havoc with ground-based vehicles.

 

[Story]

You can always look forward to December 21, 2012.

 

[katiemakeup]

The only future I like to think about is Conan O'Brien's version of 'In the Year 2000'...

 

[Phil]

You can always look forward to December 21, 2012.

Oh yes, the belief that the Aztecs are predicting the end of the world because the calendars end at Dec. 12, 2012. Did any of those "historians" stop to think maybe that the calendar maker either took a break and thought, "Well, I've gone all the way to 2012, maybe I can give it a rest." Or he was slaughtered when the Spanish explorers started killing them all.

The way that the future has let me down is that G. I. Joe isn't the same anymore. I always looked forward to every new Joe that would come out. NOw it's all this fantasy stuff. I want my true to life Joe's back.

 

[Elaina]

Yea well the Aztec's society DID end in that particular cycle after all. But what does Nostradamus say about it?

Personally, in 2012 the world ends I'm going to go kick some Aztec's big behind.

My dad always told me Mad Max was close to what was going to happen, and pretty well prepared me for life like that. My mother believed more in "The Stand"'s version or it, and I figure I'm going to hedge my bets, have stuff I don't need electricity for, and get a few guns. That way, if it ends, I don't have to worry , if it doesn't I don't have to talk to anyone.

I always pictured the future to be really bleak and depressing. Can't say I've been really surprised so far.

 

[20thCenturyTim]

-- "Space: 1999". I'm still waiting for the moon to get blown out of its orbit!

Are you sure it didn't? What do you think caused global warming? The moon you see in the sky is just a Hollywood projected image, like the moon landing themselves! lol

 

[Twitch]

Huh! I recall in the days before we got to the moon how the schedule spoken of was that we'd be on Mars at least by 1984, 2000 the absolute latest, with permanent base on the moon and a space station. Wa happened?:eusa_doh:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Wa' happened?:eusa_doh:

Vietnam, recessions, the Cold War, other priorities ...

.

 

[Elaina]

Wa happened?:eusa_doh:

The Challenger derailed the entire Space Program and then when we started getting it back on track the Columbia accident happened.

 

[20thCenturyTim]

Huh! I recall in the days before we got to the moon how the schedule spoken of was that we'd be on Mars at least by 1984, 2000 the absolute latest, with permanent base on the moon and a space station. Wa happened?:eusa_doh:

The loss of dreamers and doers like Howard Hughes for one thing.

 

[20thCenturyTim]

The Challenger derailed the entire Space Program and then when we started getting it back on track the Columbia accident happened.

Having worked inside NASA, I can tell you, it is more complicated than that. Sadly.

 

[Senator Jack]

I recall one conpsiracy theory that suggested there were tapes of one of the crew from Apollo 17 accidentally finding a hidden alien base or ships in a moon crater. The government was then warned off and the program was abandoned. Supposedly on the tape you can hear the crewman expressing his surprise, something to the order of 'What the blankety-blank is this?' I do find it a bit odd that they haven't sent a crew back in thirty-years. Then again, I haven't been to Camden, New Jersey in thirty years, and I have no desire to go back there either.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Twitch]

Senator Jack you don't know the half of it. I found some conspiracy theory sites with forums that discuss/argue that, the 9/11 thing and whether the moon landing was real or fake. People see cities on Mars in pics that I can't and just all sorts of hokey, hokey stuff so that I have to actually question how rational people actually are.

Frankly it's a little scarey to think of these people having any authority or influence in regard to anything resoponsible in society.

 

[skwerl-hat]

i was expecting a more Orwellian world by now. Sure we have the big brotherish cameras everywhere but we arent quite to the stage of being criminalized for thinking :-D
hooray for ingsoc

 

[Matthew Dalton]

i was expecting a more Orwellian world by now. Sure we have the big brotherish cameras everywhere but we arent quite to the stage of being criminalized for thinking :-D
hooray for ingsoc

Heh. They don't need to criminalize thought because society has been much more successful in destroying independent thought and rebellion than Orwell had dreamed.

 

[MrBern]

rocket racers

its on its way....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/10/11/popsci.rocket/index.html