The Cynic Says……

I was just watching failed inventions or some such shit on History. It basically outlined tons of failed inventions that never quite made it. Very interesting shit. One thing that amused me was the fact that in the early 1900’s they sold tons of products based on Radon, which is higly radioactive (and thereby causes cancer). Tons of other interesting shit was shown, like new housing designs by R. Buckminster Fuller. Anyway, this got me to thinking…. I used to have this book from like 1964 that outlined how transportation had progressed from the beginning of time up until that point and then made some predictions for the future. The book amusingly predicted that by 2000, we would all be driving (or more like riding in) jet propelled flying cars. We were also supposed to have personal flying platforms… and our cars were supposed to be driving themselves. About the closest we’ve come is cars driving themselves, what with DVD navigation systems becoming more prominent and adaptive cruise-control that automatically keeps a certain distance from the nearest car in front of you. Needless to say, we’ve been gypped goddamnit! Weren’t we supposed to also have colonized other planets, or the moon at the very least by now? Jeez… we’re slacking off here! Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll see any of that in my lifetime by any means. Star Trek said we would have teleporters and other cool random shit too…. doesn’t look like we’re anywhere near that goal either (or maybe we are, but the government is just not telling us since it would put the oil companies in a world of shit).