Have we lost the will to explore and colonize space?
Back in the 1950's and 1960's, America was enthusiastically anticipating the future. Space travel was in and many wondered what it would be like to trade in their old automobile for a space ship, just like... The Jetsons. Architects envisioned what "future world" was to look like and began designing buildings with huge "caddy-like" tail-fins, pronounced shapes, and boomerang angles, just to name a few. Not to mention some that just designed the building like a flying saucer.
The general theme of the space age was fairly consistent and uniform...
"Man left his caves and grass huts and through hard work and ingenuity has built an amazing modern world. Tomorrow he will conquer any remaining problems and colonize the rest of the galaxy. However, for all his achievements and modern science, man will never lose touch with the natural world and his noble roots."
The space age was about the past, the present, and the future. But mostly the future. It was part of the popular culture, which reinforced a unified vision of a utopian future built on mankind's work and ingenuity.
The space age went out of fashion in the mid-1960's. It died when the story of our grand future died in the hearts of Americans.
I sure have lost the will to colonize space. Star Wars and the first Space Shuttle launch set the tone of my youth, but as the years went by, it became increasingly obvious that the American space program was lost in a bureaucratic muddle. Not only was there no hope that I would ever get to Mars, but it became obvious that nobody else was going there, either. The Moon is farther away now than it was two generations ago.
Why did we stop believing our own promises? For indeed, the death of our dreams and optimism also marked the death of the space age.
Today, most people have lost not just the will, but the desire. Not only the desire but even the interest. It's easy to think otherwise if all your friends are science fiction geeks but among the lay public there just isn't much interest in space exploration. Most people are satisfied hearing occasional bulletins from the space exploration front, that Pluto's not a planet after all, or that some comets are going to slam into Jupiter and release an big load of energy and we'll get it all on video.
Even those who grew up in the 1970's and 1980's are likely to have fond memories of burgers and milkshakes in space-age restaurants, bowling in themed bowling alleys, or seeing an aging depiction of the future in Disney's Tomorrowland.
The familiar boomerang arches, tapered columns, cantilevers, parabolas and curved domes are being bulldozed at an alarming rate. These buildings stand at an unfortunate juncture, not new enough to look modern, yet not old enough to be considered historically significant. As the best examples of the genre disappear, we are loosing not only part of our history, but also the last reminders of our shared dream of a shining future in a better world.
Ray Bradbury's story, The Toynbee Convector, is parable of man's need for a unified dream of a better future. The hero of the story says...
"I was raised in a time, in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, when people had stopped believing in themselves. I saw that disbelief, the reason that no longer gave itself reasons to survive, and was moved, depressed and angered by it... Everywhere was professional despair, intellectual ennui, political cynicism... The impossibility of change was the vogue... Bombarded by dark chaff and no bright seed, what sort of harvest was there for man in the latter part of the incredible twentieth century? Forgotten was the moon, forgotten the red landscapes of Mars, the great eye of Jupiter, the stunning rings of Saturn. Life has always been lying to ourselves... To gently lie and prove the lie true to weave dreams and put brains and ideas and flesh and the truly real beneath the dreams. Everything, finally, is a promise. What seems a lie is a ramshackle need, wishing to be born."
The general consensus seemed to be that even mudane things in life such as "food" was destined to break its surly bonds to nature, float free of agriculture, and hitch its future to technology. If not literally served in a pill, the meal of the future would be fabricated "in the laboratory out of a wide variety of materials", as one food historian predicted at the time, including not only algae and soybeans but also petrochemicals. Protein would be extracted directly from fuel oil.
Unfortunetly, the space age vision didnt pan out. After the optimistic 1950's an 1960's, we headed right into the turmoil and revolution of the 1970's and 1980's. Are we still as optimistic about technology and its ability to change our lives as we were back then? Do we speak about the future with the reverence we used to?
I dont think so. I wonder why. Where exactly did the vision of a shining future fall apart?
Back in the 1950's and 1960's, America was enthusiastically anticipating the future. Space travel was in and many wondered what it would be like to trade in their old automobile for a space ship, just like... The Jetsons. Architects envisioned what "future world" was to look like and began designing buildings with huge "caddy-like" tail-fins, pronounced shapes, and boomerang angles, just to name a few. Not to mention some that just designed the building like a flying saucer.
The general theme of the space age was fairly consistent and uniform...
"Man left his caves and grass huts and through hard work and ingenuity has built an amazing modern world. Tomorrow he will conquer any remaining problems and colonize the rest of the galaxy. However, for all his achievements and modern science, man will never lose touch with the natural world and his noble roots."
The space age was about the past, the present, and the future. But mostly the future. It was part of the popular culture, which reinforced a unified vision of a utopian future built on mankind's work and ingenuity.
The space age went out of fashion in the mid-1960's. It died when the story of our grand future died in the hearts of Americans.
I sure have lost the will to colonize space. Star Wars and the first Space Shuttle launch set the tone of my youth, but as the years went by, it became increasingly obvious that the American space program was lost in a bureaucratic muddle. Not only was there no hope that I would ever get to Mars, but it became obvious that nobody else was going there, either. The Moon is farther away now than it was two generations ago.
Why did we stop believing our own promises? For indeed, the death of our dreams and optimism also marked the death of the space age.
Today, most people have lost not just the will, but the desire. Not only the desire but even the interest. It's easy to think otherwise if all your friends are science fiction geeks but among the lay public there just isn't much interest in space exploration. Most people are satisfied hearing occasional bulletins from the space exploration front, that Pluto's not a planet after all, or that some comets are going to slam into Jupiter and release an big load of energy and we'll get it all on video.
Even those who grew up in the 1970's and 1980's are likely to have fond memories of burgers and milkshakes in space-age restaurants, bowling in themed bowling alleys, or seeing an aging depiction of the future in Disney's Tomorrowland.
The familiar boomerang arches, tapered columns, cantilevers, parabolas and curved domes are being bulldozed at an alarming rate. These buildings stand at an unfortunate juncture, not new enough to look modern, yet not old enough to be considered historically significant. As the best examples of the genre disappear, we are loosing not only part of our history, but also the last reminders of our shared dream of a shining future in a better world.
Ray Bradbury's story, The Toynbee Convector, is parable of man's need for a unified dream of a better future. The hero of the story says...
"I was raised in a time, in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, when people had stopped believing in themselves. I saw that disbelief, the reason that no longer gave itself reasons to survive, and was moved, depressed and angered by it... Everywhere was professional despair, intellectual ennui, political cynicism... The impossibility of change was the vogue... Bombarded by dark chaff and no bright seed, what sort of harvest was there for man in the latter part of the incredible twentieth century? Forgotten was the moon, forgotten the red landscapes of Mars, the great eye of Jupiter, the stunning rings of Saturn. Life has always been lying to ourselves... To gently lie and prove the lie true to weave dreams and put brains and ideas and flesh and the truly real beneath the dreams. Everything, finally, is a promise. What seems a lie is a ramshackle need, wishing to be born."
The general consensus seemed to be that even mudane things in life such as "food" was destined to break its surly bonds to nature, float free of agriculture, and hitch its future to technology. If not literally served in a pill, the meal of the future would be fabricated "in the laboratory out of a wide variety of materials", as one food historian predicted at the time, including not only algae and soybeans but also petrochemicals. Protein would be extracted directly from fuel oil.
Unfortunetly, the space age vision didnt pan out. After the optimistic 1950's an 1960's, we headed right into the turmoil and revolution of the 1970's and 1980's. Are we still as optimistic about technology and its ability to change our lives as we were back then? Do we speak about the future with the reverence we used to?
I dont think so. I wonder why. Where exactly did the vision of a shining future fall apart?
