[extropy-chat] The future is happening

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

The Wall Street
Journal<http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112370259710910021-MHWdDdhTjCAvoB3BCDKqqc1aJcU_20060814,00.html?mod=blogs>has
a good article on the future that never happened. Or more precisely,
the
future happened (of course) but not in space as we imagined when we were 
kids. The author acknowledges that a lot of other things happened: 
computers, mobile phones, the Internet, etc.
Slashdot<http://science.slashdot.org/science/05/08/15/1256243.shtml?tid=160&tid=1>has
a pointer to the article and a discussion forum where readers are
discussing transhumanism as the big thing which is happening: "Transhumanism 
goes far beyond most science-fiction". Some readers think transhumanism will 
never happen because energy (read: oil) is being depleted. My comment on 
Slashdot: "It is a race against time. Old resources are depleted, and new 
resources are developed. Technology is the driver of both these trends - the 
question is whether we will develop new sustainable energy resources before 
exhausting oil. Nuclear energy is available already, solar - wind - other 
alternative energies are already available as technologies, but not yet 
fully deployed. It is a race between two trends, we will see which one wins. 
Transhumanists bet on technology's capability to improve our lives and solve 
many of the current problems of the world, and on our own capability to 
develop such technologies in time."
Wall Street Journal<http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112370259710910021-MHWdDdhTjCAvoB3BCDKqqc1aJcU_20060814,00.html?mod=blogs>:
Where'd the future go? You remember it, don't you? It's the one with moon 
bases and intrepid Mars colonists and asteroid miners, with spaceports and 
space elevators and sprawling habitations up at the Lagrange points. The one 
we read about when we were kids, the one written about by the likes of 
Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, with thrilling chronologies that had 
us on Mars or beyond by now, or at least heading that way. You know, the 
future.
Contrast this quarter-century of near-stasis [in space] with the 
technological revolution that's remade our daily lives. When we were kids, 
computers were hulking things off in universities that chattered and blinked 
mysteriously before spitting out reams of paper. Today, we feel guilty about 
putting exponentially more-powerful machines than those out on the curb. 
Back then if you wanted cash you structured your day around when you'd stand 
in line at the bank; today your choice might be between deli ATMs or 
settling a debt via PayPal. We have Web-enabled phones in our pockets, 
instant messaging at the office and can shop in our skivvies at 3 a.m. 
Wonders upon wonders -- it's only up in the heavens that we're a generation 
behind.
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