This is a completely futile waste of money that goes against any real progress of the human race. It takes VASTLY more energy to keep a mass of any significant

This is a completely futile waste of money that goes against any real progress of the human race. It takes VASTLY more energy to keep a mass of any significant quantity (i.e. human sized or greater) suspended in air with the ability to accelerate the body significantly enough to "drive" it. (granted gliders do not use that much energy, but they are very limited in their maneuvers). This also seems like a very solved problem: if you want to take off vertically, use a helicopter. I very much wish the economic and thought leaders of this country would invest to allowing humans to exist and thrive where large amounts of energy are not needed. I know this goes against the power-hungry megalomaniac personality of most CEO's that want MORE POWER!!!! But if we can teach humans to live in "low-energy" states, we will prolong our precarious existence on this planet. We have passed peak-oil, have neared peak-computing. If there was ever a time we as a species could solve the "important problems", it is now.