4 ms·

I don't know how many people did but in the seventies there were a lot of people who had seen the birth of the airplane to the landing on the moon. With people

I don't know how many people did but in the seventies there were a lot of people who had seen the birth of the airplane to the landing on the moon. With people believing in exponential progress of technology amd things like Orion an NSWR I suspect a lot of people rid assume interstellar travel was right around the corner.

jfoutz 9y ago
My great grandmother saw the Wright brothers fly as a teenager. The moon landing was a big deal to her. You’re absolutely right. I was little when I talked with her, but my parents would surely say she would have completely accepted interstellar flights as the next thing.
- mkempe 9y ago
  Read the science/tech magazines from the 50s and 60s -- travel to the planets was imminent and ineluctable. [1] While in principle and reason enormous achievements and progress are within reach of private enterprise, the 20th century was not dominated by reason and freedom, to say the least. [1] http://www.astronautix.com/v/vonbraunmarpedition-1969.html http://www.astronautix.com/v/vonbraunmarpedition-1969.html
vadimberman 9y ago
And they had all the objective reasons to think so. I remember reading a sci-fi book from 1930s (Olaf Stapledon), otherwise well-researched, that pegged the invention of nuclear weapons 300 years from then and spaceflight millions of years from then (the interstellar space flight was never achieved, not even billions of years into the future when the humankind v18 moved to Neptune and achieved a lifespan of 250,000 years). If that was the prevailing opinion, it's easy to see how the interstellar flight could be seen as around the corner after the conservative predictions were all put to shame. Kinda makes one want to draw parallels with the 'singularity' and AI.
- macawfish 9y ago
  This one still gets me every time: https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-mini https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-mini

jfoutz 9y ago

My great grandmother saw the Wright brothers fly as a teenager. The moon landing was a big deal to her. You’re absolutely right. I was little when I talked with her, but my parents would surely say she would have completely accepted interstellar flights as the next thing.

mkempe 9y ago
Read the science/tech magazines from the 50s and 60s -- travel to the planets was imminent and ineluctable. [1] While in principle and reason enormous achievements and progress are within reach of private enterprise, the 20th century was not dominated by reason and freedom, to say the least. [1] http://www.astronautix.com/v/vonbraunmarpedition-1969.html http://www.astronautix.com/v/vonbraunmarpedition-1969.html

vadimberman 9y ago

And they had all the objective reasons to think so. I remember reading a sci-fi book from 1930s (Olaf Stapledon), otherwise well-researched, that pegged the invention of nuclear weapons 300 years from then and spaceflight millions of years from then (the interstellar space flight was never achieved, not even billions of years into the future when the humankind v18 moved to Neptune and achieved a lifespan of 250,000 years). If that was the prevailing opinion, it's easy to see how the interstellar flight could be seen as around the corner after the conservative predictions were all put to shame. Kinda makes one want to draw parallels with the 'singularity' and AI.

macawfish 9y ago
This one still gets me every time: https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-mini https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-mini