In the postwar era, we [Americans, though I wasn't born, yet] were hopeful about the future. Our science fiction reflected this, but it was just the tip of the

In the postwar era, we [Americans, though I wasn't born, yet] were hopeful about the future. Our science fiction reflected this, but it was just the tip of the iceberg: the whole culture assumed progress and advancement. Immediately after, though, there was a time of fear and pessimism about the future, bringing the concepts of nuclear winter, climate change, resource shortages, and the end of the space age. We call this period "the 70s", and our current culture seems to be far more influenced by that than it is by the previous expectation of momentum and progress. Also, our basic understanding of physics-as-applied-to-the-limits-of-technology hasn't much changed from 1960 to 2010, unlike the period from 1910 to 1960.