NotoriousREV

...and the 21st Century. We dreamed of spacestations, flying cars, cities on the moon and on Mars. We thought that the vast pace of our inventiveness would never slow, that we be pushing ever onwards and upwards at greater and greater pace.

It seems that now we've arrived we have nothing to look forward to. We don't know what to do with ourselves. Instead of reaching new heights of human endeavour, we're starting to slip backwards.

Faster than sound travel is a thing of the past unless you're a fighter pilot, journey times are being slowed whether you want to use personal or public transport. We're no longer lying in the gutter looking up at the stars, we're lying in the gutter and we seem happy to stay there.

OllyK

I guess you don't read very much and avoid documentaries on TV then? Work is going on with ram jets for high altitude faster than sound travel. Independants have put a rocket in to space which may mark the start of affordable space travel in years to come. New discoveries are happening all the time - open your eyes to the world around you man!

Vipa

Oh come on Olly.....

Work on ram jets has been going on since the early 80s (82 to be precice).... HOTOL was in the design stages 30 years ago (BAE/Rolls Royce) and was subsequently scrapped as they couldn't drum up enough interest/money

The fact that Concorde couldn't win back it's regular clients after it was grounded for a year following the crash is a sign that only a minority of people were willing to pay exorbitant premiums to get to the states 4 hours faster than everyone else (and yes it was fantastic!)

The problem is that aerospace technology is driven not by what us end users would like but by accountants who work for the airlines. The money from an airline's point of view is far better and more profitably spent on bulk movement of passengers, hence the new super jumbo in production. This keeps fares down and keeps profits up. It is no longer profitable to pander to mr rich, they need to pander to mr ordinary.

Private 'affordable' space travel? Yes..... Branson I have no doubt will offer it first... but don't kid yourself.... 'affordable' isn't what it means....

Concorde was 'affordable' supersonic travel! but affordable to whome? the super rich..... I see myself as reasonably affluent but £8,000 for a flight to New York......... Never going to happen... So they offer orbital flights for £100k... even £50k.... how many people do you honestly think are in a position to blow that kind of money on 1 flight.... In reality....not many.........

Where the advancements are apparent are in IT...... let's face it... why spend millions on fast futuristic modes of transport which will ultimately be unprofitable when we are not too far off being able to place a person in a meeting 5000 miles away with the aid of telephone lines, satelites and holograms... oh.. and computers.

Paul

Neil Smalley

Technology is advancing at a much further rate than ever before. What is missing is the drive to use it on large scale projects irrespective of the amount of money it would cost.

No government is going to sign a blank cheque, like the US did with the Apollo moon project so what will happen is that these advances will all happen but in a disconnected way. Once/if we crack nanotech then it's game over

Brendan Hughes

Wot E Sed.

We don't need to travel at that speed now, and we don't want to pay for it.

Most of it was paid for by the military during the cold war - no need/demand for that now.

Friend of mine had a slogan - "Let information travel, not people".

Brendan Hughes

Personally I'd look at the oceans. There's an awful lot of territory and resources there that at present are almost untouchable.

Neil Smalley

Agreed, If we could find someway of extracting the minerals dissolved in sea water it would solve a lot of issues, plus bring about a crash in the world economy due to Gold being so cheap.

Gordo

Haha - WTF are you on about? "aerospace technology is driven not by what us end users would like but by accountants" - durrr, and your point is what? That the airlines should run loss making services to pander to the (aspirational) needs of the masses? My **** - the masses aren't prepared to pay a premium for faster travel, they want cheap cattle trucks.

I can't imagine there was much to look forward to during Labour's last Winter of Discontent, but we've now got the internet, reliable fast (and cheap) cars. The whole point of tomorrow is that it's bloody difficult to predict - but it also moves relatively slowly. We're all lucky in that the internet has revolutionised the world during our lifetime. It'll be a while before the next 'big thing' happens but the benefits of the internet have barely begun.

For example, if someone had predicted e-mail by satellite for the masses 15 years ago, we'd have laughed at them - now Blackberrys are ubiquitous.

Cheer up and go and invent something!

Gordo

Leslie

The really stupid thing Not Rev is that 2000 was the last year in the old millenium and the new one did not start until the beginning of 2001!

You are quite right of course, we all thgought that the next century would be such an advance on what went before and apart from the new scientific marvels that we see, nothing much seems to have happened for the real improvement for mankind all over the world.

We just seem to be in the beginnings of a serious power struggle by different sections of the world and by people with extreme ambition which has never done any good except for those who succeed by walking over and conning others!

Previous sets of values where people used to think of others and what they could do to improve other people's lives as well as their own seem to have gone by the board to be replaced by utter selfishness and the will to do anything to further themselves at the expense of everyone else. The old ideas of fair play have almost died.

I believe the world is hovering on the brink of a dangerous period and we should be alive to that before it is too late.

Les

Vipa

Read my post again and then post a reply that at least suggests you have read it!!!!!!!!!

Paul

Dream Weaver

We are only just into the 21st century, give it a chance.

As for technological advances, just loko at what we have now - broadband, mini cd/dvd players, recordable DVD, mobile that play video, colour screens etc, cars capable of 160mph on Diesel with 50mpg.

The list goes on, we've never had it so good technologically speaking.

Who cares about space stations, moon cities and space flights, though by 2099 they may be here, we'll never know (sadly )

Gordo

I read yours, mate, have you read mine?

You're a glass half empty person - cheer up!

Vipa

Gordo...

"Haha - WTF are you on about? "aerospace technology is driven not by what us end users would like but by accountants" - durrr, and your point is what? That the airlines should run loss making services to pander to the (aspirational) needs of the masses? My **** - the masses aren't prepared to pay a premium for faster travel, they want cheap cattle trucks. "

I think says exactly the same as....

"The problem is that aerospace technology is driven not by what us end users would like but by accountants who work for the airlines. The money from an airline's point of view is far better and more profitably spent on bulk movement of passengers, hence the new super jumbo in production. This keeps fares down and keeps profits up. It is no longer profitable to pander to mr rich, they need to pander to mr ordinary."

?????????????????????????

Sorry if the grammar is a little too advanced for you

Paul