Post No8

On the Future: “We Wanted Flying Cars, Instead We Got 140 Characters.”

This is a famous Peter Thiel quote that I think perfectly encapsulates his views on the current state of technology and innovation in the world. The argument is a simple yet powerful one: we’ve falling behind in technological progress. Half a century ago, people thought we would have flying cars by now, instead our only innovation has essentially come in the form of 0s and 1s, mostly related to or for the benefit of internet technologies. For instance, perhaps one of the most advanced pieces of technology we’ve built is currrently the iPhone, which makes use of a lot of the latest innovations, and it’s mostly used for communication.

When looking around us we don’t see a futuristic world for the most part. Most things could have been built in the 60’s or 70’s. And as Thiel has joked, if we were hoping to turn our world into the one depicted in Star Trek, then we’ve only been working on the spaceship’s computer and have forgotten all about the spaceship itself! Now, I have not actually watched any of the series entirely, but the point seems to me to be a straightforward one - we should also be working on the technology that gave humans in Star Trek faster-than-light spaceships.

This is not the future we were promised! The Jetsons was apparently set in the year 2062, a hundred years from the year the cartoon came out, but at times today it feels like we’re closer to living in the Flintstone’s world! I am exaggerating and joking here, but the point is an important one. Besides asking for a better life, perhaps we should be asking (and doing something about it of course) for a better and more exciting future - so that it gets here more quickly. We expect better iPhones every year, and we hope for advances in medicine, but why should we not expect advances in all aspects of life?