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I still have a Reader’s Digest from 1966 featuring a cover story imagining what life would be like in the year 1999.
The exuberant optimism of the age is shown in its depiction of people flying around in Jet Packs and Geodesic-Domed cities and people living carefree lives.
It looks a lot like the utopia of the Jetson’s cartoon show. It’s amazing to think that this was just a few years before we actually landed a man on the moon.
Sixty years later, after a long hiatus, we are today sending astronauts off once again on a test flight of Nasa’s Artemis II rocket, which we plan to use soon to build a permanent base on the Moon. We find ourselves in a space race to win the Moon yet again, this time against the People’s Republic of China and not the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (though both are Communist).
Some things never change. As the song, “As Time Goes By”, featured in the old movie Casablanca goes, “It’s still the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of do or die.”
When they were envisioning a future world of technological wonder in the 1960’s, they perhaps did not take into account enough that while humanity is capable of accomplishing tremendously good things – even the ability to subdue the Earth and perhaps soon the Moon and Mars, our biggest obstacle always remains our own tendency towards self destruction. We have the ability to dream big, but also are capable of causing the stuff of nightmares.
Our astronauts this time, God willing, will go the furthest from Earth than we have ever ventured before. Like all those decades ago when we first went to the Moon and looked back on our planet the view of Earth will be like a bright beautiful blue oasis.
While here, on our little home sweet home, we’ll still muddle along doing both our best and our worst as we have always done and always will do – no matter what year it is.
In 1931 Herman Hupfeld wrote the song “As Time Goes By”. Think of all the progress that’s been made since then and think too of all the horrors wrought. His lyrics resonate even today:
“This day and age we’re living in gives cause for apprehension, with speed and new invention and things like fourth dimension. Yet, we get a trifle weary with Mr. Einstein’s theory, so we must get down to earth, at times relax, relieve the tension. No matter what the progress or what may yet be proved, the simple facts of life are such they cannot be removed.”
When I was a boy in the 1960’s all things seemed possible in a bright tomorrow. Today too some talk of us being on the cusp of a Golden Age, one in which AI, robotics, and mRNA therapies will transform society.
One thing for sure is that humanity is ever forging ahead and in any event, the way I see it, you might as well look on the bright side!
-- David Brennan, Franklin resident
