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To: C19fan

One thing I’ve noticed about serious futurism: the predictions are often correct insofar as future tech _can_ do X, but when people (er, sentient intelligent beings) get there they realize there’s undesirable side effects and forego the vaunted prediction.

We _could_ have Moon hotels. We got to the Moon, it’s a dead rock, too high a price to see too little.
We _could_ exterminate all rodent/insect pests. That would destroy the ecosystem.
We _could_ enlighten everyone with a magic all-knowing glass slate. Cat videos are more fun.
We (well, some species) _could_ build a Dyson Sphere. There’s probably a good reason not to.


10 posted on 05/04/2018 6:05:23 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (The Red Queen wasn't kidding.)
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To: ctdonath2

What has interested me is that if you look at science fiction before the ‘60’s, they seem to overpredict the mechanical advances we would make, and underpredict advances in electronics and computers.


66 posted on 05/04/2018 8:39:27 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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