Rand Simberg is our special guest this week, and will be the subject of our Speaking of the Future interview on Thursday. While we'll be talking to Rand primarily about our future in space, he writes on a wide range of subjects for FOX News, Tech Central Station, and his website, Transterrestrial Musings.
1. The present is the future relative to the past. What's the best thing about living here in the future?
The vast potential for wealth, happiness, human freedom and new social experiments as we start to open up new homes off the planet.
2. What's the biggest disappointment?
That we don't have spinning hotels in orbit and Panam Clippers servicing them.
3. Assuming you die at the age of 100, what will be the biggest difference be between the world you were born into and the world you leave?
Most of the people being born at that time will probably live as long as they want to, with a big universe to explore.
4. What future development that you consider likely (or inevitable) do you look forward to with the most anticipation?
Arbitrarily long life, in good health. It will make all else possible.
5. What future development that you consider likely (or inevitable) do you dread the most?
Weapons of increasingly more potential for devastation becoming increasingly available to people willing to use them for their own insane purposes. It's one of the reasons that we need to get lots of people off planet as soon as possible. Vacuum makes a damned good firewall.
6. Assuming you have the ability to determine (or at least influence) the future, what future development that you consider unlikely (or are uncertain about) would you most like to help bring about?
Well, I'm not sure that I have the talent or skills to bring it about, but I'd say superluminal and (possibly associated) time travel. It would open up whole new realms in adventure tourism.
7. Why is it that in the year 2003 I still don't have a flying car? When do you think I'll be able to get one?
Technology of the flight hardware aside, the biggest showstopper right now is probably traffic control. Think about how easy (too easy, in most cases) to get a driver's license right now, and then extend that to three dimensions. You might want a flying car, but do you really want everyone to have one? Until we get trustworthy automated flight controls, flying cars, to the degree that they exist, will remain playthings of the elites, and not practical for most people.
What's the deal with these seven questions?
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