Yes, another year has passed us by and we stand on the cusp of a totally unused, brand new, just off the assembly line year. 2015 by the standard calendar (yes, for those of you who don't know, there are other calendars used by cultures outside the USA), and by this time, we've raced beyond what many SF writers considered to be "THE FUTURE". No, we don't have flying cars (except in the Dukes of Hazard reruns), and we don't have robots that... ahem... shall we say, provide earthly pleasures. But we do have a lot of cool stuff right out of SF, and science keeps on truckin', as they say, with many astounding revelations and discoveries.
Do you realize the smartphone (is that a trademarkable word? If so, I want it) in your hand has more computing power than what was used to put astronauts on the moon? That your car's computing system is nearly as sophisticated as many spacecraft in the early stages of spaceflight?
We have medical scanning devices (Star Trek's tricorder), video phone and conferencing (Skype), Satellites that have cameras so good they can read your licence plate from 100 miles in the sky, laser weapons systems (the US Navy is testing them on shipboard now), railguns (electromagnetic "mass drivers" that hurl a non-explosive payload a hundred miles at Mach-idon'tbelieveit speed), nanotech (yes, doctors are experimenting with targeted artificial cells that seek out and destroy cancer), and on, and on, and on.
Yes, friends, we are living in the future we read about those years ago. And some of those years weren't really that far in the past.
Science is an unstoppable force; the world's best minds cannot be kept from creating, and many of them were inspired by SF and Fantasy stories when they were kids. Star Trek, Star Wars, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Niven... all the stuff we watched and read in the '60's and '70's and 80's is coming true. Right now. Not a hundred years from now, but NOW. Today. As we speak.
Look at many of the online articles (much more up-to-the minute than newspapers); they're filled with information about science, medicine, computer technology, space travel, the Mars rovers, the comet-visiting probe, the upcoming Ceres and Pluto missions that will peak this year. It's happening, folks. The future is here, and it's pretty neat.
Yes, we still have a multitude of issues in our world. Yes, revolution is in the air in many forms, some good, some just horrible to read about and contemplate. But we will persevere as a species, because we always have. The indomitable human spirit is alive and well, and don't let anyone tell you different. We cannot, shall not, will not be denied our destiny to learn everything we can learn and see everything we can see. Despite ourselves, despite rage and anger and bitterness in its all-too-many forms, we'll manage our way through it each and every day.
Dawn awaits, and with it hope. Meet it with a cry of challenge. Bend it to your will. Make it yours.
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