Say Anything Blog

Jerry Pournelle’s recent column struck a nerve with me:

The new 3G iPhone moves us a long way toward the pocket computer Niven and I described in 1973 in The Mote in God’s Eye. Of course that book was set a long way into the future, and the pocket computer in the book was something out of my imagination; I certainly didn’t expect to have anything like that in my lifetime.

I’ve been re-reading a lot of my favorite science fiction these days (including some of Mr. Pournelle’s work) and it amazes me just how far we’ve come.  Those books are filled with spaceships and hotel rooms where you can have your food delivered in a tube and computer terminals where you can access entire wealths of information.  While we haven’t reached the point of space travel just yet, the level we’ve reached in terms of information technology - and the speed with which we’ve reached it - is amazing. Another sci/fi giant, Arthur C. Clarke, famously said (I’m paraphrasing) that any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic to those not familiar with it.

Imagine what the science fiction writers of the 1950’s - or even the 1980’s - would think if you showed up in their living room with an iPhone or a blackberry?

My grandmother, who unfortunately passed away in the last year, used to tell me about helping her father farm with horses the land he homesteaded here in North Dakota after immigrating from Norway.  She said that in those days the North Dakota landscape was dotted with little towns, because everyone traveled by horse and carriage.  Or walked.  And going even 10 miles into town for supplies good be a day trip.

Now, not only is a 10 mile trip a 10 minute affair, but you can send entire books of information to the other side of the world in seconds.  You can purchase and download your favorite book without leaving your easy chair.  You can use your phone to not only look up the address you’re going to, but also show on a map where you’re at and where your destination is at and how to get from where you’re at to where you’re going.  And even show a street-level picture of your destination.

I have a little robot that vacuums my family room.  Seriously.

We can access aerial pictures taken from space on our phones as quickly as it takes to make a phone call.  And it’s accessible not just to the rich and elite, but pretty much everyone.

I’m not meaning to sound like a cheerleader here, but amidst all the economic doom and gloom I don’t think we often enough take a time out to realize just how good we have it these days.  And why we have it, which certainly isn’t because of big government but rather because of smart and intelligent people acting in their own best interest in a free market.

We are living the life of George Jetson, but I think most of us take it for granted.