August 26th, 2007
The wrong sort of time machine
I’ve been thinking about the future again.
The problem is, that the more time you spend thinking about it, the less time you have before it arrives.
And with youthful optimism gone, the hover cars and teleportation devices have been replaced with nothing more than a will to continue.
The future is no longer something that will solve all our problems, just another problem in itself.
And I for one will be very happy to see it pass.
So what is it, then, that you think about the future?
Technorati Tags: comic, webcomic, science, the+future, blog
I’m afraid of the future, especially the future of American politics. Not that the present is all that great, but still.
On a positive note, I plan to be damn awesome at bothe writing and playing the harmonica in the future.
I still want to know where my aircar is. I was supposed to have one by now. My life is not nearly Jetson enough.
Regardless of the technology that we have, ppl will still be ppl.
We will still want the basics, like health, food and leisure. There will still be ppl who have not enough and ppl who have to much.
The ppl in the middle will still whinge the loudest.
The future isn’t about technology, the future is about oppurtunity.
As someone you know always says ‘today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday’ – and i think that says it all – just live your life and be as happy as you can be.
This reminds me of the They Might Be Giants song “Trapped in a World Before Later On”. Part of it goes “Where’s my hovercraft? Where’s my jetpack? Where’s the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?”
Actually, the second line of your commentary reminds me of a second TMBG song, “It’s Not My Birthday”. In that one there’s a line that goes “As I walk I think about a new way to walk, as I think I’m using up the time left to think”.
So, what I’m trying to say is that the future reminds me of They Might Be Giants. Or, at least, you do Adam… you do…
As my mood has dimmed over time I no longer perceive ups and downs in my future, past and present, I see merely a nondescript flat barren landscape, no more light and dark patches but all a gray blob.
So I guess what I mean to say is that I’m in a bad mood and I don’t expect the future, however bright and shiny or dark and dingy it may seem to an unbiased observer, to be much different from the now, which is less than satisfactory.
you think i have time to think right now? im too busy getting depressed doing assignments so i will do well at school so i will get into uni so i will get a good job so i will be happy in the future, they say. in my opinion people think way too much about their future. i mean sure, try not to screw up completely but live in the present, y’know?
an unusually optimistic and not-so-cynical comment from justine.
Mike – American politics is global politics… I’m with you all the way on that one. Good luck with the harmonica too, fine instrument that.
Golfwidow – I asked Santa for a hoverboard over a decade ago, and he still hasn’t delivered.
Ben – You are right, very right with that. There is a theory that mostly we are prodcing redundant technology at the moment. That is, technology that doesn’t solve problems or make our lives easier but that create problems and generally bug us.
Dishwasher – Living in the present is a real skill, one that I doubt I’ll ever get the hang of. It’s a problem with being a bit of a daydreamer I think.
Joseph – I am partial to a bit of TMBG, though I’ve yet to hear either of those songs… I’ll hunt them out. If I had to pick a band that I remind people of, I doubt I could do much better than TMBG; their a bit geeky, have a fascination for science and invention, particularly good at wordplay and puns and they write some excellent songs.
Great Joe – Ahh, resigned depression, the sign of a man with all the facts in front of him. I get like that too sometimes, though mostly someone knocks me out of my rut.
Justine – It’s always good to hear you sound upbeat. Really, honestly, I do live in the present, I just holiday in the future.
Being the Stubborn Optimist, I look for all the ways we are making things better–because we are. There’s the first California Condor born in the wild; that happened this past year. There are the advances being made to help combat poverty (freerice is one I can think of), and again there is the growing awareness that we have been too careful, too sterile.
I like to think of a future that is both post-apocalyptic and yet positive. Or simply getting through a dark age and coming out of the tunnel and into the light. Because it is a tunnel, not a hole. ^_^ I believe that. There’s only one place left to go when you’re at the bottom.
I have views similar to Melanthios’s. I also cant wait for the singularity in a few decades and I think that it will bring some problems but many problems we have now will be fixed.
In the future I will be head of a chain of fast food joints. “DmL Burger – Serving yesterday’s hamburgers, tomorrow!”