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Alma Thomas was born during the horse and buggy days of the end of the 19th century, and raised under Jim Crow laws. By the end of her life, in 1978, she had been the first black woman to be given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with works inspired by the possibilities of space travel.
"Today not only can our great sciences send astronauts to and from the Moon to photograph its surface and bring back samples of rocks and other materials, but through the medium of colour television all can see and experience the thrill of these adventures. These phenomena set my creativity in motion."
(Alma Thomas, an incandescent pioneer, New York Times, Aug 4 2016)
If you look at our current time and technologies, after a little thought, what makes you feel amazed about, and hopeful, curious for, the future?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @04:52AM
Things are bad. Measurably so.
Our civilisation depends on minerals - not just for energy, but other types as well, such as phosphates for agriculture.
We're slowly running out. So, that's bad. Starvation is bad.
Climate change would be much easier to handle, if we had limitless energy with which to address the challenges, but we're running out. Renewables don't look like they'll handle the kind of output we need, and nuclear is a constant fight against religion.
So climate change will at least complicate life a lot, when we need all the help we can get. That's bad.
The world's population is growing, and people are getting antsier than before. China's waving its dick - stupidly so, but they can do a lot of damage on their way down (they have their own internal issues to deal with as well). The Middle East is overpopulated, dependent on diminishing resources, and full of various classes of fanatics.
Global unrest is bad. So, that's bad.
There's a huge selection of other problems as well, but you can probably figure those out with some time and half an eye on news media.
We need a new structure to handle new challenges. A big, ugly, blood-stained reset might get us that.
Oh, wait, this was supposed to be uplifting, right? Right. Asteroid mining generational colony ship galactic destiny... right. Sorted.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @07:03AM
We're slowly running out. So, that's bad. Starvation is bad.
Yeah, phosphates, leaching off into outer space, stolen by rogue space pirate smugglers. I mean, otherwise, where are they going, and all we need to do is poop some more out, eh, guano? My god, there are some stupid people on SN!@Q
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @07:29AM
All farms must now include a bat loop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @05:09PM
No, phosphates, leaching out into the oceans in runoff, contributing to ecological problems in the oceans while not staying put on farmland.
Tough to get them back from the ocean. Not impossible, but tough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @07:12PM
If guano-covered asteroids exist, would they count as islands for the purposes of the Guano Islands Act?