I'd Rather Believe in Flying Cars
Blogger oneblood asked about my meter maid avatar. Specifically, whether it was a reference to the Beatles. The answer is yes, but it also a reference to the statement, "I'd rather believe in flying cars" The best way to explain that is to rehash the post with the original thought I did back in 2008...
One subject that I have been increasingly fascinated with & a subject that sparks my imagination is pondering the future of humankind.As a secular humanist, I am not a doomsayer,
but an optimist & I believe there is plenty to be optimistic about regarding our future... it just depends on how you look at it... What I mean is our ideas of what the future ultimately holds for mankind are based largely on what we choose to believe. 
There are a couple of bloggers in my blogsphere that have similar visions of the future based on science & (to be honest), science fiction.I find their views compelling because I also want to see the future as something other then religious doom & gloom...
Religions attempt to predict the future and adherents are encouraged to believe the particular spin of their particular religion. The above doom & gloom apocalyptic vision is a product of an outdated prophecy, perpetrated long ago by ancient & primitive religions that want us to think that humankind will ultimately fail. There is no reason we have to believe fables handed down to us from at least 2000 years ago. Why not believe in the potential of humankind to rise above the obstacles? As a Secular Humanist, I get to pick my own scenario of the future. Using religious predictions for the future of mankind as a model the scenario doesn't have to be practical, feasible, or even make any sense.With that in mind my scenario is based on the fact that I choose to believe human beings have the potential to achieve wonderful things. To me flying cars represent the optimism and sense of ingenuity and vision that has always moved humankind forward.
So keep your doom & gloom...."I'd rather believe in flying cars."BTW, according to this site, you'll be able to buy your flying car in 2011.
posted by Rita @ 7:11 AM
26 Comments
26 Comments:
Good to see you active Ms.Rita. getting over cold's and viruses is a positive too ...it show's you your immune system is in check.And I know how busy you probably are compared to me for instance, I am self employed which is different.
I dont know a damn thing about flying car's, and dread even thinking it would become a reality. I mean ..I drive a Hell of alot, due to what I do for a living, and frankly many folk's cant even drive decent on the road despite all the extra convenience's and technologies they have ... that's sad.
But I absolutely love the pictures you have posted...really look's good!
Have a good un girl! ....
Your optimism, humanist vision, and your science based worldview is why we all love you so much Rita. By the way, neat pictures. :)
My own cynical take on the flying car aside, this reminds me of something Douglas Adams said in an interview:
"I think one has to be an optimist about the future, because I think it's silly to adopt any other position. There's a friend of mine -- Alan Kay, the computer scientist -- who said that the best way of predicting the future is to invent it ... I think we have to take a robust view of the future, because that is much more likely to bring about something that is worth being robust and cheerful and optimistic about, and there will be more control if you're going with it rather than fighting against it."
ranch chimp When I was self employed I had a lot more free time. I don't miss the headaches of self employment but I miss being master of my time. In this job I only get 2 four day weekends off, for Xmas & Thanksgiving.
Yeah the reality of flying cars is a scary thought.
Thanks QF :)
Arthbard I really like that quote, it is worth applying to ones personal life, also.
The book is a pretty good read, too...
Thanks Rita :-)
I wondered about the flying cars thing too. I thought it might have an interesting meaning. I was correct !
Weekends? I get one weekend off a month. However, that weekend is a four day weekend.
I am really fortunate this year. The 25th is right in the meat and potatoes of my weekend :-)
The boy (my son) and I won't be celebrating. But it will be nice to be off together.
i love the positive vibe in you...i believe in flying colors too.
Mac
Not celebrating? You mean nothing? No eggnog...nothing?
prash
It's all about the vibes... Love the groovy Rastafarian Hippie look! Very hot! ;)
Rita,
mac just let me know where your answer was, pretty interesting. Thanks for the post.
Optimism about the future is not something I share, though I'm not a pessimist, simply a pragmatist.
But your point is well taken, the farther away we move from apocalyptic visions of doom, the better off we are.
Well, I did buy the fella a few presents :-)
He tells me he would rather hang here with me and not do the whole Christmas thing. He'll let his Mama do that at her place.
However, I'm sure he'll accept any gifts ;-)
I am positive about the future, well, at least the next few minutes. Beyond that my positivity declines the further into the future I prognosticate.
Boatcar
Skycar
Submarine Car
...if my optimistic estimates are correct, there should be a Boat-Sub-Skycar hybrid someday.
I might as well throw this one into the hybrid mix prediction too - Spaceship One
I too would rather believe in flying cars. So much more fuel efficient than a team of post-apocalyptic mutants. I think the penchant for doomsday scenarios comes from the weird schizophrenia created by religions when they try to deny that we are ephemeral and at the same time admit that life on earth is finite. If it’s supposed to be finite, then some grandiose, all-encompassing end must be even better. The process is summed up, I think, in this comment from FSTDT, reproduced here without permission.
#1073916
"Higgs Boson
I have noticed this kind of thing so much and have been wondering if there is an official name for it? This is the belief whereby if action X is considered good, then any intensification of that action will be accompanied in lockstep by a correlative increase in goodness, even if you take it to the outer limits of what's possible. Here are some examples:
In Saudi Arabia, modesty is considered good. Therefore more modest must be better. And yet more modesty is even better still, leading to the point where you have mullahs recommending that, to really be moral, a woman has to wear an eyepatch over one eye as well as the niqab.
Having a child is a wonderful thing. Therefore having more children is even more wonderful. To be even more wonderful still, one has to treat a woman's womb like a clown car, not allowing it even a moment's repose as it relentless thunks out a succession of miracles, et voila! Quiverfull families!
Maintaining childhood innocence is good. Therefore trying harder to maintain it is better. But to truly be moral, it is necessary to treat young children as utterly incapable to operating independently in the real world, and have to be kept under lock and key until the moment a partner is picked for them. Bro Randy personified.
Having faith in God is good. Having more faith is better. Therefore having so much faith that you are willing to allow your young child to wither away in agony, rather than get them to a hospital is the pinnacle of goodness.
And now this guy. If reading the Bible is good, then completely ignoring all other possible human activities in favour of further reading must be better.
In all cases, we have people who are so fixated on a particular facet of moral behaviour that they monomaniacally ratchet that behaviour up as far as it will go, with the ignorant assumption that they are guaranteed to be considered more moral than others. It is purely about display, rather than a measured consideration of what will be best for humanity.
This is such a primitive and thoughtless approach to morality, completely divorced from the need to actually maintain human well being and happiness. Is it any wonder that people are unimpressed by it?"
I think for many of the religiously inclined, there is no choice but to believe in the doomday future.
God has a plan for them. Heaven is where they'll be when it's all said and done.
God will free them from the shackles that bind them here. This place is just temporary.
The religionists have been conditioned to believe this. Their holy book, the Bible, tells them so.
Of course, it's all Bullshit. But believe it they do
oneblood Pragmatist, eh? I like that way of thinking, it's certainly opened minded enough for me, & if I ever have to modify any of my beliefs or theories in light of future inquiry and experience I hope I can be pragmatic about it.
mac
Whew! That's good to hear. I couldn't imagine you turning your kids Christmas into some kind of secular dogmatic Jehovah's Witness anti-celebration...
phil fish out of water?
QF boat-sub-skycar...just think of the practical applications (& impractical ones :)
breakerlion Makes sense. It is a human trait to overindulge in good things. Couple that with the religious notion that human beings are intrinsically bad, weak, will fail & must deny the flesh, it's not a far stretch to becoming imbalanced. There is always some faction waiting to exploit this, too. Whether it's a political group of a religious one.
Nietzsche understood this well, with his criticism of Christianity and the slave/master morality.
The sentiment is fine, I'm just afeared of all the other skydrivers. And of the effects of a fuel blockage, or a busted fanbelt. Currently we can hope to coast to a halt, the aircar method..... Most of the aircar attempts I've seen look as though they'd coast just like a brick.
And my recommendation is not to invest in Dr.Moller's Skycar. It looks good, as it has for decades, unfortunately, it does all that looking good on the ground. When it looks good in the air, when it can park on the top deck of the parking garage without winding up all those internal ramps, then I might invest.
(I have had a flying car. It was over-rated, I have to say, the flying bit was fine, but the landing was quite painful.)
they'd coast just like a brick. Yikes!
Well, like I said, the scenario doesn't have to be practical, feasible, or even make any sense.
Like virgin births, bigfoot, green Martians, etc...
I just googled soubriquet. Do you know that all this time I thought a "soubriquet" was a small lump of charcoal?
Mac
I didn't see your last comment there. :)
That idea that there is something better out there after we die... is one of the most disturbing traits about Christianity, IMO.
In the first place it encourages people to avoid reality & responsibility. Oh course someone might say the threat of hell is what encourages responsibility, but it's the kind of tactics you'd use on a 5 year old, boogeyman tactics.
soubriquet for some reason I can't get the hang of that comment box of yours. It won't let me comment :(
Rita,
Loved this post. Also thanks for stopping by my blog again. I think our the-Bible-is-all-true guy is gone, but i left a short response to your response to him.
I prefer to be optimistic about the future, not always in the short run, but in the long run.
But what scares me now is how polarized we are. I am preparing a post about how secularism is growing and how hard the evangelicals are pushing back. They really have very little power to do anything, but they sure know how to get the attention of the media. And what makes me smile, is that in their attempt to marginalize gays (for example) they have actually turned more people away from their intolerant religious stance. My post is written & it ought to be up by the end of this week, if I get the time to edit it and create an illustration.
C Woods
Practical in the short run...optimistic in the long run...I like that idea. :)
I'm looking forward to your post.
I imagine a good percentage of the secular movement is made up of the deconverted & the unborn again. Because of our personal experiences sometimes it's tempting to be harsh on the religious, esp. in the beginning.
I think this is normal. The recently deconverted have a right to a little righteous anger & indignation, IMO. Sometimes, it's the only way to get them to leave you alone.
"A lump of charcoal?"
Poor old Soapbucket sobbed, inconsolably, "I'm more than that, I'm sure I am!" Just then, the iron door slammed shut, and he noticed his toes were starting to glow.
My comment box is just a standard bloggeresque one, isn't it? Just type in the box and hit publish.
I borrowed this one from Mr Lennon ;-)
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
sou
Ha! I finally figured out that bothersome comment box. It works if I open it in a new window. I should of thought of that early on I suppose. I might be slow but I am also persistent.
mac Yay! & it's over!
@soubriquette - What you need is better landing gear.
Some smiley people came to my front door and gave me a pretty looking pamphlet.
Can we pet lions in the future?
I hope you didn't eat them.
Update: Pentagon Wants Flying Cars!
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/flying-car-proposals-sought-pentagon/story?id=10521080
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