Our society is a funny ol' thing...
And for more technological innovations that you occasionally think upon and wonder: 'What happened to that one?'
Now, we all know that hovercraft have been around for years - since the 70's apparently. Back when I was a youngin', I remember a special being shown on the production of "Back to the Future II" (in 1990), in which they described the basis for the hoverboards featured in the movie. I believe the quote was something like - 'The (insert governmental agency here) feels that this technology is far too unsafe to currently be used in the production of commercially available vehicles, but we hope to see this technology out on the market soon'.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/21/moller-m200g-hovercraft-heading-into-production/
http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/29/m400-skycar-prototype-available-at-neiman-marcus/
So when will the FAA become the MVD? Don't hold your breath. The kind of bureaucracy changes necessary to facilitate that kind of transition makes bureaucrats cringe...and it's getting harder every day. It may have been better for everyone involved if they had just started the process in the 70's.
Why did Jefferson say that a country should have a revolution every 200 years or so? Because otherwise society slowly grinds to a halt. Unfortunately, our society has grown so complicated that an actual revolution would throw a seriously large wrench in the gears; one that would take a long time to fully recover from. I am personally what you might call a 'scary liberal'; one who believes that governmental controls are sometimes necessary in order to save people from themselves - i.e., our current environmental woes. Yet still, after moving to a state where the Democrats took hold, and well...they took it...I am wondering exactly how much government we have is necessary, or how much was just for the sake of an official getting a paycheck. Here in New York, if someone ever said 'There should be a law against that sort of thing..', there probably is one. However, there are other forms of quiet revolution going on around us - it's just too bad that they are so quiet. As KMFDM said, there are peaceful means to resist and to change - but we still have to be loud about it.
So, when we finally have a real revolution, perhaps we should agree to some penalties on over-governmentalization, or at least some means by which laws must be reviewed every so often. I am a firm believer in the Confucian system of running a government like you would run your household, which includes balancing your budget, keeping your house clean, and 'spring cleaning' - have a garage sale or give some stuff to Goodwill every now and again.
And damn it - give us our hovercars.
P.S. - For those of you who actually read my journal and are wondering whether or not I dropped off the face of the Earth - well, I'm still here, amazingly. I made it through 2 long-distance moves (Phoenix to Raleigh, Raleigh to New York). I started working here: http://www.lle.rochester.edu, with these guys: http://www.lle.rochester.edu/03_publications/03_01_review/03_llereview.html. Sean Regan is a senior scientist at the LLE, and Hiroshi Sawada is his graduate student. Now Hiroshi is finishing up his Ph.D. thesis, and I am taking his place. We are working on all sorts of interesting things, which I hope to go into detail about later. If you bother to read the article, I am working on the pre-heating portion of shock transport through a target. It's all exciting and new, just like last summer when I was learning about magnetospheric physics. They once told me at NOAA that all the money in plasma physics is in magnetospheric research, but I'm not doing too badly at all, for a graduate student. Rochester is colder even than Boulder (more like the UP in Michigan, for those of you who know what that means), and I'm not certain how I'm going to deal with the winters. Admittedly, everyone claims they are milder than they once were (thanks to climate change), but I'm still a lizard. Rochester is about the same any other American city, although as a community it has some stagnancy and population exodus issues. The Northeastern suburbs are about the same as the Southwestern suburbs, except in that the people here are generally more rude and haughty. Still, I found a lovely Indian grocery yesterday with nice people. More about city life later, I suppose.
Now, we all know that hovercraft have been around for years - since the 70's apparently. Back when I was a youngin', I remember a special being shown on the production of "Back to the Future II" (in 1990), in which they described the basis for the hoverboards featured in the movie. I believe the quote was something like - 'The (insert governmental agency here) feels that this technology is far too unsafe to currently be used in the production of commercially available vehicles, but we hope to see this technology out on the market soon'.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/21/moller-m200g-hovercraft-heading-into-production/
http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/29/m400-skycar-prototype-available-at-neiman-marcus/
So when will the FAA become the MVD? Don't hold your breath. The kind of bureaucracy changes necessary to facilitate that kind of transition makes bureaucrats cringe...and it's getting harder every day. It may have been better for everyone involved if they had just started the process in the 70's.
Why did Jefferson say that a country should have a revolution every 200 years or so? Because otherwise society slowly grinds to a halt. Unfortunately, our society has grown so complicated that an actual revolution would throw a seriously large wrench in the gears; one that would take a long time to fully recover from. I am personally what you might call a 'scary liberal'; one who believes that governmental controls are sometimes necessary in order to save people from themselves - i.e., our current environmental woes. Yet still, after moving to a state where the Democrats took hold, and well...they took it...I am wondering exactly how much government we have is necessary, or how much was just for the sake of an official getting a paycheck. Here in New York, if someone ever said 'There should be a law against that sort of thing..', there probably is one. However, there are other forms of quiet revolution going on around us - it's just too bad that they are so quiet. As KMFDM said, there are peaceful means to resist and to change - but we still have to be loud about it.
So, when we finally have a real revolution, perhaps we should agree to some penalties on over-governmentalization, or at least some means by which laws must be reviewed every so often. I am a firm believer in the Confucian system of running a government like you would run your household, which includes balancing your budget, keeping your house clean, and 'spring cleaning' - have a garage sale or give some stuff to Goodwill every now and again.
And damn it - give us our hovercars.
P.S. - For those of you who actually read my journal and are wondering whether or not I dropped off the face of the Earth - well, I'm still here, amazingly. I made it through 2 long-distance moves (Phoenix to Raleigh, Raleigh to New York). I started working here: http://www.lle.rochester.edu, with these guys: http://www.lle.rochester.edu/03_publications/03_01_review/03_llereview.html. Sean Regan is a senior scientist at the LLE, and Hiroshi Sawada is his graduate student. Now Hiroshi is finishing up his Ph.D. thesis, and I am taking his place. We are working on all sorts of interesting things, which I hope to go into detail about later. If you bother to read the article, I am working on the pre-heating portion of shock transport through a target. It's all exciting and new, just like last summer when I was learning about magnetospheric physics. They once told me at NOAA that all the money in plasma physics is in magnetospheric research, but I'm not doing too badly at all, for a graduate student. Rochester is colder even than Boulder (more like the UP in Michigan, for those of you who know what that means), and I'm not certain how I'm going to deal with the winters. Admittedly, everyone claims they are milder than they once were (thanks to climate change), but I'm still a lizard. Rochester is about the same any other American city, although as a community it has some stagnancy and population exodus issues. The Northeastern suburbs are about the same as the Southwestern suburbs, except in that the people here are generally more rude and haughty. Still, I found a lovely Indian grocery yesterday with nice people. More about city life later, I suppose.