Comment by Rivrdog

March 3, 2010 @ 10:06 am

This is an easy one, Phil. This loss of imagination happened because of the failure of our educational system to teach critical thought processes. THAT’s been going on now since, well, about the mid-1950’s.

Without the critical thought processes to separate fact from fiction, there is ZERO ability in the common man to take a Sci-Fi idea and separate out the parts which might work. So, what we get is a retreat into the unreal parts of Sci-Fi and fantasy.

Of course, this is not a new thing, either. The Romans, in their heyday, built elaborate arenas in every major city from which to stage the spectacles that took the Roman citizen’s mind off of the impossible politics of the various dictators, and place it instead on the spectacle of lions eating people, mortal combat in the ring, etc. Those dictators and their corrupt Senates knew that the extravagance of the culture was unsustainable, but they didn’t want the hoi-palloi to realize that, so they diverted their minds to unreal and unproductive, but vivid, entertainment.

“Avatar”, anyone?

Comment by Mad Rocket Scientist

March 3, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

First off, I gotta say, someone was really eating his evil Wheaties that day, because that thing is just sick! Awesomely sick, but still sick. I mean, talk about adding insult to injury, “We just left a swath of flattened buildings, sprinkled them with magic make-me-go-bald-quick dust, gave you 26 new urban renewal projects, and topped it all off with a low speed kinetic strike/dirty bomb that’ll keep the region warm for decades. Now we’re going to Disneyland!”

Second, when did moms & dads stop teaching their kids to build radios, rockets, RC toys, and other fun stuff for kids. Right now, me and two other Boeing Engineers are teaching 4th & 5th graders how to build simple trebuchets and then adjust them for range and accuracy. And I know dozens more are doing the same thing at other schools in the area.

Comment by Thomas

March 3, 2010 @ 3:20 pm

I’m still amazed that the lie about nuclear scram jets is still perpetuated. It in no way left a radioactive dust trail. Pure BS. Unfortunately nuclear scram jets were scrapped because of uneducated people say the term “nuclear” in it. Just imagine comercial airliners that could circle the earth multiple times without refueling. Imagine the increase in payload shipping companies could carry if they didn’t have to haul thousands of gallons of fuel with them.

Comment by Duane

March 3, 2010 @ 6:48 pm

While not actually a “Jet” pack at least one of your wishes is now actual,
http://www.martinjetpack.com/
around 77k per.

Comment by Mollbot

March 3, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

The knee-jerk public terror at the word “nuclear” is a very old pet peeve of mine.

If you are ever in Southern Idaho I highly recommend a visit to EBR-1. (That’s Experimental Breeder Reactor 1, the first nuclear reactor in the world to actually produce usable electricity.) It’s just outside the gates of the Idaho National Laboratory; I visited it this last summer on my way home from a long long trip.

They also have on display outside the two test-bed designs for air-cooled nuclear reactors that would have powered insanely huge Air Force bombers without refueling. Fortunately, they stopped letting the Army and Air Force boys play with nuclear reactors, leaving that to the real men in Navy Nuclear Power.

I took hundreds of pics while I was there, I should post them up someplace so you can take a look. I have them on my facebook page but the size limit on their hosted images is annoying.

Comment by Mollbot

March 3, 2010 @ 7:08 pm

And thomas, a good bit of the payload saved on fuel storage is unfortunately taked up by shielding requirements. Something about operators wanting to have functioning internal organs and maybe even children someday.

The Soviet Navy made some of the fastest nuclear subs in the world for their day. They did it by cutting shielding down to (actually below) bare minimums for safety. Shielding is heavy.

There are not very many sailors left from those fast boats.

Comment by Mollbot

March 3, 2010 @ 7:08 pm

Gah… typo. “Taked” should be “taken.” Oops.

Comment by Rivrdog

March 3, 2010 @ 8:13 pm

There was a “steampunk” sci-fi novel about 20 years ago about a monster long-duration nuclear bomber, driven by steam generated in a nuke reactor. Can’t remember the name of the book or the author right now, but it was very entertaining to read.