This is true. We might think that science and tech advanced slowly and steadily, and while that is technically true in some sense, as a general rule science advanced in exponential levels. Like the 2nd industrial revolution of the late 19th century saw such a massive explosion in tech that it created a change that could only be compared to the agricultural revolution.
And let’s not get started on the 20th century. Going from first heavier than air flight to landing on the moon in 66 years? Yeah that cannot be overstated.
Still fucks with me that someone could have written an essay about the impossibility of heavier than air flight at the age of 20, and lived to see the moon landing. That’s like growing up believing the earth to be the center of the universe, and then living to see the discovery of other galaxies. It would be like growing up a hunter-gatherer and buying a pizza in a grocery store
You know, before Trump and the rise of neo-nazism into the mainstream I used to be huge into interwar media (early talkies, silent films, radio, etc) and one thing I found was a sci-fi radio show (I am not sure if it was Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon or something else) that seemed to treat the very concept of making into space in the 20th century as an impossible feat.
But a little over 20 years after that broadcast Sputnik happened. So many listeners and writers of the time absolutely were eating their own words afterward.
To be fair, Newton was suggesting the feasibility of using chemical propellants to create stable ballistic orbits in space as far back as the 1600s with his cannonball example.
This is true. We might think that science and tech advanced slowly and steadily, and while that is technically true in some sense, as a general rule science advanced in exponential levels. Like the 2nd industrial revolution of the late 19th century saw such a massive explosion in tech that it created a change that could only be compared to the agricultural revolution.
And let’s not get started on the 20th century. Going from first heavier than air flight to landing on the moon in 66 years? Yeah that cannot be overstated.
Still fucks with me that someone could have written an essay about the impossibility of heavier than air flight at the age of 20, and lived to see the moon landing. That’s like growing up believing the earth to be the center of the universe, and then living to see the discovery of other galaxies. It would be like growing up a hunter-gatherer and buying a pizza in a grocery store
funny thing is that there are a pretty decent amount of hunter-gatherers who wear tshirts and shit, honestly seems like an amazing lifestyle.
You know, before Trump and the rise of neo-nazism into the mainstream I used to be huge into interwar media (early talkies, silent films, radio, etc) and one thing I found was a sci-fi radio show (I am not sure if it was Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon or something else) that seemed to treat the very concept of making into space in the 20th century as an impossible feat.
But a little over 20 years after that broadcast Sputnik happened. So many listeners and writers of the time absolutely were eating their own words afterward.
To be fair, Newton was suggesting the feasibility of using chemical propellants to create stable ballistic orbits in space as far back as the 1600s with his cannonball example.