Yay Science! Keep pushing humankind to the Jane Jetson future
While most of the world was entranced by Olympic contenders running/swimming/leaping in an effort to capture the gold, I was watching something way more incredible.
How ’bout that Curiosity? Surely you’ve at least heard of it—the Mars Science Laboratory that landed on the red planet that we’ve really only seen in sci fi flicks. Hey science: cool!
How can anyone not find this pretty darn mind blowing? 13,000 mph down to zero in what’s now been dubbed the Seven Minutes of Terror, this robot skidded to a happy little stop and can now provide Earth with all kinds of details about that faraway planet.
With just a miniscule amount of imagination one can totally get carried away with this fantasy.
Afterall, most of us clearly recall the Jetsons, and lots of the stuff they dreamt up has already come to pass.
I remember thinking that the mere idea of being able to actually see the person on the other end of a phone conversation was unbelievable and virtually impossible. Welcome Snipe.
“Meet George Jetson. Jane, his wife…..” (are you singing it yet?)
Let’s just take a minute to chat about Jane. What did she actually do? George flew to work, the kids were whisked off to school, and Rosie the Robot took care of all household tasks.
Now, if someone were to promise me a Jane-type life on Mars, I’m in. Frozen water be damned—surely if we’ve got the technology to get ourselves there, we can melt a couple of oceans, right?
C’mon now, we’re humanity, and like Batman, we don’t let failure keep us down.
There’s something like 4 trillion planets in our galaxy alone, and 125 billion galaxies in the known universe.
There’s just got to be someone or something out there and I am intrigued by this notion.
Who knows where Curiosity will take us in years to come, when our own planet succumbs to the sheer abuse it’s been exposed to.
Maybe it’ll simply fall flat on its lack of face, but God bless the scientists who continue to explore the vast possibilities which may actually allow mankind to survive.
Meanwhile, back on our boring little planet, I will maintain and nurture my envy of Jane Jetson, who never laundered George’s undies or scrubbed a toilet in her entire life.
And how can women everywhere not be impressed by that?
So go ahead Planet Earth, y’all just keep counting up those medals.
My guess is that “survival of the fittest” is gonna take on a whole new meaning in years to come, and I can only hope and pray that Mrs. Jetson will be voted in as President—of Mars, of course.
