Astroweekly: A Letter from Utopia

In the spring of 1953, the president of the Pacific Telephone Co., Mark Sullivan, stated the following:

“Just what form the future telephone will take is, of course, pure speculation. Here is my prophecy: in its final development, the telephone will be carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today. It probably will require no dial, and I think users will be able to see each other, if they want, as they talk. Who knows—it may actually translate from one language to another.”

What was pure speculation has come to be. What was once science fiction has become reality. Yet we seem not to realize this. We long for something else. Something more. What is it that we want? In times of global uncertainty, I wonder where we are going and why we even bother.  Like anyone who has pondered existence, nihilism floods into my thoughts like rain into a gutter. But I refuse to let nihilism win. Like the rain that funnels through the gutter, I dispose of my nihilism and fill the space with optimism. We always face times of uncertainty. This is nothing new, but we will not succumb to uncertainty. Like Mr. Sullivan, allow me to share my prophecy:

Words cannot convey the wonder of Homo sapiens’ future. The most astounding well-being any of us have ever felt has become the norm. Our ability to conscientiously engineer our genome and become one with our computational power has left our consciousness deep and wide. Our lives are long. We exist as we want, form and shape optional. We can still love and appreciate the bliss of art and music and food and sex—in fact, we experience these things far more powerfully than we once did. All cultures have fused and are accepted, and each still has its own richness. We are in control of an existence that surpasses our wildest imaginations.  These aspects of the future are only scratching the surface of its glory.

My friends, it is in our hands to remain strong in times of uncertainty and create a future that resembles the one above, one in which the well-being of all our fellow humans is maximized. We cannot give in to rough water and difficult problems. We must prevail.