I much prefer Wikipedia, Linux, Google, Github, Twitter, smartphones and other modern wonders to flying cars. Flying cars would be annoying and noisy and dangerous. Whereas having most of the worlds knowledge and people instantly accessible in the palm of my hand is really rather useful.
I hear you. But it makes my head hurt to see Wikipedia listed before Google (I'm a Wikipedian). Much of the crud in Wikipedia articles is an example of "semantic attacks on the Web" just like the fake "news" story on the hacked Twitter account.
But the fact that Wikipedia exists is amazing, right? Imagine if the main reference site on the web was corporate controlled. Actually, I've often wondered: Was it inevitable (due to the nature of the internet) that the primary reference site on the web would be open, free and wiki-style, or are we just incredibly lucky that that happened?
It'd be interesting to see how the future-people interpret the dominance of Wikipedia.
I guess other people made mistakes. MS didn't think the Internet was important early enough; they didn't make Encarta available sensibly; MS was deeply unpopular with a sizable section of the population.
Other people got stuck in a reference library mode - and thus they concentrated on selling DVDs to libraries rather than making access public.
I will, grudgingly[1], admit that Wikipedia is amazing. Probably a Wonder of the World.
[1] I actually hate it, and try to avoid it where possible. If I had the money I'd fork it and create a lower-cruft, more accurate, closed for edits, version. Every article would have a 3 sentence 'elevator pitch' style introduction. Sourcing would be fixed. And the focus would be on "accurate", not "verifiable".
Imagine if a corporate controlled online encyclopedia has become dominant. It would probably be ad supported, with ads targeted to the subject the page covers. It would be so depressing, and make research feel like shopping. Looking up medical conditions would give you a faceful of snake-oil adverts.
For certain (history, science) topics Internet was usable more than 10 years ago. (1998 comes to mind.)
I was a teenager back then and it all happened so gradually I didn't understand until later what I had witnessed. (Then came some dark years of webspam before Google. Web rings were a good way of navigating. : )
Often my Google search leads me to a Wikipedia page, is there a browser extension that takes you to the Wiki page if it exists but otherwise dumps you to Google results? If not someone should write one because it would be convenient.
in chrome at least, start typing "wiki" in the url bar (if it's a common site you go to), hit tab, and then your search term, it'll search and bring you to the wikipedia site. This works for most searchable sites you've recently visited, Amazon, youtube, ebay, etc.
Considering the shape some of my cars have been in when they finally ate it, I wouldn't trust me with a flying car. Think how serious maintenance actually is or running out of gas. With cars you don't have to worry about 2 tons of steel falling on your head. I think it's actually kind of a stupid dream.
Ultralight aviation(1) is available to the masses, but people don't want to replace their cars with them. Why? It is an unsolvable problem, so nobody knows.
> people don't want to replace their cars with them. Why? It is an unsolvable problem
Unsolvable?
You aren't allowed to fly them at night, or over any populated area. They can't have more than a single seat. They have severe weight restrictions that mean you can't take much in them besides yourself. (Note: the previous few sentences describe the US regulations; other jurisdictions are different but all have similar kinds of restriction.) You can only travel to and from places that have a substantial length of runway for takeoff and landing.
Do you really find it difficult to imagine why someone might not find an ultralight aircraft a suitable replacement for their car?
Flying cars will never be accepted in our societies until they completely eliminate the reliance on the user. If they are fully automated from point A to point B, all the time, then I could see us having flying cars eventually. But it could take another few decades at least.
On par, probably still better for the environment. Higher energy use would be troublesome but the ability to trash a bunch of parking lots, roadways, and highways paving over nature would probably be fairly significant.
