This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Google had some big plans for its AI chatbot and then it flubbed. That’s the way of new technology sometimes. The company was hoping to earn 100 billion dollars. That’s billions with a “B.” The entire Apollo space program was only $23 billion spread over ten years, tax tag and dealer prep. And all we got from the space program was the whole modern world. A big govment program pouring millions into universities and American Industry. That’s where the future comes from.

The Erie canal opened up commerce to the great lakes and trade and migration expanded. Lincoln built the Transcontinental railroad because he was afraid California might succeed from the Union. Thousands of miles from Washington and pockets weighed down with California gold. That’s why they built the mint in Denver. But the railroad also expanded commerce and encouraged further railroad construction.

In the 1930s, the Southeastern United States was one of the poorest regions of the country. Tennessee had bouts of malaria and annual flooding wreaked havoc and eroded the soil. When Elvis was a little boy, they didn’t have electricity in his house outside of Tupelo. The Tennessee Valley Authority built 200 hundred dams. The dams brought cheap electricity and flood control to the region. The cheap electricity then pays for the dam. Access to cheap electricity then brought jobs.

Just imagine, in 1961 when big govment let out a contract to buy a computer. A very special computer. This computer had to fit in a box 18 inches square. And most important, this computer had to, (no kidding or fooling around) weigh less than 20 pounds. There was no such of a thing which existed on planet earth. Computers covered the walls and filled whole rooms in universities.

Going to the moon required that computer and it also required better communications. The lunar module also acted as a cell phone tower. Microwave relay? (We had never heard of such things.) But we didn’t think of it as a cell tower. Because there was no such of a thing as a cell phone. I remember as a kid seeing that Apollo landing computer and thinking “Wow! High technology, I bet you’d probably have to be some sort of a mathematical genius to work that.” Today a similar face is found on your microwave oven. From high technology to ho hum, let me warm up my coffee. Power “high” Time “60 seconds.” Program number P63 “enter” confirm and land on the moon.

The greatest boon to humanity since fire or the wheel. I look back on my childhood days like a pioneer from “Wagon Train.”  We played with crudely fashioned toys made of wood or metal. The TV went off at midnight. All three stations! A portable television came on a cart, and you rolled it around the house. If you wanted to hear your favorite song. Listen to the radio and maybe they’ll play it, or you could call the request line and ask for it.

Bankers kept banker’s hours, so if you needed money you’d better go right now. They close on Friday and won’t be open again until Monday. I used to take my paycheck to the bank every Friday during my lunch hour, just like everyone else in town. Direct deposit? What’s that?

You’ve never heard such mournful groaning in your life as when Grandma pulled out her checkbook in the grocery store checkout line. “What store is this? What’s today’s date? Can I postdate this check until next Thursday? Can I get cash back? My what? My ID?  I’m sure it’s here somewhere. Hold on, I’m looking! This big ole purse of mine, I can’t ever find a thing in it. No, that’s my library card and pictures of my grandchildren. Let’s see, one dollar and eight cents for one package of black pepper. Oh my, look at the time.”

I see today’s children playing with cell phones or I pads. Little kids! When I was that age, I wasn’t allowed to touch the TV. Their education will be vastly different from my education. Their world is made over new, and John Kennedy had no idea what he had set into motion, no one did.

Do you know what you need to make an Internet work properly? Computers, lots, and lots of computers. Without that 1961 twenty-pound computer relic, no internet for the general public. I remember the excitement of going online for the first time. (Hold On! Here we go! Be gentle.) The modem barking and honking and filling the room with strange, beautiful, bizarre sounds of the future. “Oh, gosh! Where should we go first?”

Without that twenty-pound computer. No Google, or Microsoft or Amazon or Apple or SpaceX. No Netflix or streaming of any kind. Without that computer big govment bought, you’d still be putting tin foil on your rabbit ears.

A blind investment with a stated goal in a new technology and society moves forward. That 23-billion-dollar investment everyone complained so much about spending back in the 60s. Was a mere pittance when compared to the flood of wealth flowing back us and touching every life on the planet. I’ll trade you a penny for a million dollars?

Clean energy and clean transportation is the challenge we face today. Here in Arizona the sun shines. Every vacant lot and unused ball field should be covered over with solar cells. Making Arizona an electricity power house. Cheap electricity brings jobs, like picnics bring ants. Research brings technology and technology brings change, until one day you find yourself sitting in a world that you can hardly recognize. (Hello? Operator? I’d like to place a long distance collect call please.)

From nothing to all this in sixty years. Cars are safer and airplanes too. People don’t die as much from stuff they used to die from. A bright future is out there, but we have to go get it. (No delivery is available) Otherwise, it won’t come at all. Space telescopes and super computers won’t build themselves; you know. Doctors and scientists don’t just fall from the sky. Our past is set in stone, but the future is fluid and wide open to us. Thank you 1960s for your courage and investment. Where in the world would we be without you?

“That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong

Neil wasn’t kidding Bubba.