1969, and all that...

I was on the phone to my a client a few days ago, we were both on our mobiles, and the cellphone network kept dropping our call, it was really frustrating, we barely got the conversation started than the line would break up, we'd repeat what we last said, usually simultaneously, then once we had started, with agonising delay to understand what each other was saying, it'd cut us off. After 3 attempts and no real progress we gave in and I tried again the next day, then the line was fine, apparently there was a Storm in his area at the time of the call. Clearly annoyed my client made the oft heard remark... "We can put a man on the moon, you'd think we could get the phones to work during a bit of rain"

And how right he was, when you think of that monumental achievement almost 30 years ago, life's little technological gripes seem more as a result of pure, "can't be arsed" by suppliers than real impossibility...

Have you noticed how at a restaurant the tables are always wonky? Surely if we can put a man on the moon we can design unwonky tables!

What about all that fluff that gathers in tumble driers? Surely if we can put a man on the moon... we can design fluffless dryers...

And don't get me onto our postal system! Surely if we can put a Man on the Moon... we can design a postal system that can do next day deliveries of a simple package without it having to go halfway round the world, and being shit in by monkeys... or has that experience only happened to me?

But... but... are we simply judging life by that excuse, all these things we insist are resolvable because we put a man on the moon... I mean, what if it had failed, or worse, the USA and USSR had never tried...

I wish these curtains would meet in the middle but it'll never happen as we can't put a man on the moon....

We'll never stop that tap from dripping, after all we can't put a man on the moon...

My toast is always too light (or dark), but we'll never design a good toaster, after all we can't put a man on the moon...

Would all technological development have stopped? After all, whats the point? We can't put a man on the moon, so no point in trying to move technology forward, so no Internet, no cleaner cars, no pocket calculators... but thinking deeper... no cruise missiles, invading Iraq, educating George Bush.

Then again they didn't seem to bother educating George Bush, despite landing a a man on the moon...

So, really now... how much difference did it all make?



© OddBat 2009