As the pioneers of aviation took to the air (not skies), in their human powered mechanical contraptions, what must have been said and thought?
Complicated pulleys and chain systems enclosing a lunatic, perhaps!
Or overly optimistic cyclists with designs above their head, even.
Yet they left us with the beginnings of international and inter-planetary travel, its’ destinations, physical and figurative.
What of the scientists and chemists, self-sent to the grave through misadventure and experiment?
And their journals, which were and are hard copy legacies unbound by the limiting confines of the grave? Something was learned, in the big picture!
A spark of madness, as it seemed, was the ignition source for technological explosions.
Original computer models had lighting sequences, which was something, but couldn’t have evolved without enthusiasm, imagination, finance and time, into what it is today. At that point in history, it couldn’t have happened elsewhere on the planet, in the same way and speed. The formula for advancement would have been incomplete. Indeed, it couldn’t have happened at that rate, without mass optimism and lots of people pulling in the same direction.
You see, something hypothetical or seemingly ridiculous can be some thing brilliant. The first aviators understood that a bird held no magical power, whatever about altitude. If these men couldn’t fly, well then they would have learned new engineering techniques, along the way.
What dreams will come for the generations of today’s’ prosperous societies where children can access resources to overcome relatively minor learning disabilities, opposed to the aggressive and ignorant resources that successfully placed previous generations in the back of the schoolroom? The visual vantage point that it offered hardly compensated for hearing loss or impairment perceived as indifference.
What of the premature or “early” babies now breathing air where it always was, but previously too young to attain it? Or the thousands of people whose real lives were initiated “IN VITRO” (in glass)? New people that wouldn’t have been, is the result.
Likewise with those having hearts incapable of the pumping cycles expected for life, some thirty years ago. Not new people with more life, is the result.
The “borrowed time” cliché is now redundant, somewhat ridiculous and a primitive view.
Modern medical procedures have made time it seems, with the clock of yesterday being wound with the hand of today.
Blindness and its’ confederates have been “blind-sided” by cutting and therapeutic tooling and processes, initially designed to produce coherent light. The laser is lighting the way with eyesight improved beyond its’ so called natural state of efficiency, with respect to age. Glasses and contact lenses are dispensed to the recycle bin, and rarely missed, where the finance exists.
Bone marrow and the life liquid that it generates is not necessarily confined to its’ original “coil”, in life, and has helped many to further appreciate their terrestrial experience.
Organs, once seemingly, having sole ownership, are transferable to no little extent. It is the thought of life that is really yours and is less transferable, though not completely.
Non-life threatening cosmetic conditions such as simple “over-bites” or incisor/molar misalignment must be a thing of the recent past. Look around and count them up. This corrective procedure helped many overcome their personal and previously stigmatised, physical appearances. Botulinum toxin or botox is commonplace as a signal blocker. Apparently, all muscular control is no longer essential, not that it ever was, but where specific muscles are paralysed, more favourable effects can occur. A “frown”, whether the result of intense and prolonged concentration, or simply, “the way it is”, can essentially, be neutralised.
Incidentally, botox was first used to treat “lazy eye” in 1980.
These two things alone, dental and facial configuration and re-configuration, dramatically change the outward appearance and is life-changing to those involved, whether it should be or not. That supermodel you know, for example, may not be in their present position without some intervention.
Democracies (whatever their downside), are increasing (Europe), bringing security and hope to generations of war-weary and impoverished countries. Belonging to something bigger must help in forgetting internal or local squabbles. Someone said that there was never a war between democracies, presumably, because deals can always be done where commerce is the key.
Once an idea has been “set”, these days by groups and earlier by somewhat isolated individuals, it is inevitable that they will come to fruition in the same or similar form. Those “rough” men in their contraptions didn’t or couldn’t envisage more modern contraptions, leaving the confines of EARTH for they had some of what it takes, but not all.
It is to decide and deliver the idea that is the most difficult thing these days, for if it is accepted by just a handful of people, then commitment is made, and conviction remains. Genetic engineering will drive on, whether we all like it or not. Behind closed doors or openly in the cities’ plazas, the idea is set.
Isn’t it this flexibility that makes us a unique and successful species and isn’t it exactly what removed us from the caves and the clutches of carnivores? The plains of the Serengeti have been replaced by the pleasures of palaces (relatively). The vastness of the imagination becomes the legends of history, the possibilities of people, and the clutches of carnivores are substituted with the comfort of couches.
Retractors are the obstacle and protractors, the removers!
