The high point of American civilization
On July 20, 1969, American placed a man on the moon.
It was the culmination not only of a decade of hard work and extraordinary engineering and courage, it was also the culmination of a million years of human aspiration.
Since the first humans had looked upward and seen the moon, people had dreamed of walking on it.
And we achieved it.
Three years later, we made our last trip to the moon – December 19, 1972.
No one has been back since.
And it seems no one is going again.
Next year will mark 40 years since someone last walked on the surface of the moon.
How is that possible?
The technology to do it is as old as, well, a 1972 Chevy.
You have more computing power in your digital camera than the entire lunar lander had.
And at about .00000001% of the cost.
So that’s not it.
Why did we stop going.
I think the answer is here
The lunar landing was broadcast back to earth live.
And it was boring TV.
Compared to Star Trek or Star Wars, which are also seen on screens, real lunar landings were boring.
They rated badly.
The world watched the landing on the moon on the same platforms that they watched Star Trek and Star Trek was infinitely more exciting.
So Star Trek won.
The Space Program was cancelled because of poor ratings.
So was the Shuttle Program.
They tried, with their own government branded (always a mistake) version of a reality show – Teacher in Space.
Unfortunately, she died in the first episode.
This was a real disaster.
That show as also cancelled.
And now, the whole NASA Network is about to go the way of the Oprah Winfrey Network – out of business.
Bad ratings.
We are a very strange culture now.
We get behind stuff like Facebook, which is not real.
It’s an illusion.
Me and my 2200 ‘friends’, blowing through nothing but bullshit all day long.
Making nothing
Achieving nothing.
Creating nothing.
Real achievement – well sometimes it’s just not fun or visually interesting.
Sometimes it isn’t even ‘social’.
And often it is very very very boring.
When Thomas Edison discovered the right filament for incandescent light it required thousands of hours of trial and error.
Boring.
Really boring.
Had ‘The Search For The Electric Light’ been done as a Reality Show, we would all still be sitting in the dark.
The Thomas Edison Show would have been cancelled after the second show.
Painfully boring – The New York Times
Like Watching Paint Dry – The NY Daily News
Often, real work and real achievement are in fact painfully boring and quality takes a really long time and requires real work.
This is something we just don’t like.
And anyway, as we perceive the whole world on screens now, what is the difference if someone really landed on the moon or we just made it up and made it really entertaining.
Does it really matter if the people who tweet and blog are real or fantasies.
The need to entertain not only obviates the distinction between real and ‘enhanced’, it make the ‘enhanced’ version all the more interesting.
How many reality shows are really ‘real’?
Like… none?
And does it matter?
Doesn’t seem to.
And the moon landings?
Boring!
And in Black and White, no less.
6 Comments
John D June 29, 2011
LOVE IT!
Thanks for the heads up Michael!
John D June 28, 2011
I’m putting off committing to Final Cut X…but have faith eventually Apple will give it the horsepower it needs to be “real” for the entire editing community. I’ll just wait till they work the bugs out of it until I open my wallet.
Great observations in this entry Michael!
We’ve become such a visually oriented society too often “seeing is believing” will lead to the wrong conclusions and have long term effects on generations to become. Yet…I have to smile thinking of the cell phones we all carry and remembering the Star Trek communicators which were always thought of as so far into the future. No, I can’t talk to space ships with my phone but i do have access to so much world knowledge in my back pocket no matter where I find myself.
Michael Rosenblum June 28, 2011
I think you’ll love this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQVO62QM0
Randy Noland June 27, 2011
Yes that part is confusing. Will stand by for your take.
For what is worth, my take I posted on another blog.
I agree that FCPX’s potential is huge and obvious once I took the time to drill down thru the features. It will be a shame if #1) Apple doesn’t communicate a roadmap soon for those that feel abandon and #2) the pro community doesn’t take the time to drill down to the power of this rewrite.
The intuitive user interface is absolutely revolutionary. The UI easily can scale to include the missing PRO features. Hind sight is 20/20 but the migration strategy was Apple’s biggest omission. Had Apple applied focus to a migration strategy, damage control would not have been necessary. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now. So I agree with you. Return FCP7 to the market. Facilitate backwards compatibility either internally (at Apple) or externally (3rd party). And finally, communicate an accelerated developmental road map addressing the top 5 PRO concerns.
We all lose if FCPX does receive love and direction from the PRO community. After all, the PRO’s are the source of it’s very soul.
FCPX has killer potential to be the most powerful, the most productive and efficient “clip to final product†tool ever available. Please everyone, keep shouting…. Constructively! And Apple, please listen!
Randy Noland June 27, 2011
Hello Michael. Very interesting perspective and I must say, sad but true. We do blow thru bullshit all day long, as if to pass time in a new and shiny way. Creative plagiarism in not even creative anymore.
On a different note, I’m looking forward to your potential blog entry on FCPX. I have my own opinion that seems to go against the Procommunity outcry although I understand their resentment.
(btw, I attended one of your classes for the Travel Channel boot camp in DC Sept of 2009-good stuff)
Michael Rosenblum June 27, 2011
Hi Randy
Still working my way through FCPX. Certainly, as often with Apple, a giant leap into the future and quite good in many respects. What I can’t understand is why they didn’t continue a second strand with FCP7 as a pro tool. stand by