The Future.

Does the future scare you? I like to think it doesn't, I like to think I am excited for the future but in actual fact, yes, the future does scare me. I don't think it scares me because I'm afraid of death, or pain, or strife, that sort of thing is a definite in life and something we must deal with when the time comes, I think I am actually scared of the future because I'm afraid I won't like what I find.

It seems like everyone and everything in our world today is aiming for a 'big, bright future where all our problems are forgotten and all our needs are fulfilled!' but when I actually think about it, I don't want that. I mean, the first flying car has already been made and the other night I discovered I can watch live video feeds from hundreds of thousands of camera's all around the world (see Earthcam.com) yet this is not a comforting thought.

When I think about the depictions of the future in sci-fi films (Bladerunner, The Fifth Element, I Robot etc) I never ever think, 'oh, I can't wait to live in a world like that!' and I'm sure you'd agree, so why is every scientist and inventor in the world trying to create that? I like doing the dishes by hand, sleeping in a nice comfy bed, in a normal house that isn't just another claustrophobic block in the middle of a huge apartment complex and I like having the freedom to aspire and to travel and to explore the world and tests my limits.

It's a shame to see how much we've changed even in 100 years. When our parents were young you barely had to fill in a form to travel the world, yet nowadays we have to have more than enough money in the bank, and a green card and fit into a thousand different categories. In our grandparent's day they'd just get on a boat and sail wherever they pleased. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't particularly want to live in their day (although I do love tea and scones and pretentiousness) but on the other hand I don't want to live in the scary, hopeless depictions we see in films and books. I want to live now.

Would it be too naive of me to ask if the whole world could just stop growing? I mean, please by all means, continue finding cures to terrible diseases, but stop making space ships, invisibility cloaks (I kid you not) and nuclear weapons. Let's just have an international timeout.

But alas, I am no Barack Obama, just a kid of 17 looking for a good time, therefore what I say has no weight in the real world, but that doesn't mean it's not of any worth. I hope the human race takes heed of the many warnings we have been given across the last century, that we wont just be some species, on some planet that wipes themselves out, allowing other species from other planets to make documentaries about our sad demise.

Although I wouldn't mind seeing that.

In other news, The Sartorialist (an internationally renowned blog that photographs real people wearing awesome things) has released a book - and I want it. http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

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Best idea since Hermione Granger.