I've heard stories about how when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, people were completely stunned. Elderly people at the time had grown up without cars had lived through the invention of the airplane and now there were people walking on the freakin' moon. I am somewhat envious of this as thus far my own lifetime has been devoid of such marvels.

This got me thinking about what sorts of events would have a similar effect on me. Landing on mars wouldn't do it, cause we already know that it's possible (it would just take a huge pile of money). It would have to be something new. Here's a list that I may add to later:

• Passing the Turing test
• Creating a visible, stable quantity of a new type of matter (transuranic elements, exotic matter, metallic hydrogen, etc)
• Artificial generation or absorbtion of gravity

Comments

Sephiroth (IP: 75.173.36.25) 2010-03-08 16:23:13

Or how about getting 50,000 light years into space in the next 100 years? If they pull that off, I'll crap my pants. Or if I am a ghost, I'll crap whatever i have.