Forty years ago today, I sat on a lawn chair in the empty living room of my brand new house (new for me, that is) and watched Neil Armstrong take mankind's first step on the moon. In my arms was my newborn son, Patrick (about 3 months old at the time). I remember thinking as I looked from his rosy little face to the TV screen, "I can't even imagine the wonders this tiny boy will see in his lifetime..."
I was dazzled by the sophistication of the technology that made our moon landing possible. Science reporter Jay Barbree might as well have been speaking in tongues as he explained some of the technical aspects of the flight. I didn't understand a word of it, but I was filled with admiration for the geniuses who made it happen.
A few months later, I returned to college for my junior year. I managed to dodge science classes, while gobbling up courses in language, literature, history, speech/communications and music. The most complex technology in my life was a stick-shift Dodge Dart.
Fast forward forty years. Journalists covering the 40th anniversary of the moon landing are telling us that our cell phones are 200 times more powerful than the massive room-sized computers that powered the lunar lander. That completely blows my mind.
Every day, I work away at my Apple laptop, which weighs a little over two pounds and fits in my purse when I need to carry it with me. I climb into my computerized car, use my hands-free cell phone, get directions from a GPS unit, and go to dinner at a restaurant that I discovered online and e-mailed for reservations. I read my favorite mystery novels on an electronic reader that can store a thousand books at a time and is the size of one skinny paperback.
I support revolutionaries in far-off places, talk politics with journalists working in the White House, chat with Native groups in South Dakota and Montana about how to help American Indian kids, follow greyhound races at my favorite tracks, read recipes from up-and-coming chefs, encourage new entrepreneurs, get updates from distant family members and check the latest news, all on the internet. And, most amazing of all, it seems easy, natural--routine. What a difference forty years makes.
We've run a million miles since we walked on the moon. But I wonder. Will technology and human achievement ever dazzle us like that again? Now that we've run so far, will taking one little step ever again be so exciting?
Chronicling the ongoing evolution of a veteran public relations consultant from techno-dinosaur to social media wiz, along with occasional commentary on current events in politics, the arts, and the media.
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