You would have to live on the moon not to have heard about the recent 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
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But that's right, you can't. Because we don't seem to have progressed much further since then.
It was indeed one giant leap for mankind. The problem seems to be that it was more of a sprint than a marathon.
Where are the space shuttles carrying slack-jawed earthlings to the moon and beyond? Where are the tractor beams? The voyages to new worlds?
When will we be able to step through a portal in the outback and find ourselves standing in front of the Mona Lisa?
The moon landing seems to have crystallised the one point where real life actually caught up to science fiction.
Then what? We went off on a tangent and became obsessed with the internet.
I watched the feverish excitement when that fellow took off in a jetpack next to the Sydney Opera House on the weekend. I thought we could already do that.
I know I do live in my own bubble. I found that out while working for the Transport Minister and telling him we were wasting massive amounts of money on highways when we should all be flying around in bubbles.
He laughed. But don't we have this technology?
Isn't Uber planning the imminent arrival of aerial taxis?
Something is wrong here. Why is Uber unveiling this as a commercial venture when you and I are still driving around in cars not all that different to the ones we had for the moon landing?
Is it car manufacturers who have been holding up the works? Have all our brains been sidelined coming up with the faster internet systems that will never traverse Australia's vast distances anyway?
The 50th anniversary was a wonderful celebration of one of the most amazing achievements humankind has ever come up with. What comes beyond?
We got a few pictures of Mars recently. That was probably not exactly the half-century vision people dreamt when they saw man walk on the moon 50 years ago.
At this rate, by the time we get our bubbles in the air and board that space shuttle, we won't be able to make it past all that space debris.
We need some leaders with vision, curiosity and very good scientific advisers. Enough with the satellites already, stop building walls and start building bridges - to the beyond.
Marie Low is a freelance journalist