“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Certain lines from movies stick with you.
Like Ferris Bueller’s famous adage, of course.
Or this, a less-quoted FB gem.
That one always hits home in a different way.
See, like anyone who grew in the early-to-mid ’80s, I began every day with the absolute certainty we were all going to die. Cold War nightmares and such.
Then … glasnost, Berlin Wall falls and I grew up.
(Moved to New York, which didn’t help, but anyway …)
To this day, I sometimes weep for our future.
It certainly explains my reading list. Witness my dystopian deep dive from this year alone: The Road, The Water Knife, Wool, Black Moon, Station Eleven, the Southern Reach Trilogy, etc.
“We’re doomed” kind of stuff.
But here’s the thing: when I do stop and look around — shit’s getting better.
There are charts to prove it: we’re living longer, extreme poverty is down, democracy is on the rise and more children are going to school.
Oh, and technology? Planet may be getting hotter, but the tech’s getting way cooler.
It’s something we highlight every day at InsideHook.
Over the last month, we celebrated 100 years of the hovercraft, the advent of flying cars and America’s newest sport: drone racing.
We also published our annual Toys of Summer, in which we went agog over postmodern motorcycles, superyachts, carbon-fiber bikes, a real-life Batmobile and life-sized Tinkertoys.
So, maybe the future’s brighter than we think. Maybe there’s no reason to be terrified.
Or, only 11 of ‘em.
Enjoy your future,
Kirk Miller
InsideHook
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