Sputnik

Sputnik turned 50 just recently. It's amazing to think that the entire range of experience with satellites and space flights is just 50 years old.

We so often forget that the rate of technological change is not linear, but accelerating.

We also tend to forget that our primary problems are not economic, technological, or political, but spiritual problems. Apart from the work of God, nothing else provides real hope.

P.S. ComputerWorld has a fascinating (well, fascinating to me :-) article about how many technologies, including the Internet, were spawned in the heady days of federal spending after Sputnik coursed through the skies. Read it here.