WHERE'S MY FLYING CAR?

When I was growing up I read a lot of science fiction, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov etc. A common theme throughout these stories, written mostly in the 50's but buttressed by the 60's cartoons like the Jetsons, was that sometime in the near future (as near as 1960 in some cases) we would discover or implement a clean unlimited power source and all of our lives would be better. Robot housecleaners, flying cars, longer lifespans, you name it, science fiction promised to deliver.

Well. Here we are. I'm 48, living in 2008. Time is passing all too swiftly. And no flying cars.

To be sure, we have instant communications all over the world using handheld devices the size of a cigarette package. This device can also act as a camera, GPS, PDA, internet and email access device, music repository and player and can also slice tomatoes and make a good tomato bisque.

We have computers that have more calculating and video power in one small book sized machine than all of the computers in the world in 1950. And that are so affordable that many families have more than one.

We have The Internet, an amazing repository of ideas and information. Research and communicating ideas in any field has never been easier or more accessible. Games, entertainment, video, sound.... are all unimaginably further advanced than science fiction authors in the 1950's speculated.

But no flying cars. In fact, far from flying cars, 2008 models of automobiles aren't really that far removed from 1950's. A time traveller from 1955 would have no trouble identifying a car, a train, a bus, an airplane, and an experienced 1950's driver would probably quickly adapt to driving in 2008.

So what happened?