Why so Long?

Abstract

Fifty years ago, I led a group of spirited High School students to consider a range of topics involving advanced technology including the working principles that propel UFOs (should they exist), alternate sources of power generation, and so on. The physical sciences have progressed considerably since then, yet most professional scientists lack the understanding to answer the questions we pondered. I know from attending their lectures that some of the world’s brightest and best thinkers have all of the tools needed to understand these things, and may have put many of the pieces in place already – to solve those foundational problems. But to my disappointment, there are no flying cars that require no fossil fuels to operate quite yet. So in this paper I will share some basic insights on progress toward solving the problems we considered 50 years ago, using mainly material available in textbooks from that timeframe.