Is utter happiness too much to ask of technology?

This is an excellent article. It should resonate with every sci-fi fan and gen x'er.

The future was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free utopia -- a place where a grown man could wear a spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the servant robots, the flying cars and the hover boards that we expected? Oh, and that reminds me, where's my jetpack?At the turn of the 19th century, visionaries such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells spun wild tales of spaceflight and underwater adventure. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback introduced the first science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, with the motto: "Extravagant Fiction Today: Cold Fact Tomorrow." By the '60s and '70s, the Apollo missions made a lunar landing look like a trip to the beach. And don't even get me started on "Star Trek," with its tantalizing holodecks, transporters and universal translators.

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Charlotte Observer | 09/13/2006 | A few gadgets shy of utopia

Daniel H. Wilson, a roboticist, wrote "How to Survive a Robot Uprising." His blog is at danielhwilson.com.