Transhumanism: How do we know?

[Drashner1]

Now - this might suggest (it does for me) the question "What parts of OA are jetpacks and flying cars?" (meaning that they're not exactly impossible, just so impractical that they won't exist)

Interestingly, OA has both aircars and personal flying devices (although they aren't jetpacks per se). Transporters of a sort as well (although not exactly). Note however, that each operates in a milieu that is significantly (some might say drastically) different from the way the concept was originally imagined. Most OA habitation areas are much less urbanized than the RL and given the lower population density there may be much greater distances between communities. So an aircar (or personal flying devices) makes more sense under those circumstances. OA also postulates significant advances in materials and massive advances in automation that help resolve some of the major problems we encounter with both techs in RL. The lower gravity on many habs probably doesn't hurt either

Perhaps the lesson here is that a tech that is impractical under one set of circumstances might become much more workable under a different one.

Todd