Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for July 27, 2021

How hard is it to say smartphones?!

The Nintendo 64, DS, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, 3DS….shall I go on?

We seem to be mostly living in an era of elaboration rather than outright invention.

Still… Robot dogs? Air fryers? Ah: Drones!

take a selfie with him

Maybe going to the past blurs memories of things not invented yet? Just wondering out loud.

No, the future is without creativity. But you, little boy, could change everything by becoming an inventor.

Try streaming

I am thinking of the futures depicted in shows like The Jetsons and Back to the Future. If he asks about flying cars he’ll be disappointed. Robot housemaids might segue into Roombas.

We have a worldwide communications network.

We use it to send cat pictures to each other and watch movies about people with no clothes on.

Japan has a life-sized Gundam robot that moves. Evolution of humanity is complete. Now, we await the end.

VR is one the young Ethan would probably be interested in hearing more about.

There is nothing new under the sun.

know of anything that existed in your parents’ pasts which didn’t yet in the present time?

Nothing new has been invented. Oh, and be sure to buy stock in Blockbuster and MySpace.

Smart toasters?

Welp, we created Covid-19. That good enough?

Excellent invitation! Significant inventions since the early 1990’s include: Lithium-ion batteries, solar cells exceeding 40% efficiency, reusable orbital insertion rockets, the Parker Sochacki Method of solving systems of differential equations, gravitational wave detectors, neutrino detectors, adaptive optics for telescopes, pylon racer drones, additive 3D printers, electronic currencies, electronic securities trading, CRISPR, bionic eyes, bionic ears, and prostheses with biofeedback, to name a few.

Just say everything from the Jetsons: Flying cars, videophones, PCs, shorter work week… wait, not that last one.

We invented computers, but they work little better than the Trash-80 Daddy probably owns….

“Hey Phoebe, did George Lucas ever get around to making those Star Wars prequels? He did? WOW! I bet they’ll be AWESOME!”

Was CRISPR around back then?

Time machines?