You may or may not know by now that in my list of idols are the Wright Brothers. In 1903 at kitty hawk, they were the first to sustain a controlled flight of a heavier than air craft. They weren’t PhDs or even researchers, they owned a bike shop. Lots of changes to flight travel have happened since then, primarily making something that flies now requires permission for a whole mess of people.
But isn’t that the “American way” (referring to the United States methodology). Using whatever resources we have at hand to make a buck. Sure commercial air travel ushered in staggering benefits of globalization, but primarily for profit. When profits are at stake you can bet there will be fierce regulations. Yes some of those regulations are for our safety, but at what costs?
Fewer regulations might be less safe but when regulations hamper the creative soul that is when I feel dark inside. Do you think the FAA would have let Orville and Wilbur fly their plane? In case you don’t know where I’m going, I say, no I don’t think they would have.
Frowning at regulations made for our safety doesn’t mean I am reckless, if I am going to test a design you can be darn sure I will have taken into account the design flaws and done thorough safe testing on my own.
All I want is a bike shop, a welder and a dream (a slide rule might come in handy). Let me chase the skies.
Oh right back to the title, in a hundred years we’ve made a lot of advancements in technology for which I am grateful, but when copyrights and regulations get in the way of the creative spirit I would count all the technology advancements as a loss.