perfidy

Sure we might pursue our own vision of progress, while unwittingly furthering humankinds' ultimate subjegation to mechanized overseers.

But we are nonetheless a clever bunch.

I'm thinking of this Huygens probe again. I just read that among the instrumentation aboard is a microphone. As in "two turntables and a...", as in it has the capacity to record the sounds of an alien world and broadcast them back here. Which is quite probably the coolest thing ever done with a microphone, despite Rick Rubin's best efforts.

So in a moment of what Johno once deemed "chronological vertigo", the scale of the Cassini/Huygens achievement hit me at the same time as did recognition of the calendar. 100 years ago, we were just past Kitty Hawk; both radio and recording were the stuff of well funded research labs; photography was fairly cutting edge; and Titan was a hazy smudge to the world's observatories.

That era is just beyond the fringe of living memory, arguably four generations past. Yet we just sent two machines to Saturn, one in the belly of the other, and landed one on Titan- the farthest a man made object has ever travelled to land. Not only will they use all of those technologies that were theory 100 years ago, but will do so remotely, and from another planet.

So kudos, humanity. You done good. Credit where credit is due and all that.

You're still not getting into the Ministry Bunker, though.