As a child of the 1960s, I grew up with dreams of a high tech future, so different from my simple rural family lifestyle. In part, that fondness for the future was drawn from the television show, The Jetsons, with its flying cars and robotic home helpers. As I grew into adulthood, I came to understand that social change happens incrementally and that cartoon flying cars would only become a norm if many other innovations came first.

So I was a little baffled when I read Craig Pittman’s article in the Florida Phoenix that the Florida state government wants to redirect funding originally intended for electric vehicle chargers to research on flying cars instead.

I’m reminded of a Nietzsche quote when I think about this lunacy. “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth,” Nietzsche said, “because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”

That tendency toward illusion continued this week with electric car maker Tesla. CEO Elon Musk revealed the second iteration of the Roadster, and many people had been excited to see what the specs would be. After all, didn’t we enjoy memorable times in our youth in sports cars? Okay, Ferraris they weren’t. But what about riding with the top down in a Miata or an MG? The wind would caress our cheeks. The aromas would be awakening — so different than the enclosed capsule of our everyday middle class automobiles.

” In another one of his moves that threw pragmatism to the rafters, he invited the Texas live in-house audience to watch a roller coaster display in which the reimagined Roadster flew into the air, twisted and righted itself like a cat, used air jets to land, and then continued on its rocketed trek.

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