THE RIGHT STUFF
"...it's lonely out in space..." --Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Fifty years ago, when the
psychological test results
were finally in, the scientific
intelligentsia pontificated:
Man will never-- can never--
travel the measureless emptiness
survive the stark loneliness
of the big-bang to the stars
so hopelessly social is his nature
so utterly dependent is he
upon human warmth, upon real contact
with his village... with his tribe...
today, a generation of innerspace-
astronaut sons and daughters and
nieces and nephews with uncanny
hand-eye-mouse coordination
self-strapped into the consoles
of wireless suspended animation
in space-capsule bedrooms
have launched their cargo lives
on drifting trajectories through
the days, months and years of
cyber-space... utterly alone
and chatting endlessly
in virtual bliss
in virtual chat rooms
resolving virtual conflicts
with virtual combat
developing virtual relationships
leading steamy virtual sex lives
and leaving us, their
baby-boomer elders,
tethered back here
on terra firma by our
virtual umbilicals
Fifty years ago, when the
psychological test results
were finally in, the scientific
intelligentsia pontificated:
Man will never-- can never--
travel the measureless emptiness
survive the stark loneliness
of the big-bang to the stars
so hopelessly social is his nature
so utterly dependent is he
upon human warmth, upon real contact
with his village... with his tribe...
today, a generation of innerspace-
astronaut sons and daughters and
nieces and nephews with uncanny
hand-eye-mouse coordination
self-strapped into the consoles
of wireless suspended animation
in space-capsule bedrooms
have launched their cargo lives
on drifting trajectories through
the days, months and years of
cyber-space... utterly alone
and chatting endlessly
in virtual bliss
in virtual chat rooms
resolving virtual conflicts
with virtual combat
developing virtual relationships
leading steamy virtual sex lives
and leaving us, their
baby-boomer elders,
tethered back here
on terra firma by our
virtual umbilicals