Yesterday was a big day for all mankind.
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched a test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket, sending the whimsical payload of his personal Tesla roadster into space, on its way to a heliocentric orbit around Mars.
I've been a Musk fan for a long time now. I think that this launch is the beginning of a whole lot of change. There are a series of technologies Musk has created which compliment one another in improving how we live and get around.
His solar roof tiles will provide cheap, plentiful power, which will come in handy, to power your self-driving electric car.
Speaking of your car, his boring machine will create a vast tunnel and tram system to eliminate surface road traffic.
Plus, surface travel without a car is going to be boosted by the near-vacuum-tube based pod hyperloop system.
Roads are going to get a whole lot less congested with this stuff. This will be further enabled by the Tesla Semi, which is not only electric but soon to be completely autonomous, self-driving.
But let's get back to that space thing for a moment. The Falcon 9 rocket isn't just stronger, bigger, reusable, and thus cheaper to run. It's not just going to get us out to the stars. It's also going to make our planet a much smaller place, by making it possible to go almost anywhere on earth in about an hour.
When I sit and ponder the potential social changes this sort of technology will bring, it astounds me. It'll lower borders, create jobs, make medicine more reliable, enlarge humanity's reach out to the stars, improve our life on earth in countless ways.
Yes, the world is filled with social ills. Yes, there's poverty, racism, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, and hatred rampant in it.
But there's also this, and I'm thrilled to be a witness to it.
This is all really happening.