The future of flying

In the last century, we've seen a big change in the way we move around. Horses to cars. Boats to planes. Rickshaws to segways.

Faster! Faster! Faster!

So what's next? Most of the technology we're developing now will be usable in our lifetime, assuming YOU the reader are not 80 years old. Current government tech, like [top secret text removed], or non-government tech, like X prize sub-orbital spaceflight may be the next big transportation related industry. This has big implications for our personal and professional lives. Imagine if you could get to anyplace on the earth in under 2 hours. Businessmen off to China for an afternoon meeting. Taking care of a family member in India when they're recovering from illness. Traveling to the Dead Sea just to float around. Detroit to Chicago, that's only 3 minutes. How am I supposed to get drunk in 3 minutes? Mile high club? Better hurry up. What if the price of travel is so inexpensive, it's cheaper to fly home at the end of the night instead of getting a hotel room.

It's inevitable the technology will be there. The main bottle neck is still going to be checking in, waiting for bags. Security! My fetish of smuggling fruit into foreign countries. Perhaps we can streamline flights by prohibiting checked luggage or using retinal scanners as ID or letting robots pat you down instead of humans. I don't feel quite as bad being groped by a robot. If flight 2.0 doesn't require runways, maybe we can build vertically or integrate airports into tighter spaces like downtown areas. I think the most important thing to preserve is the miming of what to do in an emergency. Arms out to the side. Arms flapping like a bird. And please don't frighten me with the truth. Only happy thoughts.