On the whole I would say its a mixture of a lack of vision and a lack of perceived need.

Television is still piped to the home through cable because it works, the alternative is to create a vast wireless network which would cost billions (with a B), all so you dont have a cable and its wireless instead? where’s the incentive.

Space stations are cool and great in theory, but wheres the incentive, what do we gain, possible tourism? for a possibly -not in the least guaranteed- lucrative tourism location, industry would first have to shell out the many billions to establish the space station in the first place. Whilst in the meantime we have many tourist locations at home and abroad that need support or they will wither and die.

The problem with technological predictions of the past are that few if any took into consideration the actual human cost of such things, and whether there are better alternatives.

I for one would love to live on the moon, or even a space station – why? because it would be cool. But the engineering required to get us to a point where that’s a reality are so great, that the incentive has got to be greater than ‘oh that would be cool’.

What your asking for is a revolution, and what is happening is evolution. Sure, its not as ground breaking, sure its a longer process, and yes I’m not fond of it either. But its the natural way.

If you want grand designs, you must do more than think big. you must do big.