“Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space,” Kratsios said. “They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity.”
It's pretty common to talk about inventions like the telephone/airplane/internet as effecting time and space (or to be more precise, our relationship to them), but yes the wording of the headline is pretty strongly misleading.
I cannot logic that out as a metaphor. The language is perfectly clear in its absurdity. Airplanes do not "manipulate" space or time, and they do not "leave distance annihilated" (which is such a nonsensical phrase anyway).
It honestly sounds like he got confused and mixed stuff he saw on Star Trek with reality.
However, I am willing to consider 2 extremely generous interpretations (maybe there are others):
1 -- He has zero understanding of technology and science, so technology like rocket engines is "magical" to him, in which case he is not qualified to be a director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
2 -- He wants to communicate to the world, possibly as a sort of boast or threat, that the USA has some secret UFO-like technology that it has not yet made public, in which case he is a total loon.
A trip that took a week now takes a day. A voice that was far is now near.
As I said, if you want to be more precise you would say that's a manipulation of our relationship with time/space, but (as flowery metaphorical language goes) this is hardly the first time someone has spoken like this about major technological change. Methinks you're being too literally-minded in your reading abilities.
It's pretty common to talk about inventions like the telephone/airplane/internet as effecting time and space (or to be more precise, our relationship to them), but yes the wording of the headline is pretty strongly misleading.
I cannot logic that out as a metaphor. The language is perfectly clear in its absurdity. Airplanes do not "manipulate" space or time, and they do not "leave distance annihilated" (which is such a nonsensical phrase anyway).
It honestly sounds like he got confused and mixed stuff he saw on Star Trek with reality.
However, I am willing to consider 2 extremely generous interpretations (maybe there are others):
1 -- He has zero understanding of technology and science, so technology like rocket engines is "magical" to him, in which case he is not qualified to be a director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
2 -- He wants to communicate to the world, possibly as a sort of boast or threat, that the USA has some secret UFO-like technology that it has not yet made public, in which case he is a total loon.
A trip that took a week now takes a day. A voice that was far is now near.
As I said, if you want to be more precise you would say that's a manipulation of our relationship with time/space, but (as flowery metaphorical language goes) this is hardly the first time someone has spoken like this about major technological change. Methinks you're being too literally-minded in your reading abilities.
With generosity like this, who needs malice? :-p
1 reply →