In regards to my piece about Apple Keynotes yesterday, Matt Haughy wrote a similar piece back in 2007 about how he saw Apple taking over the role NASA had once played, by sustaining his optimism in the future:
When I was a kid, the future was filled with optimism. The year 2000 was 10-20 years away and it was this magical goal we were working towards. I was obsessed with astronauts, especially those in NASA that got to ride in the space shuttle. While I never made it to spacecamp, I envied the kids that did.
Then the shuttle blew up, the year 2000 passed without flying cars, and 9/11 sparked another world war. Leaders talked about the past, not the future. Optimism was dead.