June 24, 2025 • 19 mins
From Star Trek to Skunk Works, California once led the world in space-age dreaming. What happened? In this solo episode, I trace the roots of that generation of techno-optimism and ask what it might look like to summon it again in an era of cynicism, scarcity, and political drift to get Californians dreaming again.
00:00 Intro
03:31 Defining the First Space Age
05:28 The Twin Boosters of the Space Age
08:07 Southern California: Epicenter of the Space Age
11:19 Competing Views of the Space Age
12:47 Fostering Techno-Optimism in California
Keywords: Second Space Age, California Future Society, techno-optimism, space exploration, cultural impact, technology, innovation, aerospace industry, future vision, optimism, Southern California, space age nostalgia, Jetsons futurism, Imagineering, Elon Musk, SpaceX launch, awe and wonder, California history, Tomorrowland, Googie architecture, Burbank, Los Angeles, rocket science, NASA, Star Trek, the Jetsons, Twilight Zone, Caltech, JPL, Lockheed Skunk Works, Cold War, scientific progress, dynamic society, American frontier, abundance, clean energy, AI education, Neuralink, supersonic jets, California Forever, Solano County, hardware manufacturing, gigascale solar, belief in the future, media environment, techlash, personalized learning, postwar optimism, suburban California, futurism, storytelling, cultural zeitgeist, economic development, infrastructure, vision for California, building the future, space culture, American dream
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
And in that moment, I was struckby this childlike feeling of
wonder and dreaming. And it's something that,
particularly as I get older, youdon't really feel.
So you have this region where Hollywood storytellers and
aerospace engineers are bumping shoulders, their neighbors,
their friends and colleagues. And this is where this era of
space age entertainment was created.
The state was growing. It was dynamic.
There's new homes being built, and there's a lot of excitement.
(00:23):
There's a deeply held belief that the next generation was
going to be better off than the generation today.
And I think, I think that fundamental belief upward
societal trajectory is really powerful.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the California Future Society
podcast. This week, I have something
different for you. Instead of a normal interview
with a guest, I'm revisiting an old essay of mine and expanding
(00:46):
on the ideas and just kind of sharing my thinking.
I wanted to get more into some of this kind of freewheeling
individual thought to share a little bit more about the ideas
that get me excited, that kind of underpin the motivation for
why I'm doing this, right. So in my interviews, I think in
general, I try to not be overbearing on my guests.
I, I invite people on because I respect and admire what they
(01:08):
think about in their areas of expertise.
And you know, while I might chime in with my thoughts, I
don't want to make it about me. But at the same time, while
that's great for interviews, I created this channel in Part 2,
put out some of my own thoughts into the world.
And so this is an opportunity for me to do this.
And it's on a topic that I find really interesting.
It's the idea of summoning the second space age.
(01:32):
OK, so some background context. The reason I first wrote this
essay was I saw a SpaceX launch,and I'll pull up an image here
for those of you who are watching on the YouTube.
For those of you who have seen one of these somewhat of a
miraculous vision in the sky. I saw this and I was sitting on
the beaches in Santa Monica. My toes were in the sand and I
(01:52):
was looking up at the sky. And there's kind of this
jellyfish multicolor cosmic cloud that emerges behind the
rocket. There's a somewhat mystical
quality. And in that moment, I was struck
by this childlike feeling of of wonder and dreaming.
And it's something that, particularly as I get older, you
don't really feel as often. And I think space, more than any
(02:15):
other industry, inspires awe andwonder.
It's more than just a warm feeling in your chest, right?
It's, it's reshapes your sense of possibility.
When we look to the stars, we, we, we realize that, you know,
we're watching humanity push into the heavens.
And it gives us fresh eyes to question the limits of what's
achievable here on Earth. There's an eel on quote about
(02:36):
this that you want to wake up inthe morning and think the future
is going to be great. And that's what being a
spacefaring civilization is all about.
It's about believing in the future and thinking that the
future will be better than the past.
Now, regardless how you feel about Elon, I think that feeling
of being optimistic about the future really underpins some of
what I'm working on here at California Future Society.
(02:56):
So, you know, for me, as someonewho cares about ushering in a
more ambitious, brighter future for California, I keep returning
to our state's relationship to space.
California not only developed the technology to make space
travel possible, but we also once led the nation in
cultivating a culture of optimism towards the future.
So it's deeply rooted in our state's legacy, and I think it's
(03:17):
also time that we tap into thoseroots to renew a sense of
excitement about technology's potential for the future.
So this is this idea that I cameback to in this essay that I
centered it on was this concept of summoning the second Space
Age. So before defining what the
second space age is, what it means to even summon it, I think
it's important to identify what I mean when I'm talking about
(03:37):
the space age. So America's space age, from the
end of World War 2 through the 1970s, marked peak of the
distinctly American form of techno optimism, or the belief
that the advance of technology would transform our lives in a
radical, positive way. America's seen repeated waves of
technological advancement in various forms during since our
existence, really. But not every one of them
(03:59):
defines an era enough to earn the title of quote in age.
So what defines an age? It's when a period of scientific
breakthroughs shapes culture, and it's that cultural overlap
that I think is really importantfor the purposes of what I'm
talking about. You see, I think of science and
culture as these twin rocket boosters of the first space age,
a period when going to the moon resonated with a country buzzing
(04:21):
with energy about how technologymight shape the future.
And it's that combination of those two boosters that made the
era special, and we need both ifwe want to make it happen again.
So that first booster, like I said, is the material scientific
breakthroughs. The space age was about more
than just rockets. Putting a man on the moon was
the headline event, but this wasa time of rapid breakthroughs
(04:41):
that materially improved the lives of everyday Americans.
So from NASA's formation in 1958to the moon landing in 1969, the
pursuit of space embodied America's commitment to
advancing technology. Backed by extensive government
funding, NASA peaked at about 4%of the entire federal budget.
And motivated by the intense Cold War competition with the
Soviet Union, America's scientific progress became a
(05:03):
matter of political pride and national security.
And America's heavy investment into space from both the public
and the private sector did more than just get us to the moon.
It led to other foundational breakthroughs with positive
spillover effects. Fields ranging from material
science to computing, electronics, communications,
robotics, and weather monitoringwere improved as a result of the
(05:26):
space program's work. And this period was also marked
by the positive mainstream impact of technology.
This wasn't something that was just reserved for academic
breakthroughs or in papers. IT people felt it in their
day-to-day existence, right? Think about computing.
IBM was creating its first mainframes, laying the
foundation for the modern computing age.
I think about medicine. We got the polio vaccine,
(05:47):
ultrasounds, birth control, and early CT scans.
Things like commercial aviation also became popular at this
time, right? Air travel became accessible
with the launch of large passenger jets and home
appliances is another category. I think it's worth noting.
Things like color TV's, portableradios, refrigerators,
microwaves, dishwashers, washingmachines and vacuums all became
(06:09):
fixtures of a booming middle class suburban lifestyle in the
post war era. So that's booster one.
That's this technological breakthrough.
But a space age, as I was sayingearlier, is defined not just by
the technology that emerges, butit's also by a cultural
alignment and celebration of technology.
And the space age was about morethan just a list of
(06:30):
breakthroughs. What makes this time special was
how the pursuit of space definedthe cultural zeitgeist, captured
the public's imagination, and infused itself into the look and
the feel of an era. The pursuit of space resonated
deeply with American ideals. Since our founding, American
culture has always been animatedby the frontier and the
(06:51):
opportunity to conquer the unknown, for better and for
worse. And exploring the final frontier
space was a very natural extension of the American
impulse to explore, expand, and redefine the limits of human
potential. Space captured the American
imagination. Even in the deeply divided
1960s, a time of political assassinations and protests, 93%
(07:13):
of American households watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on
TV. Now, granted, there wasn't much
to watch on TV at the time, and there was no social media or
other competing distractions. It was a very unified media
environment. But still, getting 93% of
Americans to do anything is remarkable, and his earnest
excitement and embrace A technological achievement
spilled over into popular culture and shaped our
(07:35):
aesthetics. One author that I came across
quoted the idea that people believed the future would be
sleek, edged in shining Chrome, protectively enclosed like the
cockpit of a jet fighter. Right.
The Space Age gave a visual aesthetic to our vision of what
the future might become. At this time, astronauts were
household heroes, and future generations dreamed of what life
(07:57):
might look like among the cosmos, whether they were
watching Star Trek or the Jetsons or other TV sci-fi like
that. And I think the reason I care
about the Space Age is that the epicenter of it was Southern
California. And I think the best way to
illustrate the cultural impact of the Space Age is to look at
California, particularly Southern California, where both
the technological and the cultural boosters burned
(08:18):
hottest. So California was the
headquarters of the Space Age isthe land where both the era's
builders and dreamers lived and modeled more dynamic, innovative
and optimistic society. And this is most clear in
Southern California, where America's aerospace industry was
centered. As historian Peter Westwood put
it, Southern California as we know it would not exist without
(08:39):
aerospace. So for those of you who don't
know, Southern California had the densest concentration of
aerospace talent in the world. Consider that by the end of the
Space Age, that same author, Peter Westwood, notes that
Southern California was home to about 40% of EU s s missile and
space business and 1/3 of the nation's aerospace engineers.
At its peak, the industry employed more than half a
(08:59):
million people statewide, so Southern California was the
epicenter. There's also large presence
elsewhere. Aerospace defense companies were
also some of the largest employers in Silicon Valley up
through the 80s. Aerospace powerhouses like
Northrop, Lockheed, Douglas Hughes, Rockwell and General
Dynamics were all here developing and manufacturing
world leading rockets, satellites and missiles.
(09:20):
California was also home to research centers like JPL or
Ames or Lawrence Livermore up north or Rand where I used to
work, Aerospace Corporation and universities like Caltech,
Stanford, the UC system that supplied the industry's
intellectual firepower. So you had the statewide
industry, but I think it's in Southern California where the
distinct cultural embrace of technological progress and
techno optimism took root. LA cities like Burbank were home
(09:44):
to both Lockheed's famous Skunk Works division as well as Disney
and Warner Brothers Studios. So you have this region where
Hollywood storytellers and aerospace engineers are bumping
shoulders, their neighbors, their friends and colleagues
sending their kids to the same schools.
And this is where this era of space age entertainment was
created, right? Your shows like Star Trek, The
(10:05):
Jetsons or The Twilight Zone, they're all produced by LA
Studios. And he's brought sci-fi concepts
to living rooms around the world.
Southern California is also where Disney pioneered the
concept of Imagineering, fusing Southern California's trademark
disciplines of engineering and storytelling to develop
attractions like Tomorrowland. And you also see in the built
environment, Googie and aerospace Modern styles brought
(10:28):
a futuristic aesthetic to airports, motels, and drive
thrus that you can still see today.
Designers and architects like Charles and Rae Eames or Pierre
Koenig or John Lautner incorporated these sleek,
streamlined lines into their works and brought Space Age
materials into everyday buildings.
And this Space Age ethos infuseditself in the region's cultural
(10:49):
groundwater and shaped life in Southern California, which in
turn shaped the rest of the nation.
These these post war decades were I would argue the peak of
Southern California's cultural influence on the rest of the
country at this time is going through this intense post war
population boom and pioneering this suburban lifestyle at the
rest of the country would quickly imitate.
(11:09):
At that time, Southern California stood as America's
model of the good life, a land of abundance optimism where
residents eyes were firmly fixedon the technology of the future.
So now stepping back and thinking about where we are
today. When I originally wrote this
essay, I then started thinking about OK, where are we with the
space industry today and are we in a place where we could
potentially some in a second space age?
(11:30):
But I think that that the space industry itself is actually less
relevant and what's more valuable is thinking about how
our culture thinks about technology because there's also
people who frankly don't like the space age, right?
I talked about it with a lot of allure and excitement, but
there's others who disagree. My guest next week, Virginia
Postrel, I mean, she talks aboutshe has essays opposing kind of
(11:53):
the Jetsons futurism, as you know, particularly the
philosophical trappings around as it's somewhat technocratic
and centralized and static and aspirational.
It's a little too uniform and sterile where she thinks that a
more helpful and useful aspirational futurism is one
that's more diverse, you know, more dynamic.
And there's also lots of alternative visions of the
(12:15):
future that are positive as well.
Right. You can go back and listen to
the interview with Devin Zugel edge Esmeralda and she talks
about solar punk and how that aesthetic informed how they
structure as Esmeralda and how it's very different than this
type of Jetsons aerospace age optimism.
But even if we don't imitate theexact elements of Southern
California's Space Age era, right, I care less about that
(12:38):
and resurrecting Googy architecture.
What I care more about is fostering that sense of techno
optimism and excitement about what technology can bring and
what the future can look like, right?
Is it even possible in today's divided age to achieve that
sense of alignment between technology and culture and
government and recognize the fact we are living in an age of
miracles where new technology israpidly expanding what human
(13:00):
life may look like even in our lifetimes?
I think it's still very possibleit might look different.
So recognizing that the exact trappings of the space age may
not be necessary, I still want to ask myself, what would it
look like to foster a spirit of techno optimism, of excitement
about the future in California? And I have three ideas of what
(13:22):
that would actually look like. So the first one is that I think
it has to be much more bottom upand as opposed to the space age
of before, it's just a differentenvironment.
One is LED a ton by national security concerns and government
funding, as I was talking about.But also the media environment
was very different when you onlyhad, you know, three TV channels
on at any given time. And the area that we live in
today, there's been a lot of talk about the tech lash and you
(13:44):
can see it in mainstream media coverage, which tends to have a
relatively pessimistic view of technology, right?
Are people who are creating explicitly techno optimist media
out there, but they tend to be independent, right?
It's people like Cleo Abram and huge if true, or Jason Carmen or
Paki McCormick. So, you know, these Youtubers,
other people like that, who explicitly embrace the
possibility of what technology can look like, but they tend to
(14:06):
be outside of mainstream media. And there's been a lot of
writing and talking about this concept of a tech lash, this
wave of negative framing about technology's advancements,
particularly by mainstream media.
Frankly, I don't know if that's going away.
But regardless, I think support and excitement for technology
has to look a lot more bottom upand organic just because that's
the reality of the media environment that we operate in.
(14:27):
The second thing that comes to mind is that I think people need
to see a diverse range of breakthroughs that can actually
impact their lives or other humans lives in really tangible
ways, right? This can include things like AI
radically transforming educationto where every student
regardless of economic background has a personalized
tutor that accelerates their learning.
Or breakthroughs in drug discovery and health, or neural
(14:48):
link where for the first time the people who are quadriplegic
can control computer interfaces,right?
That's crazy. It can even include things like
bringing back supersonic jets, right?
Which the company booms. I think it's boom Technology
just had their recent trial in the Mojave Desert.
I think all these tangible breakthroughs are really
important for giving people a sense that technology is
actually transforming their lives.
And then the third factor, whichapplies to a lot of places, but
(15:11):
I think especially applies here in California, is that we need
to restore our sense of dynamismand abundance, right?
The words getting thrown around a lot, but I think it really
matters when you look back to that space age era, particularly
here in Southern California, thestate was growing, it was
dynamic. There is new homes being built
and there's a lot of excitement.There's a deeply held belief
(15:31):
that the next generation was going to be better off than the
generation today. And I think that fundamental
belief of an upward societal trajectory is really powerful in
getting people excited about thefuture.
It may be impossible to feel excited about the future if you
don't believe that they're goingto be materially better off than
we are today. And a lot of the conversations
that I have, right, these thingscome up time and time again that
(15:54):
so long as housing remains constantly unaffordable, that
that is going to be a drag on California's dynamic growth,
right? With Casey, we, in my episode
with Casey Hammer, we talked about energy and how energy is
more expensive in California andpeople are always being called
to reduce, reuse, recycle, rather than creating more clean,
abundant energy at a giga scale level that that just lowers
(16:16):
people's expectations about the future and leads to a more 0 sum
scarcity mindset. And so I think we can have an
era of techno optimism if we seebreakthroughs of people like
Casey building their giga sites and building new forms of
massive solar farms that lead toclean forms of energy.
I think it is still possible forCalifornia to restore that sense
(16:38):
of material optimism, right? My conversation with Bill
Fulton, he argues that California may never have
spectacular growth again. But even still, he argues that
we may be past the worst of the housing crisis.
You know, the conversation with Nolan Gray of Caliembi.
We talked about the housing policy reforms that it would
take to try and make housing more affordable in the state and
evolve the California dream. And there's also projects that I
(17:01):
just love, right? Like, I think a project like
California Forever up in Solano County, right?
You might have heard about this.Most people I talked to have
heard about it at a superficial level but don't know much of the
details. And I think it does a lot of
discredit to the project. The press kept calling it a
billionaire utopia and a lot of their earlier framing.
And that's just completely miss framing what the city is.
It's a community for anyone, just like any other community
(17:22):
that would be built. And it's exciting because not
only would it build a dense, walkable community in a region
that desperately needs new housing and has been crushed by
the housing crisis, but it also has all these really positive
spillover effects and other elements to it.
What's cool about that project is that it isn't just homes.
It's about more than homes. It's actively and intentionally
cultivating jobs along with it. And that's through the
(17:43):
development of what can be the largest shipyard in America, as
well as a lot of hardware facilities and attracting these
companies that, you know, are based or headquartered in
Silicon Valley or El Segundo, but don't have the space to
build up because California has made it so challenging to
operate large scale manufacturing businesses.
One person on Twitter jokingly called it Norcal Neo Gundo,
referencing El Segundo in Southern California, which is
(18:03):
the kind of the hard tech manufacturing hub of the region.
And I think that's incredibly exciting, the possibility of
building a new community in Northern California near Silicon
Valley, where there's tangible hardware being developed.
Because as I talked about earlier, I think there's a lot
of positive cultural spillover effects when you have new
exciting things being physicallybuilt in a region.
(18:24):
I think that reshapes a region'sidentity.
Anyways, let me know what you think.
Let me know if you agree or disagree.
I had a lot of fun taking off this idea off the shelf,
freshening it back up and putting it back out into the
world. I also love, frankly, feedback
of these solo episodes. I'm exploring and playing around
with the concept of of doing more of them and framing more
this way and alternating betweenthese and interviews.
So let me know what you think. Thank you for listening.
(18:45):
As always, feel free to subscribe at California
futuresociety.com or wherever you are watching this.
Take care, see you in the future.
(19:25):
This.
And in that moment, I was struckby this childlike feeling of
wonder and dreaming. And it's something that,
particularly as I get older, youdon't really feel.
So you have this region where Hollywood storytellers and
aerospace engineers are bumping shoulders, their neighbors,
their friends and colleagues. And this is where this era of
space age entertainment was created.
The state was growing. It was dynamic.
There's new homes being built, and there's a lot of excitement.
(00:23):
There's a deeply held belief that the next generation was
going to be better off than the generation today.
And I think, I think that fundamental belief upward
societal trajectory is really powerful.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the California Future Society
podcast. This week, I have something
different for you. Instead of a normal interview
with a guest, I'm revisiting an old essay of mine and expanding
(00:46):
on the ideas and just kind of sharing my thinking.
I wanted to get more into some of this kind of freewheeling
individual thought to share a little bit more about the ideas
that get me excited, that kind of underpin the motivation for
why I'm doing this, right. So in my interviews, I think in
general, I try to not be overbearing on my guests.
I, I invite people on because I respect and admire what they
(01:08):
think about in their areas of expertise.
And you know, while I might chime in with my thoughts, I
don't want to make it about me. But at the same time, while
that's great for interviews, I created this channel in Part 2,
put out some of my own thoughts into the world.
And so this is an opportunity for me to do this.
And it's on a topic that I find really interesting.
It's the idea of summoning the second space age.
(01:32):
OK, so some background context. The reason I first wrote this
essay was I saw a SpaceX launch,and I'll pull up an image here
for those of you who are watching on the YouTube.
For those of you who have seen one of these somewhat of a
miraculous vision in the sky. I saw this and I was sitting on
the beaches in Santa Monica. My toes were in the sand and I
(01:52):
was looking up at the sky. And there's kind of this
jellyfish multicolor cosmic cloud that emerges behind the
rocket. There's a somewhat mystical
quality. And in that moment, I was struck
by this childlike feeling of of wonder and dreaming.
And it's something that, particularly as I get older, you
don't really feel as often. And I think space, more than any
(02:15):
other industry, inspires awe andwonder.
It's more than just a warm feeling in your chest, right?
It's, it's reshapes your sense of possibility.
When we look to the stars, we, we, we realize that, you know,
we're watching humanity push into the heavens.
And it gives us fresh eyes to question the limits of what's
achievable here on Earth. There's an eel on quote about
(02:36):
this that you want to wake up inthe morning and think the future
is going to be great. And that's what being a
spacefaring civilization is all about.
It's about believing in the future and thinking that the
future will be better than the past.
Now, regardless how you feel about Elon, I think that feeling
of being optimistic about the future really underpins some of
what I'm working on here at California Future Society.
(02:56):
So, you know, for me, as someonewho cares about ushering in a
more ambitious, brighter future for California, I keep returning
to our state's relationship to space.
California not only developed the technology to make space
travel possible, but we also once led the nation in
cultivating a culture of optimism towards the future.
So it's deeply rooted in our state's legacy, and I think it's
(03:17):
also time that we tap into thoseroots to renew a sense of
excitement about technology's potential for the future.
So this is this idea that I cameback to in this essay that I
centered it on was this concept of summoning the second Space
Age. So before defining what the
second space age is, what it means to even summon it, I think
it's important to identify what I mean when I'm talking about
(03:37):
the space age. So America's space age, from the
end of World War 2 through the 1970s, marked peak of the
distinctly American form of techno optimism, or the belief
that the advance of technology would transform our lives in a
radical, positive way. America's seen repeated waves of
technological advancement in various forms during since our
existence, really. But not every one of them
(03:59):
defines an era enough to earn the title of quote in age.
So what defines an age? It's when a period of scientific
breakthroughs shapes culture, and it's that cultural overlap
that I think is really importantfor the purposes of what I'm
talking about. You see, I think of science and
culture as these twin rocket boosters of the first space age,
a period when going to the moon resonated with a country buzzing
(04:21):
with energy about how technologymight shape the future.
And it's that combination of those two boosters that made the
era special, and we need both ifwe want to make it happen again.
So that first booster, like I said, is the material scientific
breakthroughs. The space age was about more
than just rockets. Putting a man on the moon was
the headline event, but this wasa time of rapid breakthroughs
(04:41):
that materially improved the lives of everyday Americans.
So from NASA's formation in 1958to the moon landing in 1969, the
pursuit of space embodied America's commitment to
advancing technology. Backed by extensive government
funding, NASA peaked at about 4%of the entire federal budget.
And motivated by the intense Cold War competition with the
Soviet Union, America's scientific progress became a
(05:03):
matter of political pride and national security.
And America's heavy investment into space from both the public
and the private sector did more than just get us to the moon.
It led to other foundational breakthroughs with positive
spillover effects. Fields ranging from material
science to computing, electronics, communications,
robotics, and weather monitoringwere improved as a result of the
(05:26):
space program's work. And this period was also marked
by the positive mainstream impact of technology.
This wasn't something that was just reserved for academic
breakthroughs or in papers. IT people felt it in their
day-to-day existence, right? Think about computing.
IBM was creating its first mainframes, laying the
foundation for the modern computing age.
I think about medicine. We got the polio vaccine,
(05:47):
ultrasounds, birth control, and early CT scans.
Things like commercial aviation also became popular at this
time, right? Air travel became accessible
with the launch of large passenger jets and home
appliances is another category. I think it's worth noting.
Things like color TV's, portableradios, refrigerators,
microwaves, dishwashers, washingmachines and vacuums all became
(06:09):
fixtures of a booming middle class suburban lifestyle in the
post war era. So that's booster one.
That's this technological breakthrough.
But a space age, as I was sayingearlier, is defined not just by
the technology that emerges, butit's also by a cultural
alignment and celebration of technology.
And the space age was about morethan just a list of
(06:30):
breakthroughs. What makes this time special was
how the pursuit of space definedthe cultural zeitgeist, captured
the public's imagination, and infused itself into the look and
the feel of an era. The pursuit of space resonated
deeply with American ideals. Since our founding, American
culture has always been animatedby the frontier and the
(06:51):
opportunity to conquer the unknown, for better and for
worse. And exploring the final frontier
space was a very natural extension of the American
impulse to explore, expand, and redefine the limits of human
potential. Space captured the American
imagination. Even in the deeply divided
1960s, a time of political assassinations and protests, 93%
(07:13):
of American households watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on
TV. Now, granted, there wasn't much
to watch on TV at the time, and there was no social media or
other competing distractions. It was a very unified media
environment. But still, getting 93% of
Americans to do anything is remarkable, and his earnest
excitement and embrace A technological achievement
spilled over into popular culture and shaped our
(07:35):
aesthetics. One author that I came across
quoted the idea that people believed the future would be
sleek, edged in shining Chrome, protectively enclosed like the
cockpit of a jet fighter. Right.
The Space Age gave a visual aesthetic to our vision of what
the future might become. At this time, astronauts were
household heroes, and future generations dreamed of what life
(07:57):
might look like among the cosmos, whether they were
watching Star Trek or the Jetsons or other TV sci-fi like
that. And I think the reason I care
about the Space Age is that the epicenter of it was Southern
California. And I think the best way to
illustrate the cultural impact of the Space Age is to look at
California, particularly Southern California, where both
the technological and the cultural boosters burned
(08:18):
hottest. So California was the
headquarters of the Space Age isthe land where both the era's
builders and dreamers lived and modeled more dynamic, innovative
and optimistic society. And this is most clear in
Southern California, where America's aerospace industry was
centered. As historian Peter Westwood put
it, Southern California as we know it would not exist without
(08:39):
aerospace. So for those of you who don't
know, Southern California had the densest concentration of
aerospace talent in the world. Consider that by the end of the
Space Age, that same author, Peter Westwood, notes that
Southern California was home to about 40% of EU s s missile and
space business and 1/3 of the nation's aerospace engineers.
At its peak, the industry employed more than half a
(08:59):
million people statewide, so Southern California was the
epicenter. There's also large presence
elsewhere. Aerospace defense companies were
also some of the largest employers in Silicon Valley up
through the 80s. Aerospace powerhouses like
Northrop, Lockheed, Douglas Hughes, Rockwell and General
Dynamics were all here developing and manufacturing
world leading rockets, satellites and missiles.
(09:20):
California was also home to research centers like JPL or
Ames or Lawrence Livermore up north or Rand where I used to
work, Aerospace Corporation and universities like Caltech,
Stanford, the UC system that supplied the industry's
intellectual firepower. So you had the statewide
industry, but I think it's in Southern California where the
distinct cultural embrace of technological progress and
techno optimism took root. LA cities like Burbank were home
(09:44):
to both Lockheed's famous Skunk Works division as well as Disney
and Warner Brothers Studios. So you have this region where
Hollywood storytellers and aerospace engineers are bumping
shoulders, their neighbors, their friends and colleagues
sending their kids to the same schools.
And this is where this era of space age entertainment was
created, right? Your shows like Star Trek, The
(10:05):
Jetsons or The Twilight Zone, they're all produced by LA
Studios. And he's brought sci-fi concepts
to living rooms around the world.
Southern California is also where Disney pioneered the
concept of Imagineering, fusing Southern California's trademark
disciplines of engineering and storytelling to develop
attractions like Tomorrowland. And you also see in the built
environment, Googie and aerospace Modern styles brought
(10:28):
a futuristic aesthetic to airports, motels, and drive
thrus that you can still see today.
Designers and architects like Charles and Rae Eames or Pierre
Koenig or John Lautner incorporated these sleek,
streamlined lines into their works and brought Space Age
materials into everyday buildings.
And this Space Age ethos infuseditself in the region's cultural
(10:49):
groundwater and shaped life in Southern California, which in
turn shaped the rest of the nation.
These these post war decades were I would argue the peak of
Southern California's cultural influence on the rest of the
country at this time is going through this intense post war
population boom and pioneering this suburban lifestyle at the
rest of the country would quickly imitate.
(11:09):
At that time, Southern California stood as America's
model of the good life, a land of abundance optimism where
residents eyes were firmly fixedon the technology of the future.
So now stepping back and thinking about where we are
today. When I originally wrote this
essay, I then started thinking about OK, where are we with the
space industry today and are we in a place where we could
potentially some in a second space age?
(11:30):
But I think that that the space industry itself is actually less
relevant and what's more valuable is thinking about how
our culture thinks about technology because there's also
people who frankly don't like the space age, right?
I talked about it with a lot of allure and excitement, but
there's others who disagree. My guest next week, Virginia
Postrel, I mean, she talks aboutshe has essays opposing kind of
(11:53):
the Jetsons futurism, as you know, particularly the
philosophical trappings around as it's somewhat technocratic
and centralized and static and aspirational.
It's a little too uniform and sterile where she thinks that a
more helpful and useful aspirational futurism is one
that's more diverse, you know, more dynamic.
And there's also lots of alternative visions of the
(12:15):
future that are positive as well.
Right. You can go back and listen to
the interview with Devin Zugel edge Esmeralda and she talks
about solar punk and how that aesthetic informed how they
structure as Esmeralda and how it's very different than this
type of Jetsons aerospace age optimism.
But even if we don't imitate theexact elements of Southern
California's Space Age era, right, I care less about that
(12:38):
and resurrecting Googy architecture.
What I care more about is fostering that sense of techno
optimism and excitement about what technology can bring and
what the future can look like, right?
Is it even possible in today's divided age to achieve that
sense of alignment between technology and culture and
government and recognize the fact we are living in an age of
miracles where new technology israpidly expanding what human
(13:00):
life may look like even in our lifetimes?
I think it's still very possibleit might look different.
So recognizing that the exact trappings of the space age may
not be necessary, I still want to ask myself, what would it
look like to foster a spirit of techno optimism, of excitement
about the future in California? And I have three ideas of what
(13:22):
that would actually look like. So the first one is that I think
it has to be much more bottom upand as opposed to the space age
of before, it's just a differentenvironment.
One is LED a ton by national security concerns and government
funding, as I was talking about.But also the media environment
was very different when you onlyhad, you know, three TV channels
on at any given time. And the area that we live in
today, there's been a lot of talk about the tech lash and you
(13:44):
can see it in mainstream media coverage, which tends to have a
relatively pessimistic view of technology, right?
Are people who are creating explicitly techno optimist media
out there, but they tend to be independent, right?
It's people like Cleo Abram and huge if true, or Jason Carmen or
Paki McCormick. So, you know, these Youtubers,
other people like that, who explicitly embrace the
possibility of what technology can look like, but they tend to
(14:06):
be outside of mainstream media. And there's been a lot of
writing and talking about this concept of a tech lash, this
wave of negative framing about technology's advancements,
particularly by mainstream media.
Frankly, I don't know if that's going away.
But regardless, I think support and excitement for technology
has to look a lot more bottom upand organic just because that's
the reality of the media environment that we operate in.
(14:27):
The second thing that comes to mind is that I think people need
to see a diverse range of breakthroughs that can actually
impact their lives or other humans lives in really tangible
ways, right? This can include things like AI
radically transforming educationto where every student
regardless of economic background has a personalized
tutor that accelerates their learning.
Or breakthroughs in drug discovery and health, or neural
(14:48):
link where for the first time the people who are quadriplegic
can control computer interfaces,right?
That's crazy. It can even include things like
bringing back supersonic jets, right?
Which the company booms. I think it's boom Technology
just had their recent trial in the Mojave Desert.
I think all these tangible breakthroughs are really
important for giving people a sense that technology is
actually transforming their lives.
And then the third factor, whichapplies to a lot of places, but
(15:11):
I think especially applies here in California, is that we need
to restore our sense of dynamismand abundance, right?
The words getting thrown around a lot, but I think it really
matters when you look back to that space age era, particularly
here in Southern California, thestate was growing, it was
dynamic. There is new homes being built
and there's a lot of excitement.There's a deeply held belief
(15:31):
that the next generation was going to be better off than the
generation today. And I think that fundamental
belief of an upward societal trajectory is really powerful in
getting people excited about thefuture.
It may be impossible to feel excited about the future if you
don't believe that they're goingto be materially better off than
we are today. And a lot of the conversations
that I have, right, these thingscome up time and time again that
(15:54):
so long as housing remains constantly unaffordable, that
that is going to be a drag on California's dynamic growth,
right? With Casey, we, in my episode
with Casey Hammer, we talked about energy and how energy is
more expensive in California andpeople are always being called
to reduce, reuse, recycle, rather than creating more clean,
abundant energy at a giga scale level that that just lowers
(16:16):
people's expectations about the future and leads to a more 0 sum
scarcity mindset. And so I think we can have an
era of techno optimism if we seebreakthroughs of people like
Casey building their giga sites and building new forms of
massive solar farms that lead toclean forms of energy.
I think it is still possible forCalifornia to restore that sense
(16:38):
of material optimism, right? My conversation with Bill
Fulton, he argues that California may never have
spectacular growth again. But even still, he argues that
we may be past the worst of the housing crisis.
You know, the conversation with Nolan Gray of Caliembi.
We talked about the housing policy reforms that it would
take to try and make housing more affordable in the state and
evolve the California dream. And there's also projects that I
(17:01):
just love, right? Like, I think a project like
California Forever up in Solano County, right?
You might have heard about this.Most people I talked to have
heard about it at a superficial level but don't know much of the
details. And I think it does a lot of
discredit to the project. The press kept calling it a
billionaire utopia and a lot of their earlier framing.
And that's just completely miss framing what the city is.
It's a community for anyone, just like any other community
(17:22):
that would be built. And it's exciting because not
only would it build a dense, walkable community in a region
that desperately needs new housing and has been crushed by
the housing crisis, but it also has all these really positive
spillover effects and other elements to it.
What's cool about that project is that it isn't just homes.
It's about more than homes. It's actively and intentionally
cultivating jobs along with it. And that's through the
(17:43):
development of what can be the largest shipyard in America, as
well as a lot of hardware facilities and attracting these
companies that, you know, are based or headquartered in
Silicon Valley or El Segundo, but don't have the space to
build up because California has made it so challenging to
operate large scale manufacturing businesses.
One person on Twitter jokingly called it Norcal Neo Gundo,
referencing El Segundo in Southern California, which is
(18:03):
the kind of the hard tech manufacturing hub of the region.
And I think that's incredibly exciting, the possibility of
building a new community in Northern California near Silicon
Valley, where there's tangible hardware being developed.
Because as I talked about earlier, I think there's a lot
of positive cultural spillover effects when you have new
exciting things being physicallybuilt in a region.
(18:24):
I think that reshapes a region'sidentity.
Anyways, let me know what you think.
Let me know if you agree or disagree.
I had a lot of fun taking off this idea off the shelf,
freshening it back up and putting it back out into the
world. I also love, frankly, feedback
of these solo episodes. I'm exploring and playing around
with the concept of of doing more of them and framing more
this way and alternating betweenthese and interviews.
So let me know what you think. Thank you for listening.
(18:45):
As always, feel free to subscribe at California
futuresociety.com or wherever you are watching this.
Take care, see you in the future.
(19:25):
This.
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