Martin Varsavsky:

Five years into the 20th century, Einstein was living his Annus Miarbilis. Where is our patent office today? Who is our Einstein?

Unfortunately, when I look around me today, during the end of 2008, I see humanity leading an unsustainable life based on technology that should already be obsolete.

From the archive:

Someone from the future, I’m sure, will marvel at our blindness and at the hole we have driven ourselves into, for we are completely committed to an unsustainable technology.

Recall:

Albert Einstein achieved scientific fame by asking questions and solving problems that nobody else had realized were problems.

Also, Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised (now, archived here by wayback, and here)

Radebaugh's space-age but practical inventions, from modular homes to be delivered by helicopter, to jet-propelled commuter trains, all have a wild utopian sensibility that is now both nostalgic and magical.