For my reading of Soonish by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, I chose to read chapter 2, which to me was the most interesting subject. Chapter 2 deals with the cost of going to space, and how one of space travels biggest hurdles is cost. In the first paragraph, Weinersmith mentions how it costs 10,000 dollars to send a pound into space. That figure is representative of the cost of jet fuel and the math and physics that go into weight and force equations. Weinersmith addresses six methods that may work to afford space travel and the most interesting was method five. Method five deals with launching rockets from a higher altitude, to make it launch from a thinner atmosphere. “The rockoon is just a rocket that gets floated up by a balloon, then hits ignition once its up high,” (Weinersmith 29). This quote was very interesting to me, because it seems very scientifically simple, and Weinersmith suggests it might work. I think this chapter of Soonish address oral history in a unique way. Even I believed that a ‘rockoon’ seems like a childish idea, but it is in fact scientifically plausible. Addressing technology and how we have somewhat gotten ahead of ourselves lets us take a step back and discover simpler ideas for some of the futures biggest issues.

For my interview on an oral history, I would like to interview a classmate I am friends with. She is four years younger than me, and although I believed that made no difference regarding technology, it is interesting hearing her speak about things I had no idea about. Things like youtube and Netflix were a huge part of her childhood. Netflix was part of mine as well, but when I was a kid there were weekly dvd’s sent to my house that we had to choose from, she knows nothing about this. People just a few years younger than me use youtube as a form of entertainment, whereas I mainly use it to watch instructional videos and random vines. I don’t follow any of the youtube channels that people watch, and this age difference is very significant in that. Technology was a huge part of my childhood, but unlike my classmate, I had to bike to Blockbuster to rent a movie.

 

Weinersmith, Zach and Kelly. Soonish. Penguin Books Ltd., 2017.