Why our 'amazing' science fiction future fizzled

CNN's John Blake writes today about our attitudes, over time, toward technology and the future.  The article makes an interesting read for two reasons:

1. This is well writtten article, for general audiences, about a complex issue.  It's certainly not directed at the 1337 among us, but it demonstrates well how we can communicate our ideas more broadly.  Kudos to Blake for providing a textbook example for us communicating our empiricism and theory.  Like Blake, we must use concrete examples, like the Wakamaru, in our explanations and arguments (altthough avoid ad hominem attacks). We must also hijack the fetish objects of our audiences, in this case this summer's sci-fi zeitgeist, to enter and re-engineer the ethos.  If you're a fan of the Terminator series, journalist Michael Annisimov's new project, http://www.preventingskynet.com/ makes a great example of something any one of us could have made with open source tools and time.  Finally (although not exhaustively: there is much we can learn from this Blake piece), this article makes great use of intellectual hip-hop, borrowing ideas and words from others, usually experts, to sharpen its voice. 
2. The thinker underyling the ideas of this article, Daniel Wilson, is a gem.  He writes and speaks entertainingly, even on the most deeply unsettling of issues.  The take-home messages from his edutaining presentations are brilliant.  Watch Wilson's hilarious Authors@Google presentation on his book, How To Survive a Robot Uprising: