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Noahpinion ·For the curious

Why You Won’t Get a Flying Car

by Noah Smith

Published 2026-09-03 09:55:22+00:00

If people already close the window shades on airplanes, would they actually want a flying car?

0:00 / 26:27 · Narrator Charon

Context

For decades, tech culture has blamed government red tape and timid investors for the lack of flying cars and moon colonies. But this Noahpinion piece, published on 3 September 2026, pauses on a much simpler question: what if people just prefer their smartphones? The problem isn't regulation, the logic goes, but a blind spot called "engineerism"—the stubborn belief that if a machine can be built, society is failing by not building it. Ultimately, those grand, retro-futuristic visions might simply be losing out to the comfort of the couch.

Show notes

A critique of the engineering mindset that assumes any possible technology should be built, using the book Where Is My Flying Car? as a case study. By tracking the history of cold fusion, the shift toward solar power, and the lack of consumer demand for personal aircraft, the argument shows why physical innovation stalls. It makes the case that public preference for digital services, rather than government regulation, is the real reason these science fiction futures never arrived.

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