One day almost all of these superhighways will be relics
Like the canal towpaths we walk now as ancient history
And the abandoned railroad lines repurposed into woodland trails
Transport will be transformed into something else again.
All those diesel tractor trailer trucks barreling along
Soon enough will get consigned to museums and scrap heaps
Though I can’t tell you just what will replace them
There’s no doubt their pollution must stop.
We live with temporary solutions that make life better
Until the unforeseen consequences make life worse
In a dialectic that pushes us to find a better way to do it
Overcoming the entrenched reactionary forces of the past.
In China they built a road covered with solar panels
To be able to recharge electric vehicles traveling on it wirelessly
Making possibilities for tomorrow beyond my wildest imagination
For sure something amazing is developing there.
The system of distribution is more than the goods we consume
More than the many varied services we provide to each other
As long as inequality increases poverty and human suffering
We need a way to share the wealth equitably.
Science fiction these days paints a dystopian future
Set in the English-speaking capitalist world
Where the surveillance state monitors the population
Instead of socialism offering the promise of science for the people.
