Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert”, published an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Benefits of Soul-Crushing Boredom” (http://on.wsj.com/nV24tg, 8/6/2011) in which he made the point that the ubiquity of electronic devices for entertainment has lowered the opportunity for boredom, but that ample boredom is necessary for creativity.
Just over a month later, the WSJ had another article about the new rocket proposed by NASA to replace the Space Shuttle. Accompanying the article was a graphic of manned rockets which neatly showed the decline of creativity.
1967 – Saturn V – A great name. Granted, its name is a double-sequel: the Saturn rocket family followed the Jupiter rockets, and it was the 5th design in the family.
1981 – Space Shuttle – Functional and descriptive. Just descriptive.
201x- Space Launch System – Still just descriptive, but now wordy and the use of “System” is about as gerenic and overused in tech-speak as “postmodern” in English lit. Also, whereas going from Jupiter-class to Saturn-class rockets stayed on a planet theme, going from Space Shuttle to Space Launch System keeps the surprising theme of “Space”, without any update or modification.