In the March 13th issue of TIME MAGAZINE, there were two articles, back-to-back, that caught my attention. The first was about the new technology, Snapchat, which was built for the generation that wants to oxymoronically use technology to improve “its anti-social social life.”

In a nutshell, it’s an application where images are sent with the purpose that they will immediately disappear after one viewing. For instance, Snapchat makes it possible for a teenager to show a friend how self-aware he is while trimming his toenails, and then, his privacy will no longer be invaded because the image goes—-Poof!  Although, as I understand it, an advertiser for foot powder could conceivably slide a 10-second commercial between his toes before the image disappears.

So, that’s it. Snapchat is a way to share many stupid ideas before they disappear.

The second article in TIME MAGAZINE involves the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets that could offer “signs of life.” Of course, there’s life and then there’s life. I find the whole idea pretty funny, since I am still trying to find signs of life in people who Snapchat.

I read that these planets orbit around a star named after what I thought was a  monk called “Trappist-1,” who doesn’t talk very much and makes good beer.  Anyway, that’s what I thought until I realized that “Trappist-1” is really named after a small telescope that lives in Chile, and is stuck with an acronym for; “Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope.” I liked the name Pluto better until the scientists informed us that Pluto wasn’t even a planet.

This little telescope, “Trappist-1” has discovered that the star “Trappist-1” and its orbiting planets are 39 light years away from us.  That’s light years, not heavy years, but I don’t know the difference except that it is far, far away—-a worse commute than my son has to  drive from Virginia to Maryland where he works for NASA. Now when he calls me, and complains while he is sitting in traffic, I can say, “At least you don’t have to drive 39 light years to get to work.

But back to the idea of life on these planets so far away. If there’s life—there’s life—but as far as I am concerned, cockroaches don’ t count, and before we get all exercised about life on other planets, maybe it would be a good idea to start making life work on the planet we are all stuck on together. After all, the grass isn’t always greener somewhere else. Heck, in this case, there might not even be any grass.

So, what’s the relationship between these two TIME MAGAZINE articles? Both of them are wrapped up in the future. With Snapchat, the image of today is here and then gone on to the next one without looking back. The planets are far, far away. They are of scientific significance, but of probably little practical application today, tomorrow or who knows when.

The point is that sometimes people need to stop and look back, because if you don’t know where you’ve been—-you’ll never really figure out where you are going, and humanity, here on Earth, better figure that out—- before some fool Snapchats us all.

Esther Blumenfeld