A Titanic reminder of how small we are

What makes the memory amusing, clearly, is that the '60s and '70s are now themselves long ago and covered with dust. Time, you see, does not stop its relentless march to watch your generation preen in self-satisfaction. This is a truth each generation learns in turn. The child who comes of age now will find it hard to imagine a someday world in which iPads, cloud computing and Lady Gaga are just some memory with which she bores her kids.

Titanic was born into an age of vibrant opportunity. The motor car and the airplane were in their infancy. The motion picture was but a novelty. The great ship represented another wonder in an era rife with them, a marvel of research and a model of humanity's ability to master its own environment. She was the ultimate expression of the age, the ship they said God Himself could not sink.