Hooked on Plutonics

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Suzanne Nossel explains why Pluto’s demotion matters:

Why do we all naturally feel a twinge of pain at this? It's a technical development in a field most of us have nothing to do with, affecting a place we've never seen and never will. Here's my guess:

For people born in the 1950s, 60s and 70s exploration of the universe was the most exciting and dramatic thing conceivable, and Pluto was the outer edge of that frontier. While we've had unimaginable technological advances since then, neither cellphones, nor email, nor the internet, nor even google awakens the world of fantasy that space did.

Nowadays, that excitement has to a great degree died away.

[snip]

Maybe the thrill of outer space was bound to be fleeting. But the downgrading of Pluto is a reminder of how long gone it is.

That’s as good an explanation as I’ve seen. I too grew up at a time when space mattered. I can’t imagine not having done so. The hope, the excitement, and adventure were as seemingly boundless as the universe itself. That’s a feeling and point of reference that can’t be explained to anyone who didn’t experience it.

But, oh well, it’s just Pluto and it’ll still be there, whatever it is, long after we’re all gone.