Technology changes fast and it can be difficult to keep up with these changes. At only 19 I feel like I have seen so many things change, from the normalization of smartphones to social media and AI. I can't imagine how much change others have seen. This change is important to document as we think about how to regulate technology in the future. All of this prompted me to ask my dad about the reaction he had to the moon landing and how it might have differed from that of his Grandmother, who was born in 1900 and had seen huge technological changes in her lifetime. 

Hearing about personal conceptions of the moon landing was interesting because it was very different from the nationalist perspective we often use in hindsight. My dad mentioned that his grandmother was amazed that technology could be used for something peaceful. Thus, the moon landing felt more like a unifying and peaceful event at the time rather than as part of the larger political struggles of the Cold War. He instead said that there was a feeling that it was a "new age" with an "incredible burst of optimism." This is in contrast to findings that came out later detailing how the US funding for space exploration only happened because of the space race. The scientific narrative was part of the American space myth that tried to make it seem more noble and for scientific progress rather than for military gains.