The Inner Heliosphere at 50

Since Parker's publication of "Interplanetary Dynamical Processes" in 1963, tremendous amounts of new solar and heliospheric observations and interpretations have produced a greatly fleshed-out picture of the origins of our inner heliosphere space environment. It is worth considering, some half-century later, what has changed, and what has remained the same. An undeniable change has been in the level of detail, some of it central to understanding what we experience. We now have the knowledge and ability to relate much of what is measured at 1 AU in the ecliptic to the global Sun's features, on both short and solar cycle time scales, and many spatial scales. Not only can researchers and society at large obtain information on the relatively superficial solar conditions that set the scene for space weather and space climate, but in the not-too-distant future the big picture will include details of the fundamentally unsteady components and give greater insights into relationships to the solar dynamo. These enhancements, which Parker had already envisioned at the start with limited observational information, will bring some closure to the 'Living with a Star' paradigm that has been heliophysics' goal. Yet it also opens up a host of new directions and possibilities for the coming half century.