Poll:- life better now or in 1959?
- Thread starter JLM
- Start date
Basic arithmetical skills may be necessary (like being able to count to 100, perhaps?). However, the advanced arithmetical skills, like the example I gave, hardly are required in this day and age, that is what the calculators are for.
As to requiring calculators in the boat, it wouldn’t surprise me if it comes in the future.
These are hardly fair examples, country boy. Cruise control cannot be used in the city driving, accelerators are necessary there. Also you need to achieve a certain speed using the accelerator before you can activate cruise control.
As to gardening, I am sure some people do not worry about gardening anyway. I myself don’t like gardening, I do as little as I can get away with.
You got that right, we don’t know where we are headed. 50 years ago who could have predicted the computer revolution? Now we have nanotechnology coming, that promises to change the world yet again beyond recognition. Nanotechnology has potential to be even a bigger breakthrough that computers. So you are right, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Just as the world has changed beyond recognition in 50 years, it will change beyond recognition in the next 50 years (make that next 20 years).
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Well, in their place I would have gone home as well. Sounds like a nice excuse to take the day off. I am surprised you didn't follow their excellent example.
Manual adjustment is needed in towns, but the remark of yours about cruise control being speed dependant is remedied by adjustment to let it operate at lower speeds.
You don't like gardening so it doesn't matter. Right, I see.
There is no choice but to die or carry on with life. Some of the change will be good, some of it bad just as it has been so far.
Just as the world has changed beyond recognition in 50 years, it will change beyond recognition in the next 50 years (make that next 20 years).[/quote]Things promise to change the world beyond your recognition maybe. But you can't speak for everyone.
To: SirJosephPorter
IS UTOPIA JUST AROUND THE CORNER?
I think a brain is somewhat like many other things - if you don't use it, you lose it.
As you keep telling me about all the great things these progressive changes are going to bring - people getting lazier, not having to (or perhaps not being able to) think, etc. - makes me wonder what might be in store for us as we begin to degenerate into a "civilization" of slothful & stupid people.
I still can't helping thinking about the fall of the Roman Empire as it cloaked itself in gluttony, slothfulness, and excesses of all kinds. Nothing wrong with a good party now and then, of course, but full-time binges didn't seem to do much for their longetivity or happiness. :angry3:
I think one of the benefits of knowing a bit about history is to learn something worthwhile from it. 'Course, that does require a bit of effort to THINK and - heaven forbid - maybe even going way overboard and opening up a book. Oh, excuse me for being old-fashioned, I meant clicking on a mouse.
Sooo, to just sit back and soak up immediate personal pleasure while thinking nothing (or not thinking, as it were) of what life is all about seems to me to be pointless, not to mention maybe a bit dangerous for us all.
Besides, those who do show a bit of an interest in life (and other people) and don't walk around being obviously self-indulgent make much better conversation partners than slobbering idiots, wouldn't you say?
It does beg the question, "Why are we here?" 8O
IS UTOPIA JUST AROUND THE CORNER?
I think a brain is somewhat like many other things - if you don't use it, you lose it.
As you keep telling me about all the great things these progressive changes are going to bring - people getting lazier, not having to (or perhaps not being able to) think, etc. - makes me wonder what might be in store for us as we begin to degenerate into a "civilization" of slothful & stupid people.
I still can't helping thinking about the fall of the Roman Empire as it cloaked itself in gluttony, slothfulness, and excesses of all kinds. Nothing wrong with a good party now and then, of course, but full-time binges didn't seem to do much for their longetivity or happiness. :angry3:
I think one of the benefits of knowing a bit about history is to learn something worthwhile from it. 'Course, that does require a bit of effort to THINK and - heaven forbid - maybe even going way overboard and opening up a book. Oh, excuse me for being old-fashioned, I meant clicking on a mouse.
Sooo, to just sit back and soak up immediate personal pleasure while thinking nothing (or not thinking, as it were) of what life is all about seems to me to be pointless, not to mention maybe a bit dangerous for us all.
Besides, those who do show a bit of an interest in life (and other people) and don't walk around being obviously self-indulgent make much better conversation partners than slobbering idiots, wouldn't you say?
It does beg the question, "Why are we here?" 8O
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I did not mean it that way, countryboy. You asked where we are headed, and my answer was, we don’t know, so don’t worry about it, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
That doesn’t mean that we have to get lazier, not use our brains etc. In fact, how did we get here? Who brought about the computer, the nanotechnology revolutions? That was us (human beings), wasn’t it?
So people will keep thinking critically, ask pertinent questions, will come up with novel, innovative answers etc. I don’t see that changing, if anything that may even accelerate. I remember reading somewhere that the total available knowledge doubles every ten year (or some similar figure).
So nobody is getting lazy or sitting back or having one continuous party (well, some maybe, but not others).
What I meant was that it is futile to worry about where we are going, we just don’t know and no way we can predict it.
Now there is a profound question if there ever was one. Why are we here? Who knows?
But evidently the cartoonist of the cartoon strip ‘B.C.’ did. I remember reading that strip a few years ago.
One man asked another man “why are we here?’.
The other man said “I don’t know, ask the Great Guru.”
So the first man climbed this tall mountain. At the end of it, out of breath, he asked the Great Guru
“Oh, Great Guru, why am I here?”
The Great Guru replied
“Why indeed? I told them to send a girl.”
We can point it, though. Progress actually works well when we develop what we need with an eye on the mistakes of the past. So far, all we've been doing is sliding sideways. Progress in some ways, but in other ways regression. Saying things are all hunky dory now belies reality.
As we say out in the country, this is a-gittin' downrite fill-ee-sof-ickal!
It's true that humans developed all this technology...maybe. There is a school of thought out there that says some of the more recent cool stuff - like the laser, kevlar, night-vision technology, and the silicone chip - came from the UFO that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico back in the 40s. (Book title: The Day After Roswell..forgot the author's name but it's Philip J. something-or-other). Prior to that rough timeframe, computers were entirely mechanical, clunky, and unreliable, not to mention huge. But who knows?...
And of course, it is great to question things and seek better knowledge, etc. - always healthy and should be encouraged to do so...especially young people, who do represent the future.
I think the real question is, what do we going to do with all that knowledge? We used to say - back in the days of expanding computer systems, IBM mini and mainframes, etc., that the only function of information is to allow people to make more (and hopefully better) decisions. The basis for all decisions is values (whatever you think is important), and that's where I like to poke around, a lot.
I'm not terribly "worried" about where we're going, but I do like to give it a thought now and then. And, if there is anything I can do to help the cause - such as teaching my kids that they must always treat others with respect and decency, no matter how hard that might be, and reading books to learn about things that have happened in the past so they can make "new" mistakes instead of the same old ones - it might just make things a little bit better for someone in the world at some point. Anything wrong with that?
And of course, predicting what will happen is a tricky business but I was "raised" in the business world to control what is possible to control, with a clear objective as to why. Which is why I have a bit of difficulty just going along for the ride and watching what might happen. Mind you, it does take all kinds to make the world such an interesting place. Gawd, now I'm starting to sound tolerant!...Time to quit. :smile:
Ha, ha..good one!
I have a pretty simple, 3 word philosophy that - for me - answers the question "Why are we here?" - To serve others.
Yeah, I know....it ain't fancy and it ain't too deep, but it's worked fairly well for the past ** years! Besides, even a 5 year old can understand it, so my 2 daughters heard about it early in life! I think they're doing OK these days. ;-)
Another little comparison a person may want to make between now and 1959 is the number of scams- most serious thing then was probably bouncing cheques and even that was very limited because only the richest of the filthy rich had a bank account with more than $10 in it.
And on a somewhat lighter note, the cars were downright cool!
They didn't all look like a hybrid Japanese/European "box"...they had style, man! The '59 Caddie had the BIG fins, big V-8s were everywhere, and they all just looked great. Nowadays, the cars all look the same.
They didn't all look like a hybrid Japanese/European "box"...they had style, man! The '59 Caddie had the BIG fins, big V-8s were everywhere, and they all just looked great. Nowadays, the cars all look the same.
Yeah. Hubby says most of them look like big electric razors nowadays. No style at all. It's a good thing the manufacturers all oput the company emblems on them otherwise you would really have to look to see if a car is a Kia Optima from a Toyota Camry or a Chevy Impala. lol
Yep, I agree with your hubby. Back in the good old days, you could tell if it was a Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler, coming or going. Things really got good on the car front in the 60s, but oops...we're supposed to be talking '59 here...
I think it's a Nissan.
On cars, we shouldn't forget that they were pretty easy to fix for us backyard mechanics back then. Now, you have to plug the damn things into a computer to figure out that the gas cap is loose.
And don't even mention those fuel pumps stuffed into a gas tank...$800 to replace one now because the gas is dirty. Used to be able to unbolt the old one and stick on a new one in a jiffy...no computer, no "customer care representative", and no high-priced mechanic - complete with shop time and supplies charges - required. Basically, a wrench and a screwdriver would do the job.
Yep, and one piece of advice re those fuel pumps in the gas tanks, best to add gas once it get down to the 1/4 mark, apparently if the gas level gets low, they over heat.
Again that is the price of progress, JLM. These days communication is very easy, much easier than it used to be. Phone calls, internet, texting, E mail and much more. Easier communications means it is easy to carry out a scam.
It is all the results of progress. Progress comes with a price. The fact that there are a few unsavory side effects of progress does not mean that progress is bad. Progress is good. If there are any problems associated with progress, then we should try to alleviate the problems, not claim that progress itself is something undesirable.