VW To Resurrect the IH Scout as an Electric Vehicle.

[paulsharvey]

On the tech side I think self driving cars would be high on the list...

I mean a car anyone can go out and buy and not cost bajillion dollars and a project of NASA or the DOD.

I think what you are seeing over the past 10 years, and probably for the next 10 years, is the implementation of stuff people only considered theoretically or crazy high tech, coming to your daily life. It's not mostly new concepts, it's just scaling, and getting what was insanely expensive into every day hands.

Wife mentioned translation robots at the hospital, for non english/non Spanish speakers

 

[paulsharvey]

BTW, I'm not trying to argue that the world is better or worse, so don't take it as that. Im just arguing the 'perfect world' some people think we had, never existed.

If we could freeze and reset time; what Era are you putting us in? 1880, that's perfect for the Amish. 1930s sounds good, except the widespread starvation, and i like my AC. I do think the 1990s were a great time to grow up in, though.

We basically grew up in the time when we had the first half, zero hand held tech, no internet, and the 2nd half of our youth, we watched it morph.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'd be happy to reset to 2019...

Pre-pandemic, Pre Ukraine, Pre Gaza, Pre Inflation, Pre not having to pay rent which is still the case for unpaid rent accrued during pandemic... etc.

My city was a place people wanted to be with private money transforming entire neighborhoods and becoming a destination after decades if the opposite...

Heck we even had sell out crowds at the coliseum Warrior Games!

 

[California]

I think some of the more senior members think 24 years ago was 1960...

Heck I'm a senior and I'm appalled at how some of my cohort think ... if you can call that 'think'.

You have it right, much of what we see today already existed in less advanced form in the past. And what some here miss is that in that past, there was an expectation that the technology of the day would advance, evolve. That was one of the main things I learned in college. Expect constant evolution and change, and watch for new opportunities to appear. My 'survey of math' generalist course in 1968 emphasized that computer coding on paper forms for a professional punchcard operator to make the input cards, after a day or two, was grossly inefficient and the technology would soon evolve to direct user control of the computer. This was glaringly obvious to anyone anticipating the world they would occupy a few years after graduation.

Computers went from room size to refrigerator size to desktop before half the present US population was born. Anyone aware of transistors wasn't surprised to see pocket or wristwatch calculators as a subsequent step. Phones similar, the breakup of ATT's monopoly so you didn't have to use their 300 baud modems was a legal change that opened up the field of phones to what we have today. Anyone then could have expected that ATT's briefcase phones could eventually be replaced by pocket-calculator miniaturization.

An American device just landed successfully on the moon for the first time in 30 51 years. Most people weren't ignorant 51 years ago. Most.

Moss, thanks for the better data.

 

[MossRoad]

...

An American device just landed successfully on the moon for the first time in 30 years. Most people weren't ignorant 30 years ago. Most.

30 years?

I thought it was 1972 that last time. 52 years.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm wondering if the word "Device" is the qualifier?

Man on the moon 50+ years ago?

 

[MossRoad]

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander touched down on the moon Thursday after a historic, nail-biting descent following a last-minute navigation sensor malfunction, becoming the first U.S.-built spacecraft to stick a moon landing in more than 50 years and the first ever by a private company.

 

[MossRoad]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/us-achieves-first-moon-landing-half-century-with-private-spacecraft-2024-02-23/

 

[MossRoad]

It was 51 years, my apologies.

 

[Oaktree]

ex: Seeing people walking around, driving, working with a cell phone in one hand would blow people away from 2000.

Why blown away? : because previous generations wouldn’t/didn’t expect a future culture do this.


ex: Search engine shows everyone is a google search (Popes of the past, George Washington, etc) as being black or dark skinned.

Why blown away? : because our culture we were all taught they were a culture of caucasian skin.

ex: gov____ment spends 25 trillion dollars in additional debt. Taking debt from 10 trillion to 34 trillion.

Why blown away? : Because the culture of people in 2000 would never have expected to have such reckless, crippling spending culture in 24 years.

Here’s a fun ex for you: Rock music is virtually gone & replaced by rap/hip-hop music 100%. NEW mainstream Rock music is completely non-existent in 2024.

Why blown away? : Because the 2000 culture would have expected rock music to carry on at least somewhat into the future, but everyone’s listening to the Doobie Brothers or Chicago or Stone Temple Pilots if they want to rock. All groups from before 2000.

Many of the culture changes you cite were in their early stages at the turn of the century...while today's search engines are much more powerful, they did exist then as did cellphones. I definitely remember people driving, walking, etc. talking (often loudly) on their flip phones back then. Likewise, it was pretty obvious looking at the music charts that hip-hop was what was happening, and rock was fading. Granted, all of these trends have accelerated this century.

Agree 100% that each generation has their own culture, often baffling to their elders. Not sure how old you are, but I know my generation's (boomer-born early 1950s) culture was quite alien to my parents, probably would have been more so to my grandparents if any had still been alive when I was a teen. Always been that way, probably always will.
We boomers swore we'd never turn into our parents, yet here we are.