Given the lack of investment in technological advancement, particularly in the West, the rank stupdity in our polity and our public life (primarily through the propogandistic dumbing-down of our interactions and exchanges via the media) and our seeming inability to even engage in important infrastructure improvements and advancements (thank you to the zero-growth mania of the greens)...I would say that it is not at all out of place to think that we are now entering a new Dark Ages.
Obviously he's never hear of FR or online dating or...
They promised us jet packs and flying cars. Hmmmmpphh.
I think medical advancements are pretty good since 1959
To discount innovation with respect to invention is short sighted at best.
bump for later.
Is this guy drunk? The computer alone has gone through a dozen major technological jumps since 1959. Calculators today have more computing power than put a man on the moon. Heck the really kick butt calculators probably have more computing power than existed in 1959.
Beyond computers tons of other stuff has changed. International telephony actually works for everybody not just a few, and can be done from the palm of your hand in your back yard not physically connected to anything. Speaking of more computing power than existed in 1959, how about them smartphones. He’s just plane wrong about commercial jet flights being routine in 1959, commercial flight wasn’t routine for anybody and commercial jets were rarer still. Then there’s the revolution in cars, better fuel, better comfort, and now they can tell you where you are and how to get where you want to go. And as for televisions forget about it, the change from 13” black and white over the air to 52” HD satellite and cable and possibly even 3D ready is so dramatic they probably need a new name.
Then there’s the stuff he didn’t even bother to mention. How about lenses. Anybody whose been wearing glasses for the past 10 or 15 years knows some amazing changes have happened there. Every pair I get is lighter and more durable than the ones they replace even though the prescription is stronger. And how about the revolution in the storage and transfer of music. Heck just in the performance of music, one of the reason so many old farts keep touring is they love playing with the new technology.
So much for predicting the future. When you get right down to it, let's face it.....it's impossible.
I guess the central question, the central thesis, is that the degree of change in the last fifty years, as large as it seems to us in our lifetime, is - according to the author - a matter of whole lot of “refinement” based on earlier “groundbreaking” discoveries; whereas the previous fifty years was a period of a whole lot of brand new breakthroughs.
They may be right, but what about “medical science”. To me that area seems the reverse of Mr. Murray’s thesis; with the period of 1900 to 1950s being “refinements” of earlier discoveries but the 1950s to 2000 seeing some major breakthroughs. Am I wrong?
Right. And the computing/storage capability of today's laptops would have weighed about 10 million pounds and have been the size of a the pentagon. Cost? Probably about the same as obamacare.
I'll take the unimpressive tech of today and he can stick with the '59 version.
Yogi Berra couldn't have said it better.
I'll be 115.
Silly. Genetic engineering could have enormous consequences. It's not a gadget you can hold in your hand or ride downtown, but it's going to be a big change for some people.
Similarly, if we get transportation that doesn't depend on petroleum, it won't be as dramatic as seeing that first car or airplane coming at you, but it would mean a major change in the way the world works.
And if the "people" of 2100 aren't really human beings, but some new synthesis of man and machine, that would also be a major change.
BTW, John Lukacs used to play this game, but he'd go back even further. If you saw the coming of the railroad, the telephone, the automobile, and the airplane, he'd say, you saw the world change more than anyone who came along afterward would.
That's true. The shift from an agricultural to an industrial world was greater than anything we've seen since.
It doesn't mean that technological progress has stopped, though.
Nanotech and memsistors are two biggies that might make a huge leap. The LHC could also find some stuff for anti-gravity by 50 years as well. Hard to say at this point.
It kinda depends on what you want as well. Probably no moon bases thanks to hussein. Possibly a space elevator if nanotech works out though.
Add that to "affirmative action," and the prohibition against legitimate criticism of a large part of our population, and you get lowered standards for nearly every human endeavor.
I heard many people complain about affirmative acction because they thought it was unfair. I always knew that a more insidious side effect would be a gradual erosion of meritocracy as the dominant ethos of our culture.
Technology is all, or almost all, about making more out of less, as the planet becomes increasingly overpopulated.
Drivel to get some words on paper and get paid.
My I Phone has more power and network ability than anything that was even conceived in 1959 and it is obsolete