Posted on 08/16/2004 6:17:08 AM PDT by ckilmer
Yeah, I wondered about that after I read it again. :)
my own opinion is that one way to look out over the 21st century from 2004 is to look out over the 19th century from 1804. At that time Lewis and Clark were getting ready to go west. What were the inventions that most shaped the 19th century. My vote would be for the steam locomotive. In the east the canal system was begun in virginia pennsylvania and new york in the the 1820s. That technology was over 4000 years old. 10-20 years later during the 1830's40's the railroads were built in the following similar paths and the canals. The railroads obsoleted the canals. The technological leap was was far greater than anything seen in recent times. That leap would be about on the scale the author of this story is talking about. a leap on a similiar scale might be the space elevator. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm
change may come too in the political system during the 21st century on a scale as that wrought by the louisiana purchase, mexican war, gadson purchase, civil war, alaska purchase
I still want my flying car!
WHERE are the flying cars!!!
Invention itself is kind of interesting. Untold numbers of inventions have been invented at the same time in different places of the globe.
And I recall those Nostradamus predictions of 9/11 that were written by those goobers in Toronto.
The whole spam community fell for THAT one.
Untold numbers of inventions have been invented at the same time in different places of the globe.
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true. it would be better if the space elevator was considered akin to jacob's ladder than the tower of babel
Riddle me this batman. Where is the mind of an individual when it is uploaded to multiple computing engines? Is that the genesis of the bon mot "I am of two minds."?
Nostradamas (at least his believers) made a big deal out of the word "Hister" and relate it to "Hitler". They seem to overlook the fact that hister was the name the danube went by in the days of nostradamas.
Bump.
Get all the dims upstair, and then sever the connections.
Pyramids get the panties of the UFO crowd in a wad. They point to the fact that they were built all over the world as evidence of alien intervention. In reality pyramids are just a very simple form of building.
Is that the genesis of the bon mot "I am of two minds."?
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the way the Q&A goes is thusly:
Question:
"What do you think of scitzophrenia?"
Answer:
"I'm of two minds about that."
Too bad he lacked a spelling checker. But after the Singularity, the paper will contain its own spelling checker and refuse to take down any misspelled word.
--Boris
Get all the dims upstair, and then sever the connections.
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The europeans used a similiar strategy vis a vis the US for several hundred years. they sent mostly pubbies imho.
One would assume that every building culture, after a variety of attempts at building tall stuff that collapsed, would eventually hit upon the pyramid as the most stable way to build high. Heck, all they had to do is look at a pile of dirt or sand to figure it out. You're right, there's no big mystery behind the concept of a pyramid.
Most writers can't or don't deal with the obvious since our entire culture is wearing blinders. They write about things that are irrelevant to today's life and have lost the immediacy that their prececessors enjoyed. Now, the TV empires rule us all. We can't see what we won't see and the TV empires have us all under mind control. TV is a one-way medium. Try and talk back - it won't listen.
The internet is the first crack in the TV empire's control of our visible and mental culture.
Asteroids come along routinely - Hubble telescope is our best defense - too bad we can't keep it up there since we don't have the technology or will power to support it.
"One would assume that every building culture, after a variety of attempts at building tall stuff that collapsed,"
Some early Egyptian pyramids did collapse. I think one of the pyramids at Giza is called "the collapsed pyramid". Looks like it's builders got halfway done and realized it wasnt going to work and had to rework the angle.
WHERE are the flying cars!!!
http://www.moller.com/skycar/
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