20th Century vs 21st Century

[TuckerK5]

I think about this a lot and when I bring it up in friendly conversation most folks seem oblivious or just don’t see the relevance.
My last grandparent past away a little over a year ago at age 91.
She spoke of being (I assume) a teenager the first time she saw an airplane fly over. Can you imagine the amazement having never seen that before?

This generation saw more change than any generation before by far and I can’t imagine any change in the future that would be as shocking to us or any of our descendants as what people born around the turn of the 20th century saw happen in their lives.

@76zimmer post a lot of stuff about planes which is a fascination of mine and a great place to start.

First in flight was the Wright Brothers December 17, 1903.

The first flight of the SR-71 was December 22,1964.

That’s only 61 years almost to the day. 2025 will be 61 years since the first flight of the SR-71.

It just seems like with all of the advances in technology and sharing of information we would be zipping around the galaxy Star Trek style by now.

 

[centexk5]

Technology is advancing at an incredible pace even to this day. It’s just not so visible. Look at phones. They have foldable screens now. Your watch can track your oxygen levels in your blood. The nano research going on for cancer. My wife’s company developed a product that gets inserted and freezes individual cancer cells. The amount of storage and processing power that goes into a microchip that has circuits printed at pico and nano scale. Porsche has developed a new treatment for brake rotors that makes them virtually last forever and never rust and is also developing a synthetic fuel that’s as clean as electric. Incredible scientific break throughs. Just not very visible.

 

[obijuank5]

Theres a robot on mars bro.

 

[centexk5]

It's even taken selfies. How much more 21st century can you get.

 

[Blue85]

Mars is the closest planet to us and it's inhabited entirely by robots. Shouldn't that make us nervous?

 

[obijuank5]

The future is now old man!

 

[ryoken]

Tide Pods and Gorilla Glue Girl........ nuff said.....

 

[wasted wages]

Hah!! I love conversations like this... I guess the difference is all of the early discoveries were global changes that changed the world for everyone. Flight, cars, electricity, vaccinations, communication, those are all things that directly affected everyone.

Today, things are more of a variation on a theme, so to speak... Mars lander while being a huge leap, how does that affect me ?
Porsche brakes that never wear out ?
meh... can't afford them anyway.

I guess there are not too many frontiers that can or will be crossed because there are not too many real earthshaking things that haven't been done already.

 

[obijuank5]

Its the innovation that becomes refined and a commodity eventually available to the common person.
Only Cadillac had power windows at one point.
Now a pinche kia has em.

 

[mrk5]

Its the innovation that becomes refined and a commodity eventually available to the common person.
Only Cadillac had power windows at one point.
Now a pinche kia has em.

Watching some shows about older cars you find out a lot of surprising options were available on some early high end cars way before they were common on the everyday vehicles.

 

[imiceman44]

Hah!! I love conversations like this... I guess the difference is all of the early discoveries were global changes that changed the world for everyone. Flight, cars, electricity, vaccinations, communication, those are all things that directly affected everyone.

Today, things are more of a variation on a theme, so to speak... Mars lander while being a huge leap, how does that affect me ?
Porsche brakes that never wear out ?
meh... can't afford them anyway.

I guess there are not too many frontiers that can or will be crossed because there are not too many real earthshaking things that haven't been done already.

Don't worry we will be seeing in our lifetime some innovations that will blow your mind, not sure if they will be for good or bad.
There are plenty already that are doing bad even though the intention might have been good

 

[centexk5]

Watching some shows about older cars you find out a lot of surprising options were available on some early high end cars way before they were common on the everyday vehicles.

I remember doing a report in the 6th grade (think ‘97) about the adaptive cruise control Texas Instruments was helping develop for the new Mercedes Benz that year. Fast forward a couple of decades and my wife’s 2012 explorer has it.

 

[TuckerK5]

Think about this though.
A person is born in the year 1900 The most popular method of transportation is horse and buggy.
No mass production of motor vehicles until you are 8 years old.
It's probably at least a few more years until you start regularly seeing motor vehicles.
At only 36 years old the Hoover Dam was completed along with many other dams around the country.
This person is only 45 years old and has seen the end of WWII with nuclear weapons.
The Interstate Highway System was well under way before you turned 60.
Then one day you are 60 years old and commercial air travel is a common thing.
Just think about living so primitive as a child and seeing all of these things develop by age 60.

I'm sorry but all the technology that has been since 1960 and will be after today just pales in comparison to what someone experienced living from 1900 to say 1990.

Try to imagine living in a time when the only way to get from point A to point B over land was to walk or ride a horse and at this point there are no paved roads.
Really probably just trails that almost none of our rigs could make it from town to town on.
Most people absolutely had to grow their own food to survive.
I think we don't really give credit to the amount of change that occurred in those 60 years because we don't really think about what it would be like living in the year 1900.

 

[TuckerK5]

Watching some shows about older cars you find out a lot of surprising options were available on some early high end cars way before they were common on the everyday vehicles.

A very good point to my case. A lot of this stuff happened prior to 1960.

 

[TuckerK5]

I think a person living in the year 1900 had a life that was closer to that of a caveman than it was to the life a person living in 1960.

 

[mrk5]

Think about this though.
A person is born in the year 1900 The most popular method of transportation is horse and buggy.
No mass production of motor vehicles until you are 8 years old.
It's probably at least a few more years until you start regularly seeing motor vehicles.
At only 36 years old the Hoover Dam was completed along with many other dams around the country.
This person is only 45 years old and has seen the end of WWII with nuclear weapons.
The Interstate Highway System was well under way before you turned 60.
Then one day you are 60 years old and commercial air travel is a common thing.
Just think about living so primitive as a child and seeing all of these things develop by age 60.

I'm sorry but all the technology that has been since 1960 and will be after today just pales in comparison to what someone experienced living from 1900 to say 1990.

Try to imagine living in a time when the only way to get from point A to point B over land was to walk or ride a horse and at this point there are no paved roads.
Really probably just trails that almost none of our rigs could make it from town to town on.
Most people absolutely had to grow their own food to survive.
I think we don't really give credit to the amount of change that occurred in those 60 years because we don't really think about what it would be like living in the year 1900.

You even skipped over WWI that was at the time "the war that will end war". Which obviously didn't happen ergo WWII.

Then there's electricity and telephones.

 

[runamok151]

Hyundai will have production flying cars in a few years. (mic drop)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...on-flying-cars-steps-up-plans-for-full-lineup

 

[ryoken]

While I will agree that the first 1/2 of the 20th century was probably the most progressive period for tech.. and my fave.... as mentioned, nukes, come on.... birth of flight to jets...

I will give recent times a bit of slack in that regard due to the consideration of all that had been figured out prior, limiting the shear number of advancements that could be made...


#timetravelFTW

 

[campfire]

Hah!! I love conversations like this... I guess the difference is all of the early discoveries were global changes that changed the world for everyone. Flight, cars, electricity, vaccinations, communication, those are all things that directly affected everyone.

Today, things are more of a variation on a theme, so to speak... Mars lander while being a huge leap, how does that affect me ?
Porsche brakes that never wear out ?
meh... can't afford them anyway.

I guess there are not too many frontiers that can or will be crossed because there are not too many real earthshaking things that haven't been done already.

I mostly agree with the OP's observation. But...all of those things you mentioned had the same initial problem as the mars robots. Normal people didn't find airplanes to be useful for decades after they first flew. Cars, electricity, vaccinations, communication methods, all of these had adoption periods where minds were blown away (one at a time). But it took time for folks to develop industries and lifestyles around the new tech.

It's obvious looking back, but try explaining to my young Grandfather that airplanes would become a big deal. They seemed like novel toys, nothing useful. And then -boom-, a few years later both of my grandpas were employed in the aerospace industry. Changes happened.

My point is just that it's a lot harder to see those changes while they're happening. We don't yet know where robots on mars will lead. Maybe a new industry will spring up. Or maybe not. It's something you'll see when looking back. Or maybe when your grandkids are looking back.

 

[TuckerK5]

Hyundai will have production flying cars in a few years. (mic drop)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...on-flying-cars-steps-up-plans-for-full-lineup

No offense to you but what a total crock of crap!
We’re deep into the EV revolution and the grid won’t even support electricity demand before the EVs even reach 1%.
Now we’re gonna just fly around which is many times less energy efficient that driving on a paved road.
Bull +%?{?~€*!!!!!

 

[wasted wages]

Maybe new tech will spur some new items, but they are just that....items.
Changes on old ideas or things we have today.

look at ignition systems and fuel systems, many, many new changes and technologies..
but guess what, you still have to get the fuel and spark into the same old holes..