__It might feel like this to people in every generation, but there seems something scary about what happens when having one foot in the 90s vibe slowly peters out, and more and more people simply don't know a time before this. — csalisbury
My parents were born in 1905 and 1906 (died in 2007 and 1993, respectively) and witnessed or experienced several transitions and major innovations: from horse power to motor power; the innovation of planes, radio, movies/talkies, refrigerators (vs. ice boxes), dial phones, television, computers, space flight, antibiotics, small pox, polio, mumps, measles, and chickenpox, scarlet fever; economic collapse and economic boom, 2 world wars, kitchen microwave ovens, cake mixes--and more!
They seem to have taken all these changes in stride. Now that I am an old man I wish I could talk with them again about what they thought of all these changes. I came of age in the 1960s (sort of; it took decades). Yes, the 60s were great. We were young, in college, healthy, reasonably happy, in and out of love, full of youthful arrogance, and all that. For gays living in backwater midwestern towns, the 1960s sexual revolution didn't begin until 1970. Yes, it was wonderful.
Before the Internet there was the very very big computer and in time the scrawny little personal computer. I was much taken with the idea of the HAL9000 computer in 2001 (the movie, not the year), then with the 1980s Macintosh computer--which of course had less computing power than my washing machine has (figuratively speaking). My old Mac Plus resides in its own chapel. Still an itsy-bitsy computer helped make the 1969 moon landing (Apollo 11). The Apollo 11 computer was novel in that it ran on silicon instead of vacuum tubes. I was 15 when Kennedy proposed landing a crew on the moon (and bringing them back, alive); I was 23 when it happened. Yes, it was as stirring as you might think it was.
My take on the Internet is that it actually is a great resource for information, while also being a big sewer pipe. I've never gotten into FaceBook, Twitter, TikTok, or most other social media. Too much of it Is drivel, or worse--a shit show.
BTW, the landing of the Perseverance ranks up there as an amazing feat. Lots of missions to mars ended in failure, but arriving in orbit, detaching the lander rocket from the space ship, then that rocket slowing down to a pause, hovering above the surface and lowering the rover to the surface, then detaching and getting the hell out of the way--hey, you witnessed a very very big deal. — Bitter Crank
__Cultures and institutions last for a while. But the people who comprise them are always being born into them-> learning them -> learning how to sustain themselves in them -> sustaining themselves -> getting ready for death. Cultures and institutions last longer than the individuals born into them, but depend on them for their continued existence. These are things that have an emergent life of their own, but require for their existence a coordination of many people who are experiencing them in very different ways.
__ Almost everything preserved in a culture is, somewhere in its ancestry, traced back to a reaction against something else. The inception of anything new will only be fully understood by the people who install it. As a fait accompli, it will be viewed differently by anyone who comes after.
__The inception of any new thing, as a reaction to something else, eventually stabilizes, developing largely according to an internal logic.
__People who are born into a culture will learn of this new thing as if it were an old thing. Part of learning your way into a culture is to learn how to survive in it. These old things, initially reactions against some past threat or excess, will now be viewed as part of the cultural landscape that one has to master, in order to get ahead, or at least tread water. — csalisbury
Within a short amount of time from when the Model T came out, I am pretty sure most people had a vehicle. What a crazy change from a literally horse-drawn society. Think about how much infrastructure related to horses was completely taken out from this shift. — schopenhauer1
What a crazy change from a literally horse-drawn society. — schopenhauer1
Horses remained in common use in cities for hauling freight short distances until reasonably good trucks arrived in the late teens, early 1920s. — Bitter Crank
Car ownership is apparently becomes less common among young urban dwellers these days, in cities with half-ways tolerable mass transit. Cost must be a factor, as well as insurance costs and parking. — Bitter Crank
What are people's place in this? It is practically inescapable and so, are we working for it, or it for us? — schopenhauer1
It's maddenginly intertwined, and I wouldn't blame people for being distraught from these implications. — schopenhauer1
I don't disagree with what you're saying but I didn't say everyone had a horse. — schopenhauer1
That's a very good question.
People think they are using Facebook and Twitter. Actually, Facebook and Twitter are using them. — Bitter Crank
You know, the telegraph was invented around 1840. by 1861, Lincoln had a telegraph office installed next door to the White House in the War Department. He learned how to use the telegraph for command and control purposes pretty quickly. (The Union Army laid telegraph lines as they
moved, keeping the generals in touch with headquarters.) — Bitter Crank
No, you didn't. But here's what happens. You said something about horses and this caused spooled memories of what I had read about horse use to unspool. I couldn't help it. Stuff has been sitting in my head for years, just waiting for the trigger to unwind it. — Bitter Crank
Not at all. Think of all the sword fights, the bows and arrows! The horses, the running, the falling, the chases, the charges, the battles! The urgency! That's not charming at all.There's a reason why Tolkien's books are so charming. They speak to that time before fast-paced, industrialized technology. — schopenhauer1
Sure, but there are dragons lurking there, literally! And orcs!I get ya. Rather I was thinking of his descriptive imagery of the landscapes. — schopenhauer1
Sure, but there are dragons lurking there, literally! And orcs!
The beauty of the Shire, for example, is not safe, not a given. How can you enjoy it when you know there is evil not far from it? — baker
What I'd be most curious to hear about, from your perspective, is how cultural-shifts shifted your own experience. There was a kind of taboo element to homosexuality. It seems like that used to be expended in the 'secret' place of gay hookups - is some of that lost now? — csalisbury
advanced question: how do you think about trans sexuality? you don't have to answer that. — csalisbury
I beg to differ.. Within a short amount of time from when the Model T came out, I am pretty sure most people had a vehicle. What a crazy change from a literally horse-drawn society. Think about how much infrastructure related to horses was completely taken out from this shift. I get your point that things take longer to get to rural populations, and you can make an argument that it wasn't until post-WWII that truly the older system of horses was displaced (especially in places like Russian, etc) but still pretty dramatic shift in geography, time, place, etc. And of course, as you mentioned the Wright Brothers and the companies that followed for air technology. — schopenhauer1
psychedelics — csalisbury
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