I sometimes wonder about things i cant answer. Here is one of the big perplexing things on my mind. time started over with the birth of Jesus, right? So why did it almost 1900 years for technolgy to take off? Basicaly in the last 150 years all the things we use were invented. Why did it take so long, why has it progressed so fast, just how far can it go? The bigest of all WIll it lead ti the end of human kind? Think about it.
These are big questions! :D
My Father saw alot. He was born in 1923. From not traveling much more than 10 miles from The Farm to thinking nothing of getting into a car and traveling 40 miles.
But we have seen alot too. One thing is being able to ask and see how the rest of the world lives by this forum. Yes,there is TV,but if I have a question about what they are doing,the TV don't talk back. ;D
Medical is another one. I can see why way back when they died at 50 years old. And the pain and discomfort too. :o
Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899. Mr. Deull's most famous attributed utterance is that "everything that can be invented has been invented.
IMO.......we ain't seen nothing yet. :)
A lot of things from the past were lost when God sent the flood. Man kind had to start all over.
We have no idea what these folks knew.....it would probably blow our minds.
I wish I knew all about how the Egyptians built things and the tools they used.
Simply put, each obstacle that we overcome and each step that we make becomes a building block for the next person or next generation. Our technological advancements, while astounding to me, are predictable.
Technology begats more technology, and the spiral continues. I consider myself very fortunate to have lived long enough and at a time when I saw the appearance of a lot of the technological advancements that we take for granted. From a time when 40 acres and a mule, oil lamps, and 2 pair of britches was considered the norm, to actually seeing men walk on the moon, (and playing a very small part in putting them there) it's been a wild and exciting ride. And I have no doubt it will become even more so.
Bring it on 8) 8)
I can barely remember my parents first TV with only 2 fuzzy channels. :D
Now I watch the Pig Roast, live, on my computer. :D :D :D
I agree but it's even more amazing when you consider that virtually all that technology happened in the USA and a few western European countries. Even people we consider poor right now in America live better than any of the kings of the past.
Communication was a big part of the problem. Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. Before that, things had to be transcribed, and mainly by the church. Books could then be printed that allowed someone, with money, to see what others thought. That expanded until the current day when anyone with an opinion can be printed in minutes by a much larger audience. That's why the first 1900 years there wasn't too much going on.
Technology increase is not linear. It is logarithmic. That means it doubles, then that doubles again, and so forth. My granddad was born in 1888. There were no planes, or cars, or electricity, or phones. He became a carpenter because he could do fractions. He died at the age of 95. He saw flight from the Wright brothers to landing on the moon. He saw electricity go from some novelty to being evacuated when Three Mile Island had its meltdown. He went to having a horse and buggy to owning a Buick.
They had a bit on the news the other night about some of the new technology. A quadriplegic had a robotic arm and he could feed himself. Another invention could distill water from the dirtiest water on the planet. Its the size of a coke machine, and makes about 250 gal/day. They're putting them in Africa. They're growing hamburgers in a petri dish. These things weren't around 5 years ago. There's a book out called Abundance. Supposedly, it has a peak of the future. We'll have all the things that we need to support life for a long time to come, at least, that's what they think.
The down side to technology is the making of war machines. That may be our downfall.
My grandpa was born in 1900 and lived to 1988. My grandma lived from 1911 to 2008. Neither cared much for the latest and greatest of anything. People, especially family, were what mattered most to them. I can't even begin to imagine things from their perspective. Hopefully those nuggets of wisdom in older folks are never completely lost, and are passed on.
War machines...? Technological adolecence doesn't nessisarily need weapons to be plenty destructive.
An extreme amount of the technology that makes life better was developed by and for the military.
Imagine living in a one room cabin with your family and farm animals. It's the only way they'll survive the brutally cold nights. You have a dirt floor, Hay mattresses and the Internet is a couple hundred years away. :-\
We've come a long way. It would be hard to single out the most important advancement as they're all significant.
3d printing floors me! It smacks of the replicators envisioned in the 'Star Trek' series. Tell the computer what you want and poof, there it is!
Quote from: Brad_S. on December 29, 2013, 07:50:04 PM
3d printing floors me! It smacks of the replicators envisioned in the 'Star Trek' series. Tell the computer what you want and poof, there it is!
I saw this on TV Brad. They were actually making car parts and human hearts. Flipped me out!
Now they are making guns.
Yes, that is amazing. Kinda like a reverse cnc.
Which itself isn't that old.
Yeah, they are making guns, but DanG if I will shoot one of them!
Quote from: florida on December 29, 2013, 04:51:34 PM
I agree but it's even more amazing when you consider that virtually all that technology happened in the USA and a few western European countries. Even people we consider poor right now in America live better than any of the kings of the past.
Are you serious.. do you really beleive that ??? ::)
Firecord...The Protestant reformation happened, followed by the Enlightenment.Also, Rons comment on the advent of the printing press also played a large role. Not only did it standardize languages, but it created the desire for literacy by the masses. Many books have been written on the subject... kinda tough to sum it up in a paragraph or so. ;)
Quote from: firecord on December 29, 2013, 08:49:33 AM
time started over with the birth of Jesus, right?
Where did you read that? Unless your referring to BC versus AD. Not everyone thinks in those terms.
Quote from: florida on December 29, 2013, 04:51:34 PM
I agree but it's even more amazing when you consider that virtually all that technology happened in the USA and a few western European countries.
I think a lot had to do with governments and where the money got spent. Some countries the leaders are as happy as a lark as long as they don't have to live in misery like the rest of the population. All you have to do it look at the countries you've been at war with. Enter the capital where the leaders are and compare that to all the shacks and poverty in the rest of the country side. It's like going from the 15th C to the 21C. When your living in misery your not thinking of landing on the moon, your just existing.
I just have to look within our own country. The feds came up with the idea of centralization, so that area of the upper St Lawrence prospers, while the Maritimes remain poor and then the prosperous complain about sending us transfer payments to get bye. ::)
You take here in Canada, we had the Arrow. The prime minister killed that and all them engineers went to the US to help develop the space program and some helped build the space shuttle later. I could fill this page with names and where they went to work.
Here are a few examples whom went to NASA:
Bruce Aikenhead from Alberta: Astronaut training in Mercury, later worked with Gerry Bull and his advanced cannon (the big gun in Iraq), Canadarm for the space shuttle.
James Chamberland from BC: Head of engineering for Project Mercury, project manager and designer for the Gemini spacecraft, key role in 'lunar orbit rendezvous' to go to the moon, concepts for the space shuttle and it's development.
Stanley Cohn from Ontario: senior computer specialist and expert at NASA
Bryan Erb from Alberta: mercury and Apollo heat shields, manager of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, Chief of Earth Observations Division with NASA's remote sensing program.
Dona Erb from Alberta: computer programmer
Owen Maynard of Ontario: first person in NASA to work on the design of the lunar module, also pushed the concept of 'lunar orbit rendezvous', chief of systems engineering on integration of Apollo systems and chief of mission operations, helped set up requirements for the first lunar landing flight.
There were many others at Avro, some came from India.
;)
Thats an impressive list SD, and I do not complain about the transfer payments, it is what keeps this great country functioning, Of course I am in a poor province now as the manufacturing has all but disapeared :new_year:
I'm a Big Brother conspiracy theorist. Most tech advances came from two world wars, and the Space Race. And don't discount 007 either.
Our daughter ordered me to say the blessing at Christmas dinner, I'm standing at the head of table waiting for family..and waiting and waiting..they didn't come, all were on their I-phones, I-pads. Big Brother ruined tradition.
And the drones, and satellites spying, and that Google guy, always spying on our homes, our cars, our travels, our farms, our trees,our mills, etc....why? :o
I spent over 26 years working at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory before retiring in 2011 and worked with scientists and engineers from obvious countries like Canada, Australia, Germany, Etc. and also countries most people in the US wouldn't think of like Peru, Taiwan, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka. My point is there are brilliant people from all over and unfortunately there are idiots from all over.
If you want to be truly terrified by technology... most disturbing is starting at 5:45
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAspqCD34Hw
Most upsetting is the fact that these guys developed some of these technologies with government funding and google just bought the company. I hope results from all government funded programs are unavailable to them, but I find that hard to believe.
By time i ment the calander. I know that most of what we have today is due to the invention of electricity. Alot of what we use today was around when Christ was here. Word traveled then just not as fast. Take metal for example. Many people long distances apart had it, yet buildings were stone and wood till 1800s. Im just saying Was it inteligence, science, desire, devine intervention, ailen based ( for the record i do not delieve in ailens!). Not meaning to sound stupid , I am well learned, it is just that iv never really thought about it. Or been taught why.
If the world ends, it won't be from technology, it'll probably be a meteor, or a something celestial.....steam power started industry cranking, then tech took over.
Major events that drove technology.
Western enlightenment, particularly the rule of law and property rights.
"If you like your invention, you can keep your invention. Period." (and the proceeds from it)
The printing press. (Ron beat me to it on that one).
Now true genius ideas could be spread to every corner of the globe within a few years.
Capitalism, (at least somewhat governed by rule of law).
The profit motive is very motivating. The ability to raise capital to make your invention a reality has benefited those societies where it is allowed tremendously.
Fossil fuels.
One gallon of gasoline will propel a small car 30 miles or more. Try pushing that same car 30 miles.
Telecommunications.
The world has become a much smaller place.
And in our time, the Internet. I went to school for computer networking in 1998 and worked in that field for 13 years. The Internet has been around much longer, but was just starting to gain widespread use with cheaper PC's and modems. I tried to explain to my parents (born in 1921 and 1926) just how revolutionary this new technology would become. The best metaphor I could come up with was that it would be as impactful on the world as Gutenbergs printing press had been.