New Technology?

[Chuck(G)]

I think electric pencil sharpeners are pretty cool.

[MartyNeilan]

I think electric pencil sharpeners are pretty cool.

As long as they are silver and use CC batteries!

[LoyalTubist]

With 24 carat gold mouthpieces!

[MartyNeilan]

In all seriousness, I believe that while technology may change, people and their behavior will in essence remain the same. We had a similar discussion a few years ago in Christian Ethics class.

We will always have music. Whether its singing, blowing a wood flute or rams horn, playing a Moog analog synth, or digital sampler, or a recorded device (music box, player piano, LP, CD) there will always be some form of music.

People will always give. Whether its feeding your neighbor's donkey (watching his ***) or making an online donation to a Katrina fund.

People will always steal. Whether its stealing your neighbor's donkey (nice *** buddy!) or online Phishing for passwords or credit card numbers.

People will always fall in love. Whether it is with a woman taking a bath on her roof or through long distance letters or the classified ads or internet chat.

Immorality will always be present. Whether its visiting a temple prostitute or a downtown brothel or dialing 900 numbers or cybersex over a webcam.

[Joe Baker]

Wha??!?!!?!?

Technology has grown for the last century at an incredible pace! My grandfather was born in 1900. His early life had more in common with someone in the dark ages than it had in common with yours. His family had no electricity, no phone, no running water, no cars, no radio, no television. There was no inoculation for polio or smallpox. They didn't have any of the modern medicines -- no antibiotics, decongestants, antihistimines. Aspirin had JUST been invented, as had the X-Ray, and VERY few people had access to those high-tech items.

Travel between continents was by boat -- as often as not by sail rather than steam. Travel between cities was usually behind a horse -- and an untimely illness for the horse could mean disaster for the family, as there was little effective veterinary care, and the horse was often needed both for transportation and for tilling the soil, because there were no tractors.

Weather forecasting in any sense that we'd recognize today was unknown, as there was no radar and no satellites.

They kept warm in winter by building a fire. At night they used candles and oil lamps to see. Bathing was a weekly event, not daily. Most people had only one or two outfits of clothing. Most people had never seen a car, let alone owned one.

In that scant 106 years since my grandfather was born, technological advances have COMPLETELY revolutionized EVERY phase of our lives! Because you are so young, you've only seen a tiny slice of history, and it's understandable that you don't realize how quickly technology has been advancing, but believe me IT IS!!
___________________________________
Joe Baker, whose life has been profoundly affected in the last couple of years by the DVR!

[LoyalTubist]

We will always have music. Whether its singing, blowing a wood flute or rams horn, playing a Moog analog synth, or digital sampler, or a recorded device (music box, player piano, LP, CD) there will always be some form of music.

But not necessarily on AM radio.

[Albertibass]

.

[tubatooter1940]

I would like a Stepford-type robot wife that looks like Carol Jantsch and plays tuba as well as she does and have her programmed from the git go to never say no.

[Chuck(G)]

USB slippers are pretty neat:

[windshieldbug]

As has already been pointed out; we already have music, and music IS cool

[Joe Baker]

Because you are so young, you've only seen a tiny slice of history, and it's understandable that you don't realize how quickly technology has been advancing, but believe me IT IS!!

I was not denying that there has been significant advances, and in no way have I thought the world has been like "this" since the freakin big bang. I'm just asking this, because there appears to have been a slow down in pace by comparison to the past history. I mean yea, we have small mp3's that I can eat by accident, but nothing revolutionary, such as personal computers by comparison has come out. I mean the kind of technology that really changes life styles and the way things are done. Please, I am not THAT ignorant that I dont know the technology of the past.

-tubachris

Okay, let's talk about the last 10 years. How about the world-wide web? It's been within the last 10 years that the internet went from something used by college researchers to communicate, to being one of the primary means of personal and business communication for EVERYONE. Digital cameras have changed the way we record our personal lives. They've only been commonplace for a few years. Wi-fi, unheard of three years ago, is now ubiquitous. Cell phones were the playtoys of the wealthy 10 years ago; now everybody has one.

Though not yet ready for prime-time, we've had several successful tests of missiles that can hit missiles. There are also new non-lethal weapons -- ray guns, if you like -- that will use a concentrated beam of energy to induce debilitating but temporary pain. Reconnaisance and, increasingly, combat flights are being flown by remotely controlled drones that didn't exist just a few years ago.

RFID chips are poised to revolutionize the way retail operations are run. Waiting in line could soon be a thing of the past. That's assuming you go to a brick & mortar store at all; I do a significant percentage of my buying online, as do more and more people.

The human genome has been mapped, most likely a precursor to revolutionary changes in treatments for many diseases. Animals are being cloned in countries all around the world. Scientists are taking genes from shrimp and splicing them into corn. Nanotechnology is being developed that will allow microscopic robots to be introduced into the body in order repair certain kinds of cellular damage.

What I meant by your seeing such a small slice that you don't realize how fast things are changing was not to suggest that you were unaware of the changes in the past; I meant something more like the experience of looking around you when you're standing out in the open on "flat" land. It looks flat. But if you move farther away, into space, you begin to see that it isn't REALLY flat. It looks that way up close, because you can only see a small amount of it, but it's round. The same thing happens if your personal perspective of history is only a few years. You can't really see the big picture as well. That's no slight, it's just the way it is; I have a longer view of history than you do, my grandmother has a longer view of history than I do.
____________________________
Joe Baker, who admits that this stuff isn't jet packs and anti-gravity boots, but then again technology is constrained by natural law.

[Joe Baker]

The Jetsons implied strongly that we would have flying cars by now.

WHERE ARE THE FREAKING FLYING CARS, MAN? WHERE ARE THE FLYING CARS?????

http://www.moller.com/skycar/
_____________________________________
Joe Baker, who remembers a car convertible to a plane, back in the early 70's, that never "got off the ground".

[trseaman]

Wha??!?!!?!?

Technology has grown for the last century at an incredible pace! My grandfather was born in 1900. His early life had more in common with someone in the dark ages than it had in common with yours. His family had no electricity, no phone, no running water, no cars, no radio, no television. There was no inoculation for polio or smallpox. They didn't have any of the modern medicines -- no antibiotics, decongestants, antihistimines. Aspirin had JUST been invented, as had the X-Ray, and VERY few people had access to those high-tech items.

Travel between continents was by boat -- as often as not by sail rather than steam. Travel between cities was usually behind a horse -- and an untimely illness for the horse could mean disaster for the family, as there was little effective veterinary care, and the horse was often needed both for transportation and for tilling the soil, because there were no tractors.

Weather forecasting in any sense that we'd recognize today was unknown, as there was no radar and no satellites.

They kept warm in winter by building a fire. At night they used candles and oil lamps to see. Bathing was a weekly event, not daily. Most people had only one or two outfits of clothing. Most people had never seen a car, let alone owned one.

In that scant 106 years since my grandfather was born, technological advances have COMPLETELY revolutionized EVERY phase of our lives! Because you are so young, you've only seen a tiny slice of history, and it's understandable that you don't realize how quickly technology has been advancing, but believe me IT IS!!

And isn't it just amazing how the world has changed in the past 100 years?! It's hard to imagine if the next 100 years will be this productive! The old saying about "living in the stone age" was virtually true almost 100 years ago, at least compared to todays world.

My old-time story is about my grandmother who is now 92 yrs young. When she was a young child (I think around 1915) her family moved from Kansas to NW Arkansas. They traveled by covered wagon and it took a few days to get there, hard to imagine!

I keep saying how cool it is to be alive at this point in time but others look to the past and long for a more simple life...

[Rick Denney]

that got me thinking........why dont cell phones have lighters. You know the things that "light"

There's no requirement for such in the design, and the designers don't think such a requirement would meet a need.

And the TSA goons would take it away from you at airport security.

Rick "who thinks we are very good at designing things we need enough to be willing to pay for them" Denney

[Mark]

Rick "who thinks we are very good at designing things we need enough to be willing to pay for them" Denney

Actually, all the good technology that we enjoy today came from the alien spaceship that crashed near Roswell.

[Chuck(G)]

Actually, all the good technology that we enjoy today came from the alien spaceship that crashed near Roswell.

Aliens? Did someone say Aliens?

[windshieldbug]

Aliens? Did someone say Aliens?

If you're going to start talking about immigration, Sean'll lock this thread, too!

[LoyalTubist]

On the Lost in Space TV series, the Robinson family left for unknown planets in 1997. I guess it will be a while before we hear anything from them, now that it's been nine years.

[windshieldbug]

I guess it will be a while before we hear anything from them, now that it's been nine years.

Maybe. But don't forget the thread robot...



Danger, Will Robinson! Danger, Danger! Immediate Danger!

[Kevin Hendrick]

I guess it will be a while before we hear anything from them, now that it's been nine years.

Maybe. But don't forget the thread robot...



Danger, Will Robinson! Danger, Danger! Immediate Danger!

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