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Old 04-24-2014, 06:06 AM
 
Location: I live wherever I am.
1,935 posts, read 4,757,586 times
Reputation: 3317

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Quote:
Originally Posted by STB93 View Post
I would like to know, why is it that many of our daily lives still feel like the 1980s or 1990s at most? I have expected the 2010s would have jetpacks, flying cars, futuristic robots, food pills, moon vacations, cure for cancer, 3D holograms, and so on by now. Yet we still seem like we are in the 80s or 90s with our level of technology? Why is that? When will we hope to see those technologies like the futurist had promised us?
Daily life doesn't feel like the 1980's or 1990's. I should know - I grew up then.

In the 1990's, nobody I knew or saw had a cell phone. I went to high school from '94 to '98 and NOBODY carried a cell phone - the closest anyone came was a "beeper", and even then not many people had those. Teenagers still had their own land lines. Okay, so cell phones existed and some people had them... but what about in the 1980's? If you had a cell phone, the phone was the size of a brick and the receiving unit was the size of a purse! I NEVER saw those things.

There were no i-anythings... I carried a gym bag within which rode my Walkman, a case of cassette tapes, and a huge set of headphones.

Anyone who had "the Internet" to any extent was a rarity... back then it was usually services like Prodigy or CompuServe. We weren't even encouraged to start using the Internet or computers for any reason until about 1997... these days even little kids are encouraged to do school work using the Internet and many classes require that reports and compositions be word-processed. (Through my teenage years, the most word-processing I ever did was on an electric typewriter!) Sharing music online? Didn't happen... especially in the 1980's when music was still mostly on records and cassettes!

Fringe groups who engaged in drug use or immoral behavior were still on the fringe. These days we have many such groups that have pushed their way into the mainstream, and rammed their behavior down everyone's throat to the point where we've essentially been goaded into accepting them as mainstream because they'll never shut up if we don't. In the '80s and '90s, that was not the case.

Gasoline and housing were far cheaper and the American economy was, on average at least, in far better shape. Much more was "Made in the USA" in the 1980's compared to today. This contributed to lower average unemployment and higher average salaries compared to the cost of living. Jobs that used to be safe and secure with good benefits are no longer; and even if they are still safe and secure with good benefits, they are many times more stressful and aggravating than they used to be. (My dad started teaching public school in 1967 to have a safe secure job with good benefits. He kept teaching through 2005. He never had much issue with the job of teaching itself, until power started to be removed from the teachers and pressure was put on teachers to incorporate technologies into their classrooms which really didn't serve any useful purpose except to make the classroom look technologically advanced. People learned what they needed to learn back in the day before Power Point and smart boards, and they can still learn that stuff in that way today. He recently told me that if he tried to go back into teaching today, he wouldn't last a week before storming out in frustration due to the conditions of teaching these days. And I think I should mention that, when accounting for inflation, the cost of living, and employee contributions to benefit packages that were never required back in the day, the average new public school teacher today makes half of what he/she made in 1967. A halving of your salary and a multiplying of your stress and aggravation are the requirements these days for having a safe secure job with good benefits. That ain't the way it was in the 1980's and 1990's. The only things my dad ever complained about, in those days, relevant to his job were the other teachers who didn't seem to care enough about whom they elected as their union leaders/representatives nor what type of salary and benefits package they received relative to teachers in other local districts.)

Cars were simpler and far less expensive, even relative to inflation, to repair.

Popular entertainment (TV, movies, music, etc.) was, on average, far more wholesome than it is today.

Now on to what you thought we'd have in this decade...

-We have jetpacks. They are not now, and never will be, feasible for the average person to use - the cost and weight will always exclude many people from the market, and besides, you look at all of the morons we have now, on the ground... do you REALLY want all of those dope-o-ramas flying around in the air?!?!

-Flying cars are feasible, though expensive. However, again, be careful what you wish for! Look at all of the idiots surrounding you whenever you're on the road.... do you really want to be mixing it up with those same idiots in the air?!

-Futuristic robots? We have those. They've replaced a lot of our human workers in factories. We have Asimo. The list goes on.

-Food pills? We have those too. For goodness' sake, they can now cook and dry out a mother's placenta and form it into pills that are supposed to be really nutritious. There will never be concentrated pills that entirely take the place of actual food, because there'd be no way to concentrate all of the required nutrients and food volume down that far. Even if they could concentrate all of the nutrients somehow, there's no substituting that food volume - the lack of which would make you feel perpetually hungry or would contribute to dyspepsia even if it could somehow overcome the hunger sensation. For the same reason that today's automobiles will never be able to run on concentrated gasoline pellets, human beings will never be able to fuel themselves on concentrated food pills.

-Moon vacations? We have those. People are paying big bucks to book tickets on rockets to the moon.

-Cure for cancer? It exists, or at least there are people who know how to make a cure for cancer but don't do so. Why is it not in use yet? Because the big-money medical industry doesn't want it to be. They make HUGE sums of money off of cancer "treatments"... sums of money they would not make if a cure for cancer were on the market. (After all, said cure would eventually be subject to the whimsy of the free market, which tends to bring its price down. One thing we didn't have in the 1980's and 1990's was low-cost or zero-cost prescription drugs without an insurance plan, the likes of which many stores offer these days. They can offer this due to changes in the market. The market would similarly drive down the price of the cure for cancer, in whatever form it would take, and then the medical industry would be out countless billions of dollars every year. Don't kid yourself. Follow the money. Why did we have a gas crisis in the 1970's? Not because we couldn't get / make gasoline; it was because the big-money oil and gas companies wanted to make more money. Back then they did it by keeping their gasoline-filled supply barges and tankers parked. Why do we have almost $4/gallon gas these days? Not because we can't get / make gasoline; it's because the big-money oil and gas companies want to make more money. These days they do it by exporting US-made gasoline to other countries. If we kept all of the gas we made, it'd be as cheap as it ever was. But then the big oil and gas companies wouldn't make as much money. In the same way, if cancer was curable, rather than requiring lengthy and often repeated hospital stays, and expensive months-long "treatments", the big-money hospitals and pharmaceutical companies wouldn't make as much money on those stays and treatments.)

-3D holograms? We have those.

 
Old 04-24-2014, 08:55 AM
 
2,220 posts, read 2,784,057 times
Reputation: 2716
Quote:
Originally Posted by STB93 View Post
I would like to know, why is it that many of our daily lives still feel like the 1980s or 1990s at most? I have expected the 2010s would have jetpacks, flying cars, futuristic robots, food pills, moon vacations, cure for cancer, 3D holograms, and so on by now. Yet we still seem like we are in the 80s or 90s with our level of technology? Why is that? When will we hope to see those technologies like the futurist had promised us?
I think that was what people in the 1950's thought that the 2010's would be.
 
Old 04-24-2014, 09:48 AM
 
Location: Des Moines Metro
5,103 posts, read 8,555,422 times
Reputation: 9793
Quote:
Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy View Post
Daily life doesn't feel like the 1980's or 1990's. I should know - I grew up then.
Ha! I measure in terms of things that have disappeared:

90s / NOW

- lots of pay phones - vs. cell phones widely used (where did you last see a working pay phone?)
- silver-based photography vs. all digital
- meeting someone at church and dating vs. abominations like speed dating (don't get me started)
- VCR/DVD combos vs. TVO
- metal anything vs. all the plastic that has replaced it
- intelligent customer service vs. people who read from scripts and must follow flow charts

There was a thread around the forum somewhere about going back to the 50s. That's too far for me, but I wouldn't mind returning to the early 90s.
 
Old 04-24-2014, 01:57 PM
 
Location: San Francisco, CA
99,099 posts, read 4,468,915 times
Reputation: 9461
Quote:
Originally Posted by chirack View Post
3. The internet and it's greatly enhanced access to information and communication. Want to go on vacation to somewhere you have never been in the 80ies you will need a travel agent or lots of time calling around and searching for information about your destination at a library. How about the cost of the phone call to Moscow(a lot). Or, how long it would take regular mail to get there(Days). Don't want to go to the store to get something, you are limited to what is in an catalog(a lot less than what a typical store sells online) and maybe the home shopping network.
So true. When we vacationed in Asia in the late 80s/early 90s, we had to wait a couple of days for the newspapers to arrive to find out who won the NFL playoff games or who won various Senate races in the elections at that time. I remember finding out about Ann Richards being elected governor of Texas a couple of days after the fact. There was no contact with family or friends back here in the States unless you wanted to make an incredibly expensive phone call from the hotel.

Yeah, it feels real different today.
 
Old 04-24-2014, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Chandler, Arizona
72 posts, read 132,686 times
Reputation: 179
Quote:
Originally Posted by STB93 View Post
I would like to know, why is it that many of our daily lives still feel like the 1980s or 1990s at most? I have expected the 2010s would have jetpacks, flying cars, futuristic robots, food pills, moon vacations, cure for cancer, 3D holograms, and so on by now. Yet we still seem like we are in the 80s or 90s with our level of technology? Why is that? When will we hope to see those technologies like the futurist had promised us?
Having grown up in the 80's and 90's, I think things have progressed more in some ways than expected, though less than the ones you mentioned.

I don't know that it was expected our cameras, Cassette/CD Players, bulky monitors, and computer towers could all be contained in our cell phones, which can also be used as "video phones" nearly anywhere.

Though cancer hasn't been "cured," the survival rate is much greater than it used to be. Even 10 years ago, lung cancer was a sure death sentence. In recent years, the survival rate is growing exponentially. The same could be said for AIDS and many other diseases.

I think the biggest shame is that we (as a world) are more dependent on oil than we were even in the 80's and 90's.
 
Old 04-24-2014, 05:13 PM
 
Location: Jamestown, NY
7,840 posts, read 9,151,378 times
Reputation: 13779
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2nd trick op View Post
I'm sure I'll draw some heavy censure from some people for this, but I see the original post as symptomatic of the damage done by oversimplification, oversensitization, and a general resentment against the traditional culture of the "hard science" community by the more aggressive elements within feminism, and their peripheral allies.

More of our young men than ever are growing up primarily in single-parent, female-headed households, and spend the first years of their education in facilities where males in any position of authority are increasingly rare. Among the extremely politically correct, it's a crime of the first magnitude to point out that the only male present at the ill-fated Sandy Hook Elementary was a janitor.

And even that point doesn't address the fact that when all male authority figures are excluded, a Politically Correct consensus sets in, and Heaven help the boy, even those still aged in the single digits, who's viewed as "disruptive" -- medication, rather than common sense, is increasingly viewed -- and sold -- as the proper remedy.

I'll be the first to recognize that imbalances among gender lines in many occupations lead to a distorted view, and a distorted agenda, and from both sides of the issue. I don't doubt that many people advocating for greater participation in the sciences by women are sincere in their belief. But education, like so many other sectors of daily life, has been subjected to harsh, and not always well-grounded criticism by an alliance of certain special-interest groups, Big Media, and. most unsettling of all, -- Madison Avenue.

Junk Science sells -- particularly among that segment of the population with higher levels of discretionary spending. Hard Science is viewed as the not-very-"trendy" habitat of "geeks", and the overly-introverted losers the Pop Wisdom would have its Following believe they all become.

At the upper echelons, I really can't see this as too much of a threat; major advances, be they in science or entrepreneurship, still seem to originate with gifted individuals such as Jobs, Gates and Bezos, and the "think tanks" seem better geared toward adapting the basics to mass marketing. But I wonder whether today's First world will continue to hold its prominent position if the leaner and meaner rivals gain ground in the technological arena.
ROTFLMAO. Keep shoveling the bull manure, dude!
 
Old 04-24-2014, 08:17 PM
 
Location: Berwick, Penna.
16,214 posts, read 11,260,290 times
Reputation: 20827
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linda_d View Post
ROTFLMAO. Keep shoveling the bull manure, dude!
Exhibit 'A' (and it's not from some conservative think tank).

Why Men Don't Teach Elementary School - ABC News

When I was a primary-schooler, our district had at least one male teacher in each location, (admittedly, usually teaching in the uppermost grade), That stabilizing factor might have mitigated the tragedy at Sandy Hook, not because of male physical presence alone, but because the sexes tend to think differently in crisis situations -- two points of view make for a better calculation of risk.

You may now shovel on some radical-feminist sexist dogma of your own. if you wish.

Last edited by 2nd trick op; 04-24-2014 at 08:38 PM..
 
Old 04-25-2014, 08:20 AM
 
Location: I live wherever I am.
1,935 posts, read 4,757,586 times
Reputation: 3317
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meemur View Post
Ha! I measure in terms of things that have disappeared:

90s / NOW

- lots of pay phones - vs. cell phones widely used (where did you last see a working pay phone?)
- silver-based photography vs. all digital
- meeting someone at church and dating vs. abominations like speed dating (don't get me started)
- VCR/DVD combos vs. TVO
- metal anything vs. all the plastic that has replaced it
- intelligent customer service vs. people who read from scripts and must follow flow charts

There was a thread around the forum somewhere about going back to the 50s. That's too far for me, but I wouldn't mind returning to the early 90s.
Apparently there's one working pay phone in my town. I haven't seen it though. Besides, last time I did see a pay phone, it cost 50 cents to make a call. That's outrageous.

Photography - yeah, I hear that. However, I guess I'm a simpleton when it comes to photography. I like digital photography. I'm just not certain, yet, whether or not digital photographs will be able to stand the test of time like film photographs have. I, too, mourned the loss of Kodachrome a few years ago, but only because it represented another nail in the coffin of times now described as "bygone". There's something about the whirring fan and clicking noises of a slide projector going through its motions as you view photos from long ago that a DLP projector with a wireless remote will never be able to duplicate.

Speed dating - I think that has always existed, to a greater or lesser extent. Personal ads were always around. And when it comes to "speed", nothing is more fast and loose than practitioners of "the world's oldest profession". I can honestly say that dating is, in my opinion, one of the things that has improved in the last two or three decades. When you're as unusual and "different" as I am, you appreciate the ability to get online and cherry-pick through hundreds or thousands of potential mates in order to select those who might interest you. Let's face it. I'm a tall autistic musician with an inescapable penchant for tall fat women with musical talent, desire to perform music, and brains. That being the mere tip of the iceberg, you can see how it would be very unlikely that I would encounter such a lady in real life... especially given how I have never been all that interested in socializing (the autism causes me to be, among other things, socially awkward). I met she who is now my wife on an obscure website, and back in the day when we first met, I calculated that she was a one-in-over-twenty-million find (at least based upon characteristics I desired in a woman, whose saturation in the female population was quantifiable). I don't have that kind of luck in person.

VCR/DVD combos? I still have one and you can still buy them. Back in the day it was a VCR only. (Or a Betamax player, if you swung in that direction.)

"Metal anything"... ah, tell me about it. So many times have I been disappointed to find that the newest version of a "thing" that has been around for a long time now has cheap plastic replacing what used to be metal. There's a reason why antique toys last forever and toys made in the last 10-20 years will never be found anywhere (except the rare toy museum) in another 10-20.

Intelligent customer service bit the dust when we outsourced customer service to countries whose inhabitants speak English with such a heavy accent that average Americans can't understand them... and hired such poor English speakers within our own borders as well to handle customer service. When the people doing the hiring lack intelligence, the customer service performed by those who are hired is not likely to be any more intelligent.

Some day, when I lose my last marble, I'm going to throw out everything I own that was produced beyond a certain year (as long as feasible antique replacements can be found) and replace it with stuff that was manufactured in a certain year or prior. People lived and had fruitful lives "back in the day" doing things the way they used to be done, and I believe it can still be that way today. The Amish are a good example... not a perfect example, but the closest example we'd be able to find en masse in America.
 
Old 12-29-2014, 03:01 PM
 
708 posts, read 421,071 times
Reputation: 933
Quote:
Originally Posted by STB93 View Post
I would like to know, why is it that many of our daily lives still feel like the 1980s or 1990s at most?
It doesn't. THAT'S the problem.
 
Old 12-29-2014, 03:37 PM
 
Location: San Francisco
2,416 posts, read 2,009,831 times
Reputation: 3999
The last poster has a point ... the OP too. The problem is merely one of overestimating the rate of 'progress' at any given time.
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