Why did people in the mid 20th century think the future was going to be super advanced? (bomb, general)
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Most of the predictions from back in the 50's-80's HAVE come true, except for flying cars. In fact, there are flying cars, but they are too expensive for anyone to use and we do not have the infrastructure for them. But many of the other inventions commonly seen on sci fi movies have come true.
Cell phones for instance are similar in function to what Star Trek used in the 60's for their officers to communicate back and forth from anywhere. GPS and navigation devices are now in most cars and on cell phones. These were pipe dreams only seen on Star Trek 40 years ago. TV's where you could see and talk with someone was virtually inconceivable before the 1990's, yet now it is commonplace. Most couldn't have envisioned the internet though. I suppose because its not shaped like a robot. Many movies from the 70's-80's envisioned us having personal robots that do chores for us and act as servants so we can laze out on couches. They didn't think about how impracticle having a large robot in your house was. They also didn't see video games coming before the late 70's.
No. The 1800s. The steam engine catapulted the world forwards. Electricity added to that. Intellectual economic analysis in Karl Marx, Henry George, etc.
This technology did lead to mass barbarism around the world for sure. But economic greed was the prime motivation.
The single biggest case of mass barbarism was 100 million plus killed under communism, Mostly in Russia and China, but others as well. The motivation was not economic greed, but ostensibly the quashing thereof.
The single biggest case of mass barbarism was 100 million plus killed under communism, Mostly in Russia and China, but others as well. The motivation was not economic greed, but ostensibly the quashing thereof.
While the legitimate numbers are far too high in an civilized world the numbers reported are questionable and inflated as your link points out.
But we urgently need to have an economic system that does not bring down the world every 80 years or so and fairly distributes wealth. That is not physical technology advances, but intellectual/knowledge advances, of which we have not effectively put into practice.
One could argue that intellectually – from the viewpoint of ethics, epistemology, group/tribe vs. individual, statecraft and so forth – we've not much advanced over the past several centuries. In the West, we've made great strides in abolishing slavery and acknowledging at least nominally equality of gender and race. These are huge achievements, and I don't mean to dismiss them as some trivial or elementary things. But in terms of material goods vs. esoteric/abstract goods, theory of justice and punishment, the compact between generations, economic dynamism vs. redistribution, and the basic relation between society and the individual – well, our progress has definitely been much slower, than that of science and technology. Arguably the "big questions" were posed and at least preliminarily answered by Plato, 2400 years ago. Everything subsequent has been mere commentary.
Much of modern angst and dissatisfaction stems from our having so much more "stuff", so much more power over nature, and yet not really any more power over human emotions and of their interplay with society. We're really no wiser than the ancients, even if we're less barbarous in treatment of war-captives, no longer selling slaves, and if we extend the vote to more than just aristocratic males. We ought to be doing better from the philosophical viewpoint, but we're not. Technology hasn't yet changed human nature – nor perhaps should it. Technology has revolutionized how we communicate, how we learn and interact. But it has not substantially affected our brains. To misquote Nietzsche, we remain inveterately human, all too human.
One could argue that intellectually – from the viewpoint of ethics, epistemology, group/tribe vs. individual, statecraft and so forth – we've not much advanced over the past several centuries. In the West, we've made great strides in abolishing slavery and acknowledging at least nominally equality of gender and race. These are huge achievements, and I don't mean to dismiss them as some trivial or elementary things. But in terms of material goods vs. esoteric/abstract goods, theory of justice and punishment, the compact between generations, economic dynamism vs. redistribution, and the basic relation between society and the individual – well, our progress has definitely been much slower, than that of science and technology. Arguably the "big questions" were posed and at least preliminarily answered by Plato, 2400 years ago. Everything subsequent has been mere commentary.
Much of modern angst and dissatisfaction stems from our having so much more "stuff", so much more power over nature, and yet not really any more power over human emotions and of their interplay with society. We're really no wiser than the ancients, even if we're less barbarous in treatment of war-captives, no longer selling slaves, and if we extend the vote to more than just aristocratic males. We ought to be doing better from the philosophical viewpoint, but we're not. Technology hasn't yet changed human nature – nor perhaps should it. Technology has revolutionized how we communicate, how we learn and interact. But it has not substantially affected our brains. To misquote Nietzsche, we remain inveterately human, all too human.
I agree with everything you wrote. World War 2, Nazism, and Stalinism are extreme examples because they were acute periods in time where human rights reached low points. So compared to the 1930's and 40's, the world has improved leaps and bounds for the industrialized civilization today. But comparing over a longer time span of 100+ years, humans are just as barbaric today as at any point in time.
I'm ready to skip over that in favor of teleportation - although I'd probably go all Dr. McCoy and freak out about my molecules being scattered all over space.
I can remember seeing the jet pack demonstrated. Twice. Once at Disneyland. On the same visit my brother decided to try out the toilet of the future in the House of the Future.
That didn't end well. The "This Attraction is Temporarily Closed" sign stayed up for a while and my parents denied knowing who he was until we got to Adventureland.
I'm ready to skip over that in favor of teleportation - although I'd probably go all Dr. McCoy and freak out about my molecules being scattered all over space.
I think that watching the Jetsons in the 60s spoiled it for me...
Absurd predictions of a tech future is not a transient phenomenon that came and went in the mid 20th century. Read joseppie's thousands of posts about the singularity and his promises that it will occur 16 years from now, in which every human being on the planet will be digitally connected to an artificial intelligence from which there is no escape, and survival will be impossible without the connection.
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