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San Francisco, 3:31 AM
Sun Nov 8
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/12/09
Google.
08/11/09
08/11/09
Looking at Physics, namely the Large Hadron Collider, even if they get some experimental results that point to higher dimensions - it's not like they could use that information to create new technologies that would change our lives. It takes a gigantic collider and I don't know how many joules of energy just to barely detect these "dimensions". It's not like we would be able to engineer some technology that everyone could use from this.
It just feels like we've hit a wall in physics research that not even the large hadron collider can solve.
08/11/09
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08/11/09
___
*iPod - Walkman
*Mac/PC - Mac/PC
*25mpg Car - 30mpg Car
*Microwave - (still a) Microwave
*TV - HDTV
*Cell phone - Cell phone
*Airplanes - (mostly the same) Airplanes
*Modern Medicine - 'Modern Medicine'
___
Aside from the internet, I can't imagine much of what today would astound people from 1959. Maybe video games. However, if you took someone from 1909 and brought them to 1959, their mind would be blown. (Lightbulbs, Mass Produced Radios, Cars, Televisions, Modern Airplanes, etc).
08/11/09
08/11/09
___
As for everything else, someone in 1989 would have no problem figuring out how to use a cell phone today. We still have the same number pad and dial button. Computers are more advanced, but still use the point and click interface.
___
Color TV wouldn't be unrecognizable to people from 1959, and I think they'd be a little disappointed that HDTV isn't more advanced than it is.
___
Oh, and airplanes? Pretty much the same hunks of metal, with very small changes:
[www.epsrc.ac.uk]
08/11/09
Yes, we "still" have the same idea of old boring personal portable music players. How passe! How can any reasonable human being not be amazed at the difference between an ipod and an old 80s walkman. Sure they're both for the obvious design of portable music, but the difference in technology is still rather staggering.
That's almost like comparing Gutenberg's printing press to the Kindle. Yeah, they both help disseminate books, etc. Boring! Unspectacular!
08/11/09
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08/11/09
I think people just aren't paying attention to the advances that are happening now, because people only see consumer products as the end result and corporations are stuck in a rut when it comes to taking risks with new kinds of products - manufacturing corporations like to keep things the way they are and make everyone a good consumer of "durable goods". It stifles innovation in consumer goods, but scientific advancements are still occurring off the average person's radar.
08/11/09
For example: in the 60's, things we now take as commonplace, such as space ships and space stations, digital libraries, cell phones, video conferencing, personal mobile computers, global networks, voice interfaces for computers, personal lasers, military robots, etc. were science fiction (i.e. Star Trek, etc.).
And while you may be right that people from 1989 would not be astounded by 2009, I doubt that the people from 1909 would be astounded by the technology of 1929. I suspect almost any 20 year period is going to have small incremental progress rather than massive, dramatic, changes.
08/12/09
Plus, mobile phones.
08/12/09
Flatscreen would.
Also, your being rather stupid to say "cell phones havnt advanced much because we still use numbers" >_
08/11/09
Technologically, 1909, 1959 and 2009 are...well...totally different. If you mean culturally, things have changed quite a bit by the standards of culture.
Consider that there are probably contacted people living in remote areas who's way of life hasn't changed in a thousand years. There are contacted tribes who choose to live the same way, despite the introduction of technology.
Anyway, culture advances much more slowly than technology. Technology advances in weeks and months. Culture tends to only shift majorly in years and decades, barring major social upheaval and disasters (9/11, terrorism, etc.)
At our present rate of advancement, those of us born slightly before/during/after the fall of the Soviet Union might live to see the 1960's idea of the year 2000. At a guess, I'd say sometime around 2050 :P
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08/11/09
For example, in N.C. in 1999 the state had a 3 percent unemployment rate and about 1 percent in metro areas. That's great. But it also had at least 43,000 homes without adequate indoor plumbing. Estimates put the real numbers around 200,000.
I've worked at two different newspapers that did stories about the continued use of outhouses in poor areas. Show me a future where the poorest people have adequate food, shelter and access to education and medicine and I'll be shocked.
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08/11/09
1 - the do a job that I couldn't do for more than 5 minutes without killing myself.
2 - they're always ready to say "whoa there, your crazy flying car future is a bit too crazy and just wont work and here's why."
08/11/09
So many questions.
08/01/09
Oh well, one of these days.
-Kle.
07/31/09
http://www.raleighnasfic2010.org/index.html
/shameless plug
07/31/09
"Fuck you!" *slap*
"No, fuck you!" *slap*
(continue)
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
Montreal is a terribly designed city (adds to traffic), poor roads (adds to traffic), constant road repair (adds to traffic), rude people, crumbling infrastructure (if a bridge doesn't collapse on you, a hotel might), hate (in many areas English speaking people aren't welcome, god help you if you're American), and a constant bad smell.
But then again, it has GREAT food (get some smoked meat!) and hot women, so... whatever.
07/31/09
If "English people" bothered to actually go to these "many areas" you refer to, they'd find that nobody there hates them. Some people might not understand them, though, because they are francophones and only speak the *official language of the province*. (gasp! how dare they!)
I'll give you one thing though, the roads *are* terrible. Which is why you take the metro.
We'll keep our women and our food, thanks. Enjoy you lifeless suburbs. I'm sure they smell very nice.
08/01/09
Well... Montreal's a nice city, with lots of cool things to do.
I have found that people are a lot less willing to work with me when I try to communicate in my rudimentary, broken French there then they are up on the Gaspesie or even in Quebec City though.
Hint for people in Montreal who have no French, and need directions: go to a fast-food joint. They are like tiny US embassies, filled with helpful English-speakers.
-Kle.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
Been going since 1974 and have missed only the first two Aussiecons and the Japanese Worldcon.