Just a thought.
Back in 2000, we looked back over the previous century and said "This century changed the world so much more than any other."
I wonder if there had ever been a turn-of-the-century retrospective which didn't come to that conclusion.
And it makes me wonder what we'll have to do in this century to top the last one. We'll have to do better than:
- powered, manned flight, the jet engine, and hovercraft
- space travel (OK, cislunar travel)
- radio, TV, and movies
- aircon, cellphones, microwaves, credit cards, solar cells, and ATMs
- solid state electronics
- plastics and synthetics
- the bra and the zipper
- radar and sonar
- robots, nuclear technology, lasers, and superconductors
- electronic computers and magnetic storage
- penicillin, oral contraceptives, pacemakers, artificial hearts, gene splicing, AND
- the internet
That last one may be the most important, as it now means that a large chunk of the world's scientists, engineers, and back-yard tinkerers are pretty much directly linked to each other and to huge databases, massive data-crunching power, and global sensor nets.
We've just been accelerated to 88 miles an hour. We are going to see some serious shit.
I wonder if there had ever been a turn-of-the-century retrospective which didn't come to that conclusion.
And it makes me wonder what we'll have to do in this century to top the last one. We'll have to do better than:
- powered, manned flight, the jet engine, and hovercraft
- space travel (OK, cislunar travel)
- radio, TV, and movies
- aircon, cellphones, microwaves, credit cards, solar cells, and ATMs
- solid state electronics
- plastics and synthetics
- the bra and the zipper
- radar and sonar
- robots, nuclear technology, lasers, and superconductors
- electronic computers and magnetic storage
- penicillin, oral contraceptives, pacemakers, artificial hearts, gene splicing, AND
- the internet
That last one may be the most important, as it now means that a large chunk of the world's scientists, engineers, and back-yard tinkerers are pretty much directly linked to each other and to huge databases, massive data-crunching power, and global sensor nets.
We've just been accelerated to 88 miles an hour. We are going to see some serious shit.