I was born in the 1980s. I remember growing up, I always had the impression that by this time in the 21st century, we’d have figured out some way to break the established laws of physics. Maybe it was because of watching so much sci-fi, but I feel like I’m not alone in this. The media seemed to reflect the same line of thinking. “Back to the Future 2” with its hoverboards and flying cars is now set several years in the past.
Be it anti-gravity, interstellar travel, teleportation, whatever, I always kind of assumed that by now, we’d at least have a working theory of how we might implement it in the next few decades. I think a lot of that has to do with the start of the “information age.” Computers and the way they could connect us were so revolutionary, it seemed like “magic” to the layperson. More “magic” would only be a few years away, right? If we could fit all this power into a box that sits on your desk, then it wasn’t beyond the scope of reason to think that anything was possible; it’d just take a few more years for us to figure it out, then we’d be planning the first NASA mission to another solar system.
What I never would have predicted is just how rapidly computer technology would advance. We now have supercomputers in our pockets, powered by CPUs that are well into the realm of nanotechnology and are now starting to run into limitations imposed by quantum physics. As a technological society, we’ve probably progressed farther than I would have ever imagined, just not in the way I expected.
Half-Life 3
I recently played HL2 again and it’s still awesome.
Wisecracking robots who drink alcohol.
with blackjack and hookers?
Reasonable justice reforms for social media used as public alert and communication systems, AI, crypto, gaming, etc to regulate new markets emerging from new tech to prevent predatory monetization policy and monopolies causing increased wealth centralization and patent trolling slowing down technical innovation in general.
I’m just mad as hell at how many things seem to have topped out in the 1940’s. My car is basically the same. Five wheels and I chase an explosion around. Air travel is basically the same. Big aluminum tube that’s expensive size as hell. TV is basically the same. Tune in, sit on ass, watch.
You look at how life changed between 1900-1945, and how life changed since then, and we’ve really stagnated.
That’s not to say it’s all the same, phones are amazing, but they don’t change my life fundamentally, a day without my phone is very much the same as a day with my phone.
I think we’ve still made amazing progress, just in different areas. For example, communication. In the 40s, if you were in the US and needed to contact someone in, say, Australia, the options would either be to send a letter and wait maybe weeks or months for a response, or possibly a prohibitively expensive phone call.
Nowadays you could click two buttons and have a six-hour HD video conversation if you wanted to, essentially for free. And you could send them documents, videos, money, whatever you want basically instantly. Heck, if you really wanted to you could both create realistic 3D avatars and hang out in VR if that’s your thing lol
Since around the 1940s and the 1950s scientists and Engineers have definitely kept progressing. Do you think all that human experimentation by the Nazis Etc came to nothing? No. Much was learned & implemented.
Scientists & engineers are keeping a ton of technology proprietary while they’ve also figured out how to hypnotize the plebian masses into being consumers, entertainment-seekers, and obedient ignorant workers.
High speed rail.
It’s insane Amtrak is the best we got. You should be able to go from Orlando to New York in hours, cheaply.
Fiber to the Home Internet connectivity that was paid for 30 years ago.
We have that!
Oh wait, you don’t lol
Yup. Maybe a bit bitter at US telecoms pocketing the subsidy money from the 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s, without delivering.
A functional healthcare system.
We have one!
Oh wait, you don’t lol
A global functional healthcare system, silly, not just for your local residents.
Universal Healthcare.
Flying cars and hover boards
more international cooperation for global benefit. instead we have more profit taking from everyone
High speed rail (USA)
- open source software that pays for contributions
- privacy laws that protect people against corporations
- living wage
- end of sexism and mysoginy
- global democracy
I’m more concerned with the things we had a few years ago that are now gone, and the new fascist hand me downs that are popping up everywhere.
The Bell Riots.
