Are we in an age of technological decline?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Are we in an age of technological decline?

Batham: Jun 19, 2010; _{Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground.}

The premises of this thread might as well have been;

quote:

If I look at the way we flush a toilet, I've noticed little real visible progress in the past half century. Since I now decide to make this my point of reference and will ignore poo poo I take for granted, I deem were are utterly hosed.

Stuff like the fact that the smartphone we hold in our hand required several hundred warehouses back in the day, that I can send huge chunks of data to the other side of the world in seconds, the way people spend their time has completely changed, the fact that companies are now actually about to head to asteroids to mine them, that we now grow the same amount of food on a fraction of the land, that we start having automated cars, that flying is completely automated, glue, duct tape, I can order a loving book in the US right now and have it tomorrow or the day after in my mailbox even when living in the EU, eat loving strawberries all year round, 3D printing, is all of no loving consequence.

If you'd walk into the living room of the 1940's and today, it would barely be different if I'd look at the walls. FACT.

It feels like some terrible pessimistic clickbait, honestly.

To the guy who's 30 years old and "didn't see much change in his life", did you never play video games or something? Or listen to music? Did you not notice anything about the screens you're looking at? Never read up on medical progress? Like gently caress, even how far prosthetics have progressed is mind loving blowing. How about cars? Have you stepped into a newer car the past 20 years? Or even the past 5 years? What are your measuring points for progress?

Batham fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Jan 28, 2016

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 09:10

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Batham: Jun 19, 2010; _{Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground.}

Sylink posted:

In response to OP: No, we have just hit a wall with certain technology until we can exploit more extreme laws of physics to get around those limits. The latter may or may not be possible but there are signs it is (quantum computing etc).

Quantum computing alone will open up solutions to problems that classical computers are incapable of solving in a reasonable time frame, just as a single example.

We live in an unparalleled age of technological progress for all societies, if you don't think this you are looking in the wrong places.

I also want to add that this wall has only been of relevance in the past few years, and that we've made gigantic leaps in the decades before that. It has transformed our society, and while breakthrough technologies are being researched, keep in mind that stuff like power consumption and storage are only a few of the many other aspects of computers that are still evolving at breakneck speeds.

It's just the boneheads in this thread that call the past 70 years a technological decline. I wish I'd be able to call them something else, but you basically must refute reality or live underneath a rock to claim a technological decline. I'll just imagine that these boneheads magically transmit up the words they type.

To refute humanity's progress and accomplishments, like some in this thread do, is just disgusting. It's akin to claiming the pyramids are impossible and must be of alien origin.

Batham fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Feb 1, 2016

# ¿ Feb 1, 2016 02:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Are we in an age of technological decline?