Are we in an age of technological decline?

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

RuanGacho: Jun 20, 2002; "You're gunna break it!"

I'm getting kind of tired of these "are we bluh bluh bluh" threads because the answer to all of them is always no

But I'll go more in depth anyway.

We are not in technological decline in any sense, and any stagnation you feel about society is in fact a side effect of economic depression and regulatory capture by industry.

We are however long overdue for the revolution taking place, to expand our ability to interpret data, make sense of the world and improve quality of life, and it is slowly happening. We need to mature as a society, we need to understand what we're doing. We need to learn how to cope with the fact that ever increasingly in every category of science and technology we have could change life as we know it.

Blue Star posted:

I can believe it. I'm only in my early 30s but I can still look back to when i was a kid and compare it to today, and I don't see anything all that amazing. Mostly we've changed socially. Gay marriage was unthinkable back when I was in elementary school, when "fag" was the go-to insult. So I think culturally we've changed. But you're asking about technology, and I don't see anything all that impressive. When i look back to when I was a kid in the mid-and-late 90s, it's basically the same as now. There were already cell phones and personal computers back then, they've just gotten a bit better. There was already the internet and websites and email and all that stuff; it's just gotten more ubiquitous and all-encompassing, and again, it's mostly our culture that has changed. We've got more social media, and we can call each other at any time, and do our banking at home, and order stuff online. That's about it.

I don't necessarily think this is a good or bad thing, though. Maybe it's good that we don't have all this whiz-bang whatever stuff. Look at what we do with the internet: we just get into stupid arguments with strangers, doxx each other, harass each other, etc. Women and minorities get death and rape threats. And the climate's going to poo poo because of our technology. So maybe it's good that something is putting the brakes on it.

"The internet is just sending 1's and 0's and we just send more 1's and 0's now!"

How about we just invent magic so you're astounded?

Helsing posted:

Saying that we're in an age of "technological decline" would seem to imply that we're actually regressing, which I don't think makes a lot of sense.

However, I do think that as time has gone by we've been able to appreciate just how unusual the period between about 1750 and 1950 really was. This period completely transformed human life and even the environment and geology of the planet in ways that we've never seen before. Much of the progress since 1950 has involved refining or improving upon technical advancements from that period.

That having been said, I do think that the accumulation of communications and media technology is pretty significant, and while it's a fools game to predict when it will happen, we may be on the threshold of some pretty significant advancements in medicine and biology.

Forgetting all the App nonsense, communications tech is still in it's infancy, there's way way way more we can do with it than we have currently developed and people just lack imagination I guess.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 04:19

RuanGacho: Jun 20, 2002; "You're gunna break it!"

Cantorsdust posted:

The only question of technological progress is one of political will and funding--there's no shortage of imagination.

This is very true and what I mean when I make references to everything being process improvement. But nah, lets just continue to enrich the elite few and let the commons crumble.

We could be way more advanced now than we are if people would stop insisting on military victory :awesomelon:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 06:01

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

Blue Star posted:

Popular Thug Drink posted:

Helsing posted:

Cantorsdust posted: