351–360 of 480 posts
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WD40 formula is famously still secret.
I guess that's an example in both directions. WD40 formula is secret despite the existence of patents.
To me, the article seems panglossian ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide ). Some of the "upsides" (e.g. improvements in patent regime) just aren't there. Some aren't as wonderful as they are described. I'm in my mid-sixties; I'm very much a candidate for the "things were better in the old days" brigade. But I do think many (most?) things have improved. Housing is better; healthcare is immeasurably better (unless…
I wonder if permanent war was around in the 60's it was just easier to keep things under wraps because of smart phones. From what I have heard the CIA has been involved in some unsavory activities since before the 60s. I also believe that life lost by war and violence have decreased dramatically since then. It might be an ignorance is bliss thing. But the music was definitely better back then!
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Interesting point, meine Obergruppenführer.
Does the word "Aptitude" trigger you, comrade?
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Does the word "Aptitude" trigger you, comrade?
Does the phrase "get f*cked you absolute bivalve, no wonder your girlfriend dumped you" have any resonance at all with you? (Edited for spelling)
> ...
> Indefinite: not worrying about running out of AOL hours, liberated from the tyranny of time metering and (mostly) bandwidth metering
Except that some ISPs do have caps and going over results in throttling or extra charges. I thought those days were behind us, but no. It is better than it used to be, but it's still a thing.
To me, the article seems panglossian ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide ). Some of the "upsides" (e.g. improvements in patent regime) just aren't there. Some aren't as wonderful as they are described. I'm in my mid-sixties; I'm very much a candidate for the "things were better in the old days" brigade. But I do think many (most?) things have improved. Housing is better; healthcare is immeasurably better (unless…
>[Edit] OK, I'll list one: permanent war. Before 90's US was in permanent war just as well. It was called the Cold War. So that one downside is actually non-existent - from "before" vs. "today" point of view.
But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?
We’ve also built a highly sophisticated surveillance state and generally reduced our basic freedoms and individual rights post-9/11, and despite bumps in the road for this program thanks to Snowden etc, nothing has fundamentally changed and things continue to get worse on this front.
To me, this list of improvements is really just a list of improvements absent broader context which paints a very different & disturbing picture.
We are social animals. Other people make me happy. Other people make me miserable. Quality of life depends far more on the integrity of a person's human relationships than these trivial material gains. I can remain bright eyed through all kinds of horribleness if I believe my suffering is meaningful and valued.
I used to be very excited about technology and I really believed it could fundamentally improve humanity in some way(s).
Now I'm excited about prosocial things, interconnection, anything which allows humans as a social animal to truly connect, find meaning, and uplift each other. Everything else is likely a distraction.
This is the hard part though. Technology lets you make incremental progress, occasional breakthroughs, and rarely has any major setbacks that aren't purely monetary. Humans having healthy social lives at the micro and macro scale is something we arguably understand and can affect much less than technology at the moment.
I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. This article explains why I would much rather be young now rather than before.
Similarly for life at the bottom. In almost any period in history, life at the bottom sucked hard.
> airplane flights no longer cost an appreciable fraction of your annual income12 , and people can afford multiple trips a year. I routinely flew in the 80's and 90's: shorter lines, more cabin space, and food every flight (and fewer yokels airing their stinky bare feet). I'd go back to that in a heartbeat.