The good things in the current age in tech
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The good things in the current age in tech
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Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#2This was a nice little read to remember the good things we’ve got going for us in the world of tech. It’s easy to get caught up in the battle of the month, or to get sad about the state of the sad things.
But there’s a lot of good too! It’s worth remembering.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#3My 8 year old son has a Nintendo switch. I recently showed him a video of the 80' "Mattel Electronic Football Handheld Game" which is essentially just a handful of dim LED's and some control buttons. I used to fight my brother to get time playing on that old thing. My son may never truly appreciate how far we've come with respect to technology.
The other thing I'd like to point out is that you either could afford some encyclopedias or went to the library. The fact that you can learn just about anything today is truly amazing. Folks like Ben Krasnow share amazing DIY things regularly that it would be hard to imagine in the 80's or 90's.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#4And just to emphasize: almost everything is either free or inexpensive, both software and a lot of wonderful hardware.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#5My 8 year old son has a Nintendo switch. I recently showed him a video of the 80' "Mattel Electronic Football Handheld Game" which is essentially just a handful of dim LED's and some control buttons. I used to fight my brother to get time playing on that old thing. My son may never truly appreciate how far we've come with respect to technology. The other thing I'd like to point out is that you either could afford som…
Yeah, imagine not knowing some factoid, and it not being practical to find it out... That's completely different pre-internet vs. post-internet.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#6And just to emphasize: almost everything is either free or inexpensive, both software and a lot of wonderful hardware.
On the other hand, almost everything comes with hidden costs and risks as well. Pretty much every new technology or cool gadget comes to the public as a double-edged sword especially when it's "free" or inexpensive. In the open source/developer space things are often far better, but the general public is just screwed. Right now our lives are filled with very cool tech, but nearly always at a hidden price no matter what we've paid for it.
Even the hardware is increasingly controlled and inaccessible (thanks to trusted computing and DRM) and most of the software and devices people use today routinely get code pushed to them remotely (often silently) with little if any ability for the supposed "owner" to control or understand what's being done.
Still, in very specific spaces there really is some great hardware and software available and information is accessible to help people willing to put in the work to take advantage of it. It's nice to take some time to appreciate how far tech has come and how much technology is still open, accessible, and working for us without also being used against us.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#7We have reasonably powerful single board general purpose computers.
Open source desktop operating systems have surpassed windows and Mac in terms of quality. It's true.
AMD is stronger than ever.
Mice and keyboards have improved massively. TVs finally allow higher than 60 Hz input. Took them 20 years.
Electric vehicles are about to become the norm. Not just cars.
I could go on for a while but frankly I am way more excited about biology. Feels like we're just a couple of major breakthroughs away from making huge leaps that could shake things quite a bit
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#8My 8 year old son has a Nintendo switch. I recently showed him a video of the 80' "Mattel Electronic Football Handheld Game" which is essentially just a handful of dim LED's and some control buttons. I used to fight my brother to get time playing on that old thing. My son may never truly appreciate how far we've come with respect to technology. The other thing I'd like to point out is that you either could afford som…
Yeah, imagine not knowing some factoid, and it not being practical to find it out... That's completely different pre-internet vs. post-internet.
I'm saying people are building sputterers, waterjets and even fabing transistors and ICs(Sam Zeloof) in their garages. It goes way beyond factoids. You can connect with experts in just about any field.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#9My 8 year old son has a Nintendo switch. I recently showed him a video of the 80' "Mattel Electronic Football Handheld Game" which is essentially just a handful of dim LED's and some control buttons. I used to fight my brother to get time playing on that old thing. My son may never truly appreciate how far we've come with respect to technology. The other thing I'd like to point out is that you either could afford som…
Oh man that thing is a blast from the past. It's crazy the memories that come flashing back just from seeing that image. It's extraordinary that my brain hasn't ditched the thing as garbage and deleted it. Must be 35+ years ago. Jesus.
Re: The good things in the current age in tech
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, imagine not knowing some factoid, and it not being practical to find it out... That's completely different pre-internet vs. post-internet.
I'm saying people are building sputterers, waterjets and even fabing transistors and ICs(Sam Zeloof) in their garages. It goes way beyond factoids. You can connect with experts in just about any field.
True! I just focused on factoids because that's what I feel most keenly. Even though the availability of educational resources has arguably made a bigger difference in my own life, the thing that tickles my fancy is still that I can get answers to silly questions like "what is that damn lyric?" that were completely mysterious before.