>Similar reforms apply to cooking, a great deal of which will survive among old fashioned people, but a great deal more of which will probably be avoided by the use of synthetic foods. This is very interesting especially if you think "synthetic foods" not just literally but as take out, processed products and such. I know a lot of young professional people who technically never cook. Like almost never and whatever th…
The “lunch will be a pill” stuff is always funny to me. There’s a major volume issue unless you’re gonna have me eat chunks of uranium or neutron star or something.
What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
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Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#42>Similar reforms apply to cooking, a great deal of which will survive among old fashioned people, but a great deal more of which will probably be avoided by the use of synthetic foods. This is very interesting especially if you think "synthetic foods" not just literally but as take out, processed products and such. I know a lot of young professional people who technically never cook. Like almost never and whatever th…
The “lunch will be a pill” stuff is always funny to me. There’s a major volume issue unless you’re gonna have me eat chunks of uranium or neutron star or something.
It doesn't have to be a completely self-contained solution.
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#43The reality is that no such projection is plausible. Could a human being living in 1903, before the Wright Brothers have predicted a moon landing only 66 years later? Could anyone in 1990 have predicted the smartphone, let alone 1922? Only one prediction is worthy of confidence - the world of technology will increase at an exponential rate...and the world will improve. We lament progress, but few of us would choose 1…
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#44The "less cleaning due to less coal" part is not something we really think much about these days, but the older limestone buildings can really show the difference. Here's a view with the old and either pressure-washed or redone wall: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wso9gae4JPsN6NaG6 and that's on a residential side street... Imagine getting your clothes slowly covered with it every time you go out.
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#45Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a technological perspective, I'm not sure they're wrong? 1922 had railways and cars and mass transit which had already started increasing urbanisation vs 1822, skyscrapers were already being built, passenger air travel was a go, telephones and electricity existed in cities. The internet and computing is certainly a big shift, but from a visible changes to the world perspective I think 2022 is more alike 1922 tha…
> The internet and computing is certainly a big shift, but from a visible changes to the world perspective I think 2022 is more alike 1922 than 1922 was alike 1822. Lolwat? Handheld devices that have the power to process millions of calculations a sec, to record Ultra HD videos, to establish a video conference instantaniously with anyone in the whole world. Thousands of satellites that orbit the earth constantly. Spa…
These are a different in quality more so than a different in kind. In 1922 you could already talk to someone 100s of miles away via the telephone. In 1822 you couldn't. And getting there was going to take weeks. So you basically couldn't talk to people long distance unless you were rich or important.
> Thousands of satellites that orbit the earth constantly. Space missions that are already flying past the limits of our galaxy.
Means rather than an end here. Google Maps is neat and convenient, but again, you _could_ use paper maps for much of what people use google maps for. And large paper mapping schemes (e.g. ordnance survey maps in countries of the british empire) were carried out in the 19th century and WW1. Communications could also be done, albeit more expensively. Space missions are still currently in the scientific curiosity stage, rather than impacting people's lives, but who knows maybe commercial near earth space missions end up being the one people get to to talk about for 2022-2122.
> Bio-mechanical organs, giving the crippled back the ability to walk, the blind the ability to see, the deaf to hear.
These are technically more accomplished achievements for sure, but I'm not sure they have the same sort of societal impacts as initiatives against cholera and tubercolosis of the late 19th century. Vaccination is probably the 20th century achievement to call out here.
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#47Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. Penicilin, Heart transplants, Supersonic travel. Nuclear power, Nuclear weapons, Nuclear naval propulsion. Space exploration. Artificial Satellites, GPS, Succesful cancer treatments, NMR and other imaging diagnostic tools. Wireless bi-directional personal television (the 20's name for making a zoom call from your phone). And the list goes on.
Do any of those even come close to 1822-1922 changes of aviation, global telecommumications, ubiquitous electricity, cars, Quantum Mechanics, and so on? Space exploration, nuclear propulsion and satellites are great, but their impact on people’s daily lives is far smaller than the above, imo. I think the author was largely correct.
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#49He landed everything except the peeling furniture (kudos for the Ikea prediction) and labor conditions. Interesting how labor hasn't advanced much except for women in the workplace (he nailed that perfectly).
Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)
#50The reality is that no such projection is plausible. Could a human being living in 1903, before the Wright Brothers have predicted a moon landing only 66 years later? Could anyone in 1990 have predicted the smartphone, let alone 1922? Only one prediction is worthy of confidence - the world of technology will increase at an exponential rate...and the world will improve. We lament progress, but few of us would choose 1…
The reality is that we do not know. Some things may be out of our reach forever, but contemporary world has by far the highest count of scientists ever and the talent pool is widening as countries such as Bangladesh escape their previous crushing poverty. To this comes politics. A second Cold War with China may be terrifying and yet enormously scientifically productive, much like WWII and the previous Cold War was.
I am personally not willing to make any technical/scientific predictions beyond 2030. Political even less so.