Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It’s an age of marvels

blog.plover.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 425 posts

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#61

Post by pixl97 »

qlm wrote: post #35
Rinzler89 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists Mate, the 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Walmart 5-gallon bucket of Snickers and the giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms blows my present day European mind, let alone someone from 1900.

The quantity of chocolate for sale in bulk certainly is surprising. Unfortunately I find American chocolate to be borderline inedible.

I promise we have good chocolate here, just stay away from anything labeled Hershey's or Cadbury because it's the malk equivalent of milk.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#62

Post by tim333 »

77pt77 wrote: post #6
keybored wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That and possibly genetics that would have given a scientific veneer to his extremely racist views. How?

People will read scientific information in ways to support their prejudices. Franklin would not be different. We like to idolize these historical figures but if this guy was alive nowadays he'd probably be rage posting in alt-right forums only accessible on the dark-web.

Wikipedia:

>Ben... was an American polymath, a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher.

Doesn't sound like the profile of your average alt-right rage poster.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#63

Post by dotnet00 »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

It brings to mind the story of how when Boris Yeltsin was visiting the US, he took an impromptu detour to a random American supermarket to try to catch them off guard, only to be blown away that Americans really did have supermarkets everywhere practically overflowing with food. The story goes that the experience played a big role in shaping his vision for Russia when he went on to become its first freely elected leader a few years later.

https://www.cato.org/blog/happy-yeltsin-supermarket-day

Or similarly there's the story of the Lykov family, who lived life cut off from humanity for 40 years but still somewhat understood what the new, moving "stars" in the night sky must be: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-rus...

Edit - Plus, this quote: “What amazed him most of all,” Peskov recorded, “was a transparent cellophane package. ‘Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!’”

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#64

Post by oldpersonintx »

brigadier132 wrote: post #29
ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

It really is amazing, that's why we really need to appreciate and protect what we have. The incredible abundance we currently have is not the norm. It was not even 100 years ago that people were starving in the US during the great depression. Think about this every time someone promotes extremist violent rhetoric.

[dead]

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#65

Post by pixl97 »

perlgeek wrote: post #50
petesergeant wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would blow the minds I think there are two aspects to this. I think anyone who's ever been to a food market in the history of time would conceptually understand it's possible to have a bigger market, and perhaps even a faster horse or mechanical bird to bring the items there. Commerce bringing you items from the other side of the world is millennia old. So I think it would be more of a case of "how did u mad lads a…

The real progress with the supermarket is the availability and ubiquity. Maybe 80% of US Americans now have access to a larger variety of fresh fruits than even most nobles had 200 years ago, and it's not even a big deal to us. Project that kind of progress another 200 years in the future... it's hard to imagine how that would even look like.

>another 200 years in the future

Tea, earl grey, hot.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#66

Post by odiroot »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

> More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists.

Modern American supermarket would blow the minds of anyone from the Warsaw Pact countries ;), up until probably mid 1990's.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#68

Post by pixl97 »

chasd00 wrote: post #58
AStrangeMorrow wrote: post #8

I am just glad to see I am not the only one making up imaginary scenario where I bring people from the past to have them marvel at our world.

me> in my pocket contains a device that gives me access to all of the world's information almost instantly person from the past> wow! what do you do with it? me> look at pictures of cats and argue with people i don't even know /i think that's from an xkcd

Benjamin Franklin: "So you're telling me there are hot single women in my area that are looking to date?"

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#69

Post by [deleted] »

jajko wrote: post #34
chefkd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the world had hospitality rules and treated outsiders kindly. Lots of people were allowed to come and go as they pleased they actually provide interesting reads. Borders as we understand them today were invented in the 18/1900s. Mass slavery spanning multiple continents and racism on that magnitude hasn't happened since and hopefully won't happen again (except maybe Rome & Egypt but that wasn't trans contine…

One doesn't exclude the other. You / anybody could be most welcoming to visitors and have your slaves serve them the best you had and treat them very well. Norms change, sometimes shockingly, and even within one's lifespan. Now young generations will most probably realize this when they will become out of touch and rejected by new young generation in maybe 2 decades.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN