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
It’s an age of marvels
81–90 of 425 posts
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#82"It's a bit fiddly because time isn't passing at the same rate for the device as it is for the satellites, but we were able to work it out." that just knocked my brain down.
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#83More 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 lea…
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you ask certain people, everybody is still racist right now.
Well, racism and discrimination still exists among genpop today, even if on paper it's outlawed. These kind of biases are impossible to remove just with laws.
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#85More 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…
And yet a lot of people go hungry in this age of marvels. We have enough homes to house all the homeless, we have agencies, money, social workers. And yet we somehow can’t seem to figure it out.
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#86I hate this sort of writing - 'WE did this or that', 'shrugging modestly'. It has this arrogance about it. Pride for being part of something that the individual had nothing to do with. It reminds me of the kid at school that joins the winning team to get a medal, but can't even play the game and only gets in the way.
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But at what cost? How much should we sacrifice so that blueberries exist year round?
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the cost we are paying that you imply is too high?
Shipping blueberries around the world can’t be great for the environment.
In the end fuel costs money so more efficient logistics is often good for the environment. Buying local makes a lot more sense if you live in a farming community than a port city.
Re: It’s an age of marvels
#89More 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
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> 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. This is fine and a good exercise (like a gratitude journal). The problem is that this is often used to tell people indirectly that they should stop with their political compla…