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I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

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Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#101

Post by dqv »

Aurornis wrote: post #13

I remember my grandparents making this exact same complaint: All of the new technologies during their younger years were amazing and improved the world. All of the technologies that came along in their later years were only complicating life after they had settled into comfortable routines. In my hobbies and other real world activities I cross paths with people in their 20s a lot. It’s really refreshing to see their…

> It’s really refreshing to see their excitement about new technologies and the future

What new technologies are they excited about?

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#102

Post by davidw »

Zambyte wrote: post #31
davidw wrote: post #3

High quality eBikes are pretty amazing: I have nearly 4000 miles on one of ours, and nearly all of those are replacing car trips around town, including most of our grocery shopping. While not revolutionary - they're kind of an incremental improvement - I'm pretty impressed by all the things a cheap Chromebook can do.

Last year I purchased an e-scooter (Hiboy X300)to compliment my car. I used it so much, I accidentally let my car rot into disrepair. The e-scooter is great, but it is quite limited in what you can carry (only what you can put in a backpack). Instead of getting another car for the things that I can't really use the scooter for, I got an acoustic, belt driven bike :) (the Priority 600). I went acoustic and belt driven…

My eBike comes with a big basket and a bag that slots into it that can carry a ton of stuff. I do most of our family's grocery shopping with it. A huge upgrade from a backpack.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#103

Post by davidw »

dosisking wrote: post #14
davidw wrote: post #3

High quality eBikes are pretty amazing: I have nearly 4000 miles on one of ours, and nearly all of those are replacing car trips around town, including most of our grocery shopping. While not revolutionary - they're kind of an incremental improvement - I'm pretty impressed by all the things a cheap Chromebook can do.

eBikes may be pretty amazing in isolation, but as a pedestrian, I absolutely hate people who ride eBikes.

> People who "almost got hit by a bicycle" are extremely numerous while people who actually got hit by cars remain unavailable for comment.

https://bsky.app/profile/jwbee.bsky.social/post/3mtc2rx7hcc2...

Joking aside, I can see the annoyance, and it's important to have separate infrastructure where people feel safe to ride their bikes. That does not mean a 2 inch strip of white pain separating you from dudes in trucks staring at their phones at 40 miles an hour.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#105

Post by swiftcoder »

loco5niner wrote: post #95
swiftcoder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you hate e-bikes, or do you hate city planning that treats e-bikes as second-class citizens, and forces them into direct competition with cars and pedestrians?

The biggest problem I've seen with bicycles is that SOME bicyclists act like they are a car when it suits them and a pedestrian when it suits them, even when infrastructure is properly in place.

> even when infrastructure is properly in place

Is it though? I've cycled in a number of US cities, and even in the ones that have bike lanes, most only have small sections that are physically-divided from traffic, and pretty much none have intersections that bikes can safely cross without using the pedestrian crosswalks.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#107

Post by M95D »

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #32
coldbrewed wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that their TV wasn't spying them but our TVs definitely are (aka ACR).

My TV isn't connected to the Internet

How do you know? Seriously.

Manufacturers could add modems to bypass the need for a wifi or cable connection, like they do in cars. I would expect by now that's a valid question to ask if I were to buy a new TV.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#108

Post by M95D »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #74
Aurornis wrote: post #13

I remember my grandparents making this exact same complaint: All of the new technologies during their younger years were amazing and improved the world. All of the technologies that came along in their later years were only complicating life after they had settled into comfortable routines. In my hobbies and other real world activities I cross paths with people in their 20s a lot. It’s really refreshing to see their…

It may be based on your mental categories. Let's say you were born in 1910. The revolutionary stuff (at the time) was applying electricity to stuff. Well, by the time you were 30, you'd seen all that. "X thing that we'd done before, but now done by electricity" wasn't a revolutionary idea any more. And by 1940, the really revolutionary advances in airplanes had mostly already happened (although the switch to jet engi…

But look at the rate of it.

How many new exciting things between 1950 and 1960? Color TV, jet airplanes, transistors, computers, early programming languages, nuclear power, artificial satellites, polio vaccine, credit cards, microwave oven, Xerox, fax machines.

How many new exciting thing between 2010 and 2020? AI, Netfix and crypto? Not sure I should be excited about that last one...

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#109

Post by _DeadFred_ »

dqv wrote: post #101
Aurornis wrote: post #13

I remember my grandparents making this exact same complaint: All of the new technologies during their younger years were amazing and improved the world. All of the technologies that came along in their later years were only complicating life after they had settled into comfortable routines. In my hobbies and other real world activities I cross paths with people in their 20s a lot. It’s really refreshing to see their…

> It’s really refreshing to see their excitement about new technologies and the future What new technologies are they excited about?

Telling that op didn't respond to this simple question.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#110

Post by AnimalMuppet »

M95D wrote: post #108
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be based on your mental categories. Let's say you were born in 1910. The revolutionary stuff (at the time) was applying electricity to stuff. Well, by the time you were 30, you'd seen all that. "X thing that we'd done before, but now done by electricity" wasn't a revolutionary idea any more. And by 1940, the really revolutionary advances in airplanes had mostly already happened (although the switch to jet engi…

But look at the rate of it. How many new exciting things between 1950 and 1960? Color TV, jet airplanes, transistors, computers, early programming languages, nuclear power, artificial satellites, polio vaccine, credit cards, microwave oven, Xerox, fax machines. How many new exciting thing between 2010 and 2020? AI, Netfix and crypto? Not sure I should be excited about that last one...

Yeah, but...

Transistors existed between 1950 and 1960. But they didn't really set the world on fire until the 1970s.

Computers existed in the 1950s, but they didn't explode into businesses until the IBM 360 series, and they didn't go into homes until the 1970s, and not in volume until the 1980s.

Xerox existed, but didn't explode until the 1970s.

And so on. It is decades from something being invented, to commercial availability, to widespread commercial use. And only when it becomes widespread does it change the world.

So I claim that the "revolutionary" part is when something already existing becomes widespread and applied. That was (in my previous examples) electricity in the 1920s and 30s, and personal computers in the 1980s and 90s. They already existed. But when they became widespread and used for everything, that's when the world changed.

So, what was that in the 2010s? I would say cell phones. Yeah, they existed before. But now everyone had them, which meant that everyone could be reached all the time, and everyone could take pictures, and read the news, and search the net, and watch sports, and listen to music, all the time, no matter where they were. That changed the world, or at least society, quite a bit.

What is it for the 2020s? It could be AI. That is, plausibly, exploding. If it continues to do so, it is likely to change everything. mRNA vaccines may become a thing that changes everything, at least as much as the polio vaccine, but we are not there yet - at this point it's still a maybe. SpaceX lowering the cost to orbit is a big deal. Starlink may be; I'm in the US, where internet rarely depends on satellites, so I'm not in a good position to judge that one.

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