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The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

midnightmurmurations.substack.com

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Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#111

Post by anthk »

keyringlight wrote: post #55
NoSalt wrote: post #24

The X-Files was the right show at the right time; a "bubble" of the '90s, if you will. The internet and mobile technology was nascent. The world was getting bigger, but was still quite "small". I definitely feel quite privileged to have lived through this time, and enjoy all things '90s quite a bit. Any, and I mean any, attempt to remake this show is doomed to failure, and I wish they would just stop. Now, if you wil…

24 is another one that was at the right time, although the big one was not under their control. It started showing 2 months after the 9/11 attacks. More to the general point, it was also at the time that computers and internet usage was fast growing, but gaps in the digital side meant it was still plausible that field agents were important. They also had plot lines such as the bad guys using online video game chat (a…

Uh, no. Totally different times. To me the mid to late 90's where almost the same, among 2000 and pre S11 2001, chill, futuristic times, with computers, consoles, comic books, everything, the final death blow to the 80's which began at 1992/1993. Maybe from 2001/2002, but from 2002-2003 the one was grim, dark, pro-torture on series and tons of war propaganda in movies from the US.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#112

Post by i_am_a_peasant »

X-files was great for the first couple of seasons but then it went downhill, fast. I watched it start to finish twice, including fillers, and I gotta tell ya, past the first 2-3 seasons it really ain’t that great a show. I remember playing the live action video game that was split across several cd’s. that one was real nice. sometimes i still rewatch let’s plays on youtube about it.

I feel like most people who are nostalgic about X-files, me included. Are only nostalgic about the vibe it gives you in the beginning.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#113

Post by anthk »

uncircle wrote: post #38
moregrist wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I remember most about the 90s was the overwhelming optimism. Technology was going to make our lives better and unlock opportunity, not take all our jobs and render us irrelevant. To me, the weirdest thing about the AI hype cycle is the inherent nihilism of it all. If there's one thing I miss, it's the optimism. I used to be enthusiastic about what the tech industry was doing and where it was going. > The larger…

The optimism died a long time ago. I’m a Millennial, the 90s flew by as I was growing up, but one of my formative experiences was playing Deus Ex in 2001, after 9/11. It gave me healthy distrust of technology, governments, big corp, and what the world is going through today only reinforces this vision of the world. Of course I am nihilistic about AI: when I read about Altman and Karp, I see Bob Page. These are NOT th…

Ironically libre games gave me that faith back when I saw roguelikes coming (in 2002 with Slashem, Nethack being back and Angband), libre engines, Linux distros working with AvermediaTV pirating media streams and whatnot. Corporate computing was hell, full of virii, shitty interfaces (and now even more with even more control), adware, and tons of shovelware.

But the common folk was doing amazing stuff. A 3D suite/raytracer for free? Free as in freedom math books with easy algebra teachings? Free compilers, operating systems and whatnot? You don't need to pay about $600 (or $3000 on industrial basis) for everything in Debian Sarge? Just an $20 DVD? It was like getting a damn interdimensional UFO for free when everyone was paying for expensive cars, gas and highway tolls.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#114

Post by i_am_a_peasant »

davesque wrote: post #59
dustfinger wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I have watched Star Trek: TNG all the way through 3 times with my kids already. They also love Deep Space 9.

DS9 is also great. I don't go through it as often but it's definitely in rotation.

I learned to love Sisko a lot more than Picard tbh. I find him much more relatable than some pretentious english-frenchman who gets weird around kids. I never understood why he’s such a jerk to Wesley in the beginning.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#117

Post by CodeArtisan »

Geocities had a ton of xfiles fansites https://geocities.restorativland.org/

(beware, has auto-playing audio!) https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/5795/

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/8406/main.htm

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/6601/

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/8616/

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/2133/

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Area51/2442/

and many more.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#119

Post by chickensong »

moregrist wrote: post #31
detribaby wrote: post #12

There are still lots of us alive who have experienced this. And to us, X-files felt high tech for the time. This was a time period when I think people were just waking up to powers of computers and technology, in particular alien tech, due to the incalculable complexities of ideating and creating magical electrical boxes - microprocessors. How could humans be capable of doing this, after all? One poster already menti…

What I remember most about the 90s was the overwhelming optimism. Technology was going to make our lives better and unlock opportunity, not take all our jobs and render us irrelevant. To me, the weirdest thing about the AI hype cycle is the inherent nihilism of it all. If there's one thing I miss, it's the optimism. I used to be enthusiastic about what the tech industry was doing and where it was going. > The larger…

Still somewhat optimistic here. It's easy to fixate on the negatives, and tech has brought many negatives for sure. It sometimes feels like governments and big business read all the dystopian sci-fi novels and turned those ideas into operational playbooks. But tech has brought many good things as well.

If you're a basic bitch consumer and complainer, that's on you. The world is hard, life is hard, humans are beautiful and terrible. These things don't change. But there are more options now, and it's never been easier to learn, explore, and DIY.

Besides all the nice luxuries like power tools and google maps and online shopping, my true optimism lies in digital data, transparency, and accountability. The powers that be of course are allergic to latter two, but tools are there now and we're slowly making inroads. There are real problems being solved across all industries that wouldn't be possible without technology.

Nostalgia is fine and all, and the 90s were certainly a more naive time of course, but it's not like everything was great and now it's terrible.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#120

Post by anthk »

scottious wrote: post #69
moregrist wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I remember most about the 90s was the overwhelming optimism. Technology was going to make our lives better and unlock opportunity, not take all our jobs and render us irrelevant. To me, the weirdest thing about the AI hype cycle is the inherent nihilism of it all. If there's one thing I miss, it's the optimism. I used to be enthusiastic about what the tech industry was doing and where it was going. > The larger…

I miss the optimism too. What drew me to tech was how it felt like we were trying to make people's lives better. These days, it feels like tech is primarily interested in extracting value from us. I guess this is nothing new. Profits at any cost, and all that. I don't know, I'm just kind of sad about all of it. Even though my smartphone is like 100x more powerful than my first computer, it still feels like something…

There's still that at usenet at comp.misc, comp.arch and so groups. Good discussions with almost no clickbaits and the like.
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