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The idea that the limit would happen to be just beyond where it was earlier in our lives reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote: "I've come up with a set of rules
by chc 9y ago
The idea that the limit would happen to be just beyond where it was earlier in our lives reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote:
"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
"1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
"2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
"3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
- coldtea 9y ago>The idea that the limit would happen to be just beyond where it was earlier in our lives reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote: If it's a technological limit, it will always be "just beyond where it was earlier in our lives", so that's a tautology. One discovers such limits as you get to them -- you only get to be able to say "too much" after the ability you think is too-much has been invented. Heck, perhaps dead guys from centuries ago would have thought of it too much if we've described it to them, we just can't now. For other limits, that don't arise as some technology just becomes available, what's too much is not necessarily "just beyond where it was earlier in our lives". E.g. it took us 60+ years of merrily driving away before the LA smog became intolerable back in the 70s/80s. Pollution of the 50s levels was already beginning to be "too much" but we didn't know it yet. But even someone in the 80s would have easily agreed to that -- that a previous era had the optimum, and not just what they were used to.