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Subjectively it feels sorta true for a 40 year old, but I bet it pales in comparison to WW2. Large portions of many nations perished, and their kin had to rebu

by chubot 6y ago

Subjectively it feels sorta true for a 40 year old, but I bet it pales in comparison to WW2. Large portions of many nations perished, and their kin had to rebuild society. Nuclear weapons were deployed for the first time. The fact that we even recovered from it is amazing (although some didn't, certainly). I live in the US because my grandparents' generation lost the war. And the US has a generation named after the effects of the war (baby boomers). I remember reading the phrase "post war" dozens or hundreds of times as a child, but it took awhile for the reality of it to sink in.

Ericson2314 6y ago
Agreed. Maybe biggest since WWII, certainly not biggest ever. Climate change is terrible but because it's smooth (even if superlinear) it's hard to ascribe hinginess to a specific moment. C.f. altitude vs geographic prominence. Also, I think the fear of A.I. has distorted the fact the outward rate of change has declined massively from say the "special century" of 1870-1970, even if it has picked back up a bit in recent years.
Robotbeat 6y ago
Agreed. Every great power today was profoundly molded by it. America & Soviet Union became the sole superpowers. It basically decided the communist government of China. It eventually set free the other next great powers, such as India and Nigeria, from colonial rule. The impact on technology was equally profound. The computer, radar, the jet, the turbo pumped liquid rocket, the drone, the atomic bomb... I mean, an entirely new source of energy was first harnessed (really the first since the invention of fire) and the first human made object was sent (briefly) into space...
XorNot 6y ago
This is all an argument that there were perceptually worse times before, so how could it be bad now? WW2 setup an era defined by one very unusual property: the absolute dominance of the United States and it's economy as the global hegemon. But the US is not adapted to the notion that what it achieved from that era was a set of historically unique advantages that are not a property of "American exceptionalusm" but rather what you get when you're one of the few nations on the planet which didn't have its cities bombed.

by chubot 6y ago

Ericson2314 6y ago

Agreed. Maybe biggest since WWII, certainly not biggest ever. Climate change is terrible but because it's smooth (even if superlinear) it's hard to ascribe hinginess to a specific moment. C.f. altitude vs geographic prominence. Also, I think the fear of A.I. has distorted the fact the outward rate of change has declined massively from say the "special century" of 1870-1970, even if it has picked back up a bit in recent years.

Robotbeat 6y ago

Agreed. Every great power today was profoundly molded by it. America & Soviet Union became the sole superpowers. It basically decided the communist government of China. It eventually set free the other next great powers, such as India and Nigeria, from colonial rule. The impact on technology was equally profound. The computer, radar, the jet, the turbo pumped liquid rocket, the drone, the atomic bomb... I mean, an entirely new source of energy was first harnessed (really the first since the invention of fire) and the first human made object was sent (briefly) into space...

XorNot 6y ago

This is all an argument that there were perceptually worse times before, so how could it be bad now? WW2 setup an era defined by one very unusual property: the absolute dominance of the United States and it's economy as the global hegemon. But the US is not adapted to the notion that what it achieved from that era was a set of historically unique advantages that are not a property of "American exceptionalusm" but rather what you get when you're one of the few nations on the planet which didn't have its cities bombed.