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I think it's often taken for granted just how much humanity has kicked ass over the past 200 years, technologically speaking. Motors, antibiotics, airplanes, s

I think it's often taken for granted just how much humanity has kicked ass over the past 200 years, technologically speaking. Motors, antibiotics, airplanes, skyscrapers, computers, the moon landing.... It's just crazy compared with any other era of human existence.

bdamm 5y ago
And how much of that is due to progressive and functional forms of government? Seems like a great deal of it really.
BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago
I often wonder if we’ve hit a plateau and are just waiting for some major breakthrough, or, if we’ve got about as good of a command of physics and chemistry as we can that it’s much slower progress from here on out.
- afr0ck 5y ago
  AI and Quantum Computing comes into mind for the next era of inventions.
  - varjag 5y ago
    AI's been on the list since before the space flight tho.
colechristensen 5y ago
We just take for granted the “moon landings” of previous eras. Things like cities with 100,000 people, running water, sewers, having a functioning economy over hundreds or thousands of miles… there are many accomplishments growing past complicated animals with pointy sticks to civilization.
- mastax 5y ago
  Even prehistoric humans were trading metals and pottery (and other things that decomposed and left no evidence, surely) over thousands of miles. It's easy to forget that they were as intelligent as we are but did not have Isaac Newton's shoulders to stand on.
- tomnipotent 5y ago
  Sewers and paved roads are what really boggles my mind, most in the last half-century. Or that China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century. We're living in an era where things like the Great Wall of China or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are created on a regular basis. I just hope this progress isn't sigmoid shaped, or that we've more than passed the half-way mark.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  Most of this is due to progress, but part is due to the way Western European nations dominated the globe and destroyed some pretty advanced civilisations. Some pretty impressive progress was essentially wiped out by colonialism.

bdamm 5y ago

And how much of that is due to progressive and functional forms of government? Seems like a great deal of it really.

BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago

I often wonder if we’ve hit a plateau and are just waiting for some major breakthrough, or, if we’ve got about as good of a command of physics and chemistry as we can that it’s much slower progress from here on out.

afr0ck 5y ago
AI and Quantum Computing comes into mind for the next era of inventions.
- varjag 5y ago
  AI's been on the list since before the space flight tho.

colechristensen 5y ago

We just take for granted the “moon landings” of previous eras. Things like cities with 100,000 people, running water, sewers, having a functioning economy over hundreds or thousands of miles… there are many accomplishments growing past complicated animals with pointy sticks to civilization.

mastax 5y ago
Even prehistoric humans were trading metals and pottery (and other things that decomposed and left no evidence, surely) over thousands of miles. It's easy to forget that they were as intelligent as we are but did not have Isaac Newton's shoulders to stand on.
tomnipotent 5y ago
Sewers and paved roads are what really boggles my mind, most in the last half-century. Or that China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century. We're living in an era where things like the Great Wall of China or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are created on a regular basis. I just hope this progress isn't sigmoid shaped, or that we've more than passed the half-way mark.
lostlogin 5y ago
Most of this is due to progress, but part is due to the way Western European nations dominated the globe and destroyed some pretty advanced civilisations. Some pretty impressive progress was essentially wiped out by colonialism.