2 ms·

> isn’t it “just more of the same” of what was going on in 1997 Yes. That's what I thought when I read it. And not so turned up, actually. Bird flu was '97. R

> isn’t it “just more of the same” of what was going on in 1997 Yes. That's what I thought when I read it. And not so turned up, actually. Bird flu was '97. Russia was "embracing capitalism" in the form of a kleptocracy. There was impending climate catastrophe. China was clearly an economic juggernaut and there would be future tensions with the US because of that. We'd been proclaiming peak oil for years by then. New tech never lives up to its hype. The crime/terrorism one seems like a near miss to me. On terror, they couldn't have guessed the response to 9/11, though domestic terrorism was already on the rise by then. On crime more generally, rates over all are lower now. And I have no idea what stopping progress, "dead in its tracks" or not, even means. But it sounds very Wired.

abraxas 4y ago
I disagree. As someone born in the early seventies I was already an adult in 1997. The problems did exist back then but the scale of them was different and hence was the focus and so the mood of the population not just in America but in places like Eastern Europe, Asia and hell, even the Middle East was that of unbridled optimism. Sure, Africa was a mess and South America wasn't a lot of fun but the mood after the end of the cold War was jubilant to the level I don't recall before or since. It culminated in the dotcom mania of 1999. But somehow it all made sense. We all read Kurzweil and believed it. I bemoan young people who never got to experience this brief and obviously misguided period of euphoria but it was so much fun while it lasted :)