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I think about "Progress" at Disney World with Epcot and the Carousel of progress; and the historical markers for world fairs and regional expositions. I hope th

I think about "Progress" at Disney World with Epcot and the Carousel of progress; and the historical markers for world fairs and regional expositions. I hope that Musk might make an attraction when he retires. (Or had bought 6 flags instead of this Twitter "fun" - it has a $2b market cap) That said, the Internet offers these expositiins, more accessible - Kickstarter, startengine, Tesla digital showrooms, YouTube. And the world really has continued to advance since the doubters of 1935. - Space ships and satellites, 30 years of ISS - diesel electric locomotives that haul more and require less maintenance than 50 steam locomotives. Electric metro trains. - solar power, even if to power "just" a phone - cell phones with gps and satellites, ready access to the Internet with YouTube across the world, cameras, 4k, messaging - the led, the lcd, infrared, cryo - some level of self driving cars, safety in cars, any car that can go 300 miles, any car that can last 50k, 100k miles. - modern plastics, composites, clothing, consumer air conditioning

PostOnce 4y ago
We cured polio, eradicated smallpox, invented the television, the computer, got one into every home, brought about jet travel, radar, used said radar to predict weather and heat food, stopped AIDS, cured more than one cancer, invented the laser, used it to communicate faster than anyone could have imagined and to entertain cats. We're not even started. Why, just last week my computer learned English well enough to paint whatever I could ask it to. We literally have Star Trek universal translators now and they're under $100.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  We also let a series of diseases go from "essentially eradicated" to "resurgent threat." Used mass media to foment genocide, civil unrest, and terrorism. Jet travel benefits very few people overall but is a significant contributor to climate change, and airports are a major localized source of air, water, and noise pollution concentrated on the populations that benefit least from air travel. We predict the weather but refuse to act on that knowledge to prevent wide-scale misery and death. These things are all amazing technological accomplishments but it's not actually clear yet if most of them are overall improvements for the quality of life of most people, if you extend your "we" out to the entire world rather than just the most affluent quartile of the wealthiest nations. I'm not trying to completely dismiss these things either, or say they don't or can't ever have positive effects. But just because they're impressive accomplishments doesn't mean they represent progress for the species per se.
  - Octabrain 4y ago
    We humans are quite imperfect creatures. To expect a perfect outcome from humanity it's naive at best. I am not saying that your points are incorrect nor I disagree. I just want to state that, considering past history, we should be really grateful and not take things for granted.

PostOnce 4y ago

We cured polio, eradicated smallpox, invented the television, the computer, got one into every home, brought about jet travel, radar, used said radar to predict weather and heat food, stopped AIDS, cured more than one cancer, invented the laser, used it to communicate faster than anyone could have imagined and to entertain cats. We're not even started. Why, just last week my computer learned English well enough to paint whatever I could ask it to. We literally have Star Trek universal translators now and they're under $100.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
We also let a series of diseases go from "essentially eradicated" to "resurgent threat." Used mass media to foment genocide, civil unrest, and terrorism. Jet travel benefits very few people overall but is a significant contributor to climate change, and airports are a major localized source of air, water, and noise pollution concentrated on the populations that benefit least from air travel. We predict the weather but refuse to act on that knowledge to prevent wide-scale misery and death. These things are all amazing technological accomplishments but it's not actually clear yet if most of them are overall improvements for the quality of life of most people, if you extend your "we" out to the entire world rather than just the most affluent quartile of the wealthiest nations. I'm not trying to completely dismiss these things either, or say they don't or can't ever have positive effects. But just because they're impressive accomplishments doesn't mean they represent progress for the species per se.
- Octabrain 4y ago
  We humans are quite imperfect creatures. To expect a perfect outcome from humanity it's naive at best. I am not saying that your points are incorrect nor I disagree. I just want to state that, considering past history, we should be really grateful and not take things for granted.