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Edison invented his lightbulb less than 150 years ago. Before that we used candles and gas lights for indoor lighting. Half of US homes didn’t have electricit

Edison invented his lightbulb less than 150 years ago. Before that we used candles and gas lights for indoor lighting. Half of US homes didn’t have electricity until 1925. https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-... We seem to have become complacent with progress, and don’t make quite the same effort. For example, commercial supersonic flight became available when I was a kid, and we lost it 2 decades ago. We haven’t been to the moon since the 1970s.

meindnoch 4y ago
We haven't built too many pyramids or Gothic cathedrals either in the past few hundred years. Does that mean we couldn't anymore? Nope. We just don't bother, because we have better use of the necessary resources.
- melling 4y ago
  No one wants to fly supersonic commercially? Isn’t that simply a matter of being available and affordable?
  - qwytw 4y ago
    Also physics. Supersonic travel is prohibitively expensive because it requires exponentially more energy than flying at ~900 km/h. More efficient engines can't really change that much..
    - MichaelZuo 4y ago
      Clearly millions, if not billions, of people would want to fly supersonically if they could afford it.
      - qwytw 4y ago
        I wouldn't mind a Gothic cathedral if I could get one for cheap and maintenance didn't cost anything. At the end Concorde failed because it was mainly a status symbol (for the governments, airlines and passengers). As long as subsonic remained considerably cheaper (and it probably would because of physics) I'm convinced most people would still ussually choose it even if supersonic became more affordable. I mean it's like saying most people would prefer to fly first class if it was more affordable, well.. obviously.
- NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
  We couldn't even build a Saturn V booster again! Do you know in the Bible, when Pharaoh took away the strawmen from the Hebrews so they had to make bricks without it? The Hebrews knew more about building pyramids than we do. There are endless pseudo-documentaries about how we think and surmise and suppose that the pyramids were built, but we don't actually know. So many of the basic and intermediate and advanced processes and materials have been lost, that we literally can't figure it out. Easter Island? Stonehenge? Lots of ink is spilled just on how the ancients moved stones, carved them, and set them vertically in place, without cranes or forklifts or power tools. Interesting you should mention Gothic cathedrals. Antoni Gaudí built masterful models and plans for the Sagrada Família (which is not a cathedral, but a basilica), and the models and plans were destroyed and pillaged during the Spanish Revolution and Francoist suppression of Catalan culture. So the church which you see being completed in this century is the best architectural guess at what Gaudí intended. The construction is based on reconstructions. And I guarantee that the artisanal methods being employed are vanishingly rare, both in skill and material, and it is more difficult to preserve continuity of training and knowledge through the generations.
  - msla 4y ago
    > Do you know in the Bible, when Pharaoh took away the strawmen from the Hebrews so they had to make bricks without it? Yes, that's an origin myth with no basis in fact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Exodus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Exodus > Mainstream scholarship no longer accepts the biblical Exodus account as historical for a number of reasons.
satvikpendem 4y ago
I wonder why people continue to use the possessive s for years (1970's what?). It's 1970s.
- melling 4y ago
  Pattern recognition. I’m using the pattern I’ve seen and not the rule. For example, many people say “anyways” instead of “anyway” for this same reason. I will correct my mistake. Thanks.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    No worries, wasn't trying to rag on you, was just curious. More generally for the pattern recognition point, I've tried to get a good grasp of Grammer myself and question why certain phrases are phrased that way. The English Stack Exchange site is one of my most visited ones, I believe, it's pretty nice.
- thfuran 4y ago
  My guess would be that a lot of people saw '70s, and eventually enough of them got things mixed up in the same way that the error became self-perpetuating.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    Yep, apostrophes replace characters. The apostrophe in '70s replaces the 19 in 1970s. For contractions like "it's," it replaces the i in "it is."
- biorach 4y ago
  It's actually established, if somewhat controversial, usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Numbers_and_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Numbers_and_symbols > While many guides discourage using an apostrophe in all numbers/dates, many other guides encourage using an apostrophe for numbers or are divided on the issue

meindnoch 4y ago

We haven't built too many pyramids or Gothic cathedrals either in the past few hundred years. Does that mean we couldn't anymore? Nope. We just don't bother, because we have better use of the necessary resources.

melling 4y ago
No one wants to fly supersonic commercially? Isn’t that simply a matter of being available and affordable?
- qwytw 4y ago
  Also physics. Supersonic travel is prohibitively expensive because it requires exponentially more energy than flying at ~900 km/h. More efficient engines can't really change that much..
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    Clearly millions, if not billions, of people would want to fly supersonically if they could afford it.
    - qwytw 4y ago
      I wouldn't mind a Gothic cathedral if I could get one for cheap and maintenance didn't cost anything. At the end Concorde failed because it was mainly a status symbol (for the governments, airlines and passengers). As long as subsonic remained considerably cheaper (and it probably would because of physics) I'm convinced most people would still ussually choose it even if supersonic became more affordable. I mean it's like saying most people would prefer to fly first class if it was more affordable, well.. obviously.
NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
We couldn't even build a Saturn V booster again! Do you know in the Bible, when Pharaoh took away the strawmen from the Hebrews so they had to make bricks without it? The Hebrews knew more about building pyramids than we do. There are endless pseudo-documentaries about how we think and surmise and suppose that the pyramids were built, but we don't actually know. So many of the basic and intermediate and advanced processes and materials have been lost, that we literally can't figure it out. Easter Island? Stonehenge? Lots of ink is spilled just on how the ancients moved stones, carved them, and set them vertically in place, without cranes or forklifts or power tools. Interesting you should mention Gothic cathedrals. Antoni Gaudí built masterful models and plans for the Sagrada Família (which is not a cathedral, but a basilica), and the models and plans were destroyed and pillaged during the Spanish Revolution and Francoist suppression of Catalan culture. So the church which you see being completed in this century is the best architectural guess at what Gaudí intended. The construction is based on reconstructions. And I guarantee that the artisanal methods being employed are vanishingly rare, both in skill and material, and it is more difficult to preserve continuity of training and knowledge through the generations.
- msla 4y ago
  > Do you know in the Bible, when Pharaoh took away the strawmen from the Hebrews so they had to make bricks without it? Yes, that's an origin myth with no basis in fact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Exodus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Exodus > Mainstream scholarship no longer accepts the biblical Exodus account as historical for a number of reasons.

satvikpendem 4y ago

I wonder why people continue to use the possessive s for years (1970's what?). It's 1970s.

melling 4y ago
Pattern recognition. I’m using the pattern I’ve seen and not the rule. For example, many people say “anyways” instead of “anyway” for this same reason. I will correct my mistake. Thanks.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  No worries, wasn't trying to rag on you, was just curious. More generally for the pattern recognition point, I've tried to get a good grasp of Grammer myself and question why certain phrases are phrased that way. The English Stack Exchange site is one of my most visited ones, I believe, it's pretty nice.
thfuran 4y ago
My guess would be that a lot of people saw '70s, and eventually enough of them got things mixed up in the same way that the error became self-perpetuating.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  Yep, apostrophes replace characters. The apostrophe in '70s replaces the 19 in 1970s. For contractions like "it's," it replaces the i in "it is."
biorach 4y ago
It's actually established, if somewhat controversial, usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Numbers_and_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Numbers_and_symbols > While many guides discourage using an apostrophe in all numbers/dates, many other guides encourage using an apostrophe for numbers or are divided on the issue