4 ms·

Technology is massively overrated. We build the same things cheaper, more generically and long, long after they were first discovered. Electric cars were conc

Technology is massively overrated. We build the same things cheaper, more generically and long, long after they were first discovered. Electric cars were conceived in the 20s, Fusion in the late 1800s, face recognition in the 20s, ML in the 80s, ect. Cars used to be a variety of iconic shapes and designs, now they are one homogenized platform. Houses used to have a variety of rich architectural styles. Now all new builds have the same rendered concrete, flat walled, sharp edges, soviet style. The internet has automated away our consciousness and conscience, people forgo long term memory of skills for rapid-response look-ups of trivial facts and submit to an endless cycle of similar concepts regurgitated. Truly educational literature has been replaced with an ocean of devouring forms to fill out. Finding literature and written (let's be honest, typed up or generated) content that gives not takes, to the reader is getting rarer statisticaly. Cinema is being replaced with lesser quality home theatres. Dating has been replaced with a 'meat market' app. Duty, heirarchy, order, meaning have all been drained out and people are wasting time on devices designed to mirror their consumption. Computing and software has been subtly manipulated to force users to think as the software provider does, and to waste their time brutally, if they do not. Agent Smith is more relatable everyday. It really became the machines' society when they did the thinking for us. It is deeply sad to watch people waste conceptual power, like a dog returning to it's sick.

ben_w 3y ago
It's tempting to think so, but that's not at all right. > Cars used to be a variety of iconic shapes and designs, now they are one homogenized platform. I don't see this. They're pretty diverse in form now, from the "star trek shuttlecraft" look of people carriers and boxy form of the Hummer and similar SUVs, the low-slung form of road sports cars, the cute bubble that is the Microlino, etc. > Houses used to have a variety of rich architectural styles. Now all new builds have the same rendered concrete, flat walled, sharp edges, soviet style. I'm in East Berlin, so I get to see soviet style up close a lot. Surprisingly, this is often a better look than the Brutalist style in the UK in the same era: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5158104,13.4533347,3a,75y,279.94h,114.72t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRcwgcHzTELneWeB0SBHVdA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DRcwgcHzTELneWeB0SBHVdA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D120.65466%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5158104,13.4533347,3a,75y,27... (of course, this may just be "the bad ones got taken down, or remodelled, or looked so bad those bits of the city are places nobody has reason to go to — which are all things I suspect of making the past seem rosier than it was). Importantly though, it's also not at all like the modern stuff going up in former parking lots etc.; and when I wander the older parts of the city and suburbs I see many repetitions of the older styles. Also I think you may have edited the order without checking the dates, fusion was first demonstrated in 1930s not late 1800s[0], electric cars were 1820s which I guess is still "20s", etc. [0] we were still arguing about if atoms existed until Einstein's brownian motion paper in 1905, and didn't have E=mc^2 to suggest there was any point to fusion even to those who accepted the atomic model until his other, more famous, 1905 paper… but even that wasn't enough as we didn't know about the mass difference until (IIRC) 1920. I suppose you might have meant "radioactivity" in general? That was Becquerel and the Curies in 1896. (Sounds like a good name for a band…)

ben_w 3y ago

It's tempting to think so, but that's not at all right. > Cars used to be a variety of iconic shapes and designs, now they are one homogenized platform. I don't see this. They're pretty diverse in form now, from the "star trek shuttlecraft" look of people carriers and boxy form of the Hummer and similar SUVs, the low-slung form of road sports cars, the cute bubble that is the Microlino, etc. > Houses used to have a variety of rich architectural styles. Now all new builds have the same rendered concrete, flat walled, sharp edges, soviet style. I'm in East Berlin, so I get to see soviet style up close a lot. Surprisingly, this is often a better look than the Brutalist style in the UK in the same era: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5158104,13.4533347,3a,75y,279.94h,114.72t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRcwgcHzTELneWeB0SBHVdA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DRcwgcHzTELneWeB0SBHVdA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D120.65466%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5158104,13.4533347,3a,75y,27... (of course, this may just be "the bad ones got taken down, or remodelled, or looked so bad those bits of the city are places nobody has reason to go to — which are all things I suspect of making the past seem rosier than it was). Importantly though, it's also not at all like the modern stuff going up in former parking lots etc.; and when I wander the older parts of the city and suburbs I see many repetitions of the older styles. Also I think you may have edited the order without checking the dates, fusion was first demonstrated in 1930s not late 1800s[0], electric cars were 1820s which I guess is still "20s", etc. [0] we were still arguing about if atoms existed until Einstein's brownian motion paper in 1905, and didn't have E=mc^2 to suggest there was any point to fusion even to those who accepted the atomic model until his other, more famous, 1905 paper… but even that wasn't enough as we didn't know about the mass difference until (IIRC) 1920. I suppose you might have meant "radioactivity" in general? That was Becquerel and the Curies in 1896. (Sounds like a good name for a band…)