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It took less than 30 years for the V2 to evolve into Saturn V and moon landings. It wasn't crazy to think that in another 30 years, a full moon base could be b

by narag 3y ago

It took less than 30 years for the V2 to evolve into Saturn V and moon landings. It wasn't crazy to think that in another 30 years, a full moon base could be built, if only some economic or military incentives had existed.

hliyan 3y ago
Perhaps we're going through something similar with computing today. More likely that we're in a brief summer than at the foot of perpetual growth.
- incompatible 3y ago
  It feels more like "is civilisation as we know it even going to survive for another 30 years?"
  - aidenn0 3y ago
    It felt like that in the 70s too.
    - bregma 3y ago
      I think it was more like "will civilization last another 10 years?" in the 1970s. The atomic bomb was a button press away and the finger was hovering. The population bomb was constantly hovering. The draft saw your friends shipped off as cannon fodder and shipped home in boxes. Heroin addiction was rampant and violent crime was high in the bankrupt inner cities. State-sanctioned racism, sexism, and homophobia caused untold suffering domestically. Inflation was in the double digits until double-digit interest rates caused double-digit unemployment. The air was so polluted in cities you couldn't see, and the water so polluted rivers literally caught fire and burned for days. Then I think of my parents' generation. They grew up with literal Hitler dominating the news. For them, it was "will civilization last the year?". These are better days. Better days are shining through.
    - pgeorgi 3y ago
      The difference is that in the 70s, it was "civilization as we know it survives if only a few people at key points of power manage to keep themselves together" (i.e. not pull the trigger to MAD), while today "civilization as we know it survives if the society at large manages to refactor its consumption habits." The latter seems harder to get buy-in for.
arethuza 3y ago
Which is pretty much the plot of the excellent For All Mankind - basically how I expected things to progress when I was a young kid in the early 1970s.

by narag 3y ago

hliyan 3y ago

Perhaps we're going through something similar with computing today. More likely that we're in a brief summer than at the foot of perpetual growth.

incompatible 3y ago
It feels more like "is civilisation as we know it even going to survive for another 30 years?"
- aidenn0 3y ago
  It felt like that in the 70s too.
  - bregma 3y ago
    I think it was more like "will civilization last another 10 years?" in the 1970s. The atomic bomb was a button press away and the finger was hovering. The population bomb was constantly hovering. The draft saw your friends shipped off as cannon fodder and shipped home in boxes. Heroin addiction was rampant and violent crime was high in the bankrupt inner cities. State-sanctioned racism, sexism, and homophobia caused untold suffering domestically. Inflation was in the double digits until double-digit interest rates caused double-digit unemployment. The air was so polluted in cities you couldn't see, and the water so polluted rivers literally caught fire and burned for days. Then I think of my parents' generation. They grew up with literal Hitler dominating the news. For them, it was "will civilization last the year?". These are better days. Better days are shining through.
  - pgeorgi 3y ago
    The difference is that in the 70s, it was "civilization as we know it survives if only a few people at key points of power manage to keep themselves together" (i.e. not pull the trigger to MAD), while today "civilization as we know it survives if the society at large manages to refactor its consumption habits." The latter seems harder to get buy-in for.

arethuza 3y ago

Which is pretty much the plot of the excellent For All Mankind - basically how I expected things to progress when I was a young kid in the early 1970s.