4 ms·
The time between about 1860 and 1910 seems totally magical to me. For all of history, people lived, loved, and died. Aside from perhaps a few of them writing t
by DanielBMarkham 14y ago
The time between about 1860 and 1910 seems totally magical to me.
For all of history, people lived, loved, and died. Aside from perhaps a few of them writing their thoughts down, they totally disappeared.
With the invention of still photography, and much more audio and moving-picture recording technology, suddenly you could see and hear people who were long gone.
These folks are not just dead. Their kids are dead, their grandkids are dead, their great-grandkids are probably also gone. Yet we are able to hear them play music, tell stories, and laugh. They might even tell a joke and we can laugh along with it.
It's as if mankind suddenly came out of a very dark tunnel. We are finally able to really coalesce into a multi-generational conversation about what our humanity means. (A little too poetic. Apologies. I just find it amazing)
- ncd 14y agoNo, it's not too poetic--it strikes just the right chord and really resonated with me. Wealthy patrician Romans used to keep busts of their ancestors in a hallway in the entrance to their home to keep them (and their guests) reminded about whence they came. We might be able to do something similar for our ancestors, except with "living" imagery and audio. Imagine being able to watch a clip of your great-great-great grandfather and hearing him speak! That's what future generations have to look forward to.
- JasonFruit 14y agoI'm with you --- it was an amazing transformation in our link to the past. But don't underestimate the power of written language to carry on that multi-generational conversation. We can read the thoughts of people who died thousands of years ago, and we still have a lot to learn from them.
- ExpiredLink 14y agoYou just discovered transitoriness of being.
- dhughes 14y agoI wonder if the late 1990s to roughly now will be seen as a audio, video, still picture dark ages of sorts. The average consumer was astounded by low quality mp3 audio over a record, cassette tape or later on compact disc. Sort of like fast food, convenience over quality. It's also the same for photography I remember the first digital cameras and they had horrible resolution and colour depth but it was amazing to have a film-less camera. Video being a close cousin to pictures got worse in quality too but more affordable and convenient no more giant saddle bag and shoulder-crushing camera. Looking back years from now family pictures and audio will be great up to roughly the mid 1990s then from then on until the early 2000s the bottom fell out.
- Retric 14y agoWhile I know the 1950's had high quality radio all I have heard is recordings which tend to have all sorts of problems so that's not how I picture it. So, even though mp3 might seem like poor quality they don't degrade and in 100 years it may seem like we finally got rid of all that hissing and popping. As to video, home movies have gotten steadily better. A 1990 handycam is in many ways worse than what you can get from an iPad 3. PS: Not to mention people tend to compress history as it get's older, out side of historians who can really separate the 1180's from the 1190's in Ireland?
- netcan 14y agoI think dark ages is a bit strong. Especially since a lot of the pictures from the earlier part of that period using the then inferior technology are mostly surplus photos. IE photos that would have been taken using film were still mostly being taken using film. Digital photos were/are surplus photos. I take a lot of pictures now on my phone. I took very few pictures before one year ago (when I got my first camera phone).
- NPC82 14y ago>Their kids are dead, their grandkids are dead, their great-grandkids are probably also gone. Well, my grandma was born in 1919. Close enough?