this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My Great Grandfather lived that change. He went from walking, horses and buggies, steam engines, with no telephones or electricity, to sitting on a couch next to me and watching the first Apollo moon landing. He saw more insane changes to this world than we will ever probably see. But.....

It took 2 world wars and millions of dead to drive all that change in that time period of one life. War is the great driver of technological leaps. I'm not sure I feel the need to drive tech advances that fast at the cost of all those lives. Slow and steady might be a better path to travel.

Still, within my lifetime, which much like my Great Grandfather I'm nearing the end of, there have been great changes that everyone just takes for granted. The internet has caused a great disruption in the world. You have access to nearly all the information this world has in an instant. No matter where you are. No more going to a library to look up outdated information in a card catalogue. You can talk to nearly anyone on this planet at any time. When I grew up, we had a party line we shared with 5 other families. And using that phone was expensive. You got billed for each phone call for the duration of that call. You can do business with almost every business on this planet directly. Or Amazon/Walmart/Temu yourself to death if you want. All we had as the Sears or Wards catalogue to mail order from. And then you waited a month to get your order.

You can affordably travel to London, Paris, Tokyo, and nearly everywhere else in a matter of hours. There are re-usable space rockets now. And while the stars might still be just out of reach, there is nowhere in the solar system we can't go if we really want to. The planets are ours for the taking as soon as we want them. Even true self driving cars are a solid possibility now.

Those are just a few of the things I've seen change. And there are many more. But we seldom notice and just take them for granted.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But what if...

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 9 points 2 days ago

MFW I’m in a technology singularity racing full bore toward its conclusion.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The Brooklyn Bridge and the battle of Little Bighorn happened the same year. And there were Native Americans who fought in the battle that were still alive to see man walk on the moon. So in the span of one lifetime we went from Custard’s last stand, to one giant leap for all mankind.

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[–] realitista@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Fossil fuels are a hell of a drug.

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[–] phdeeznuts@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

I'm certainly not.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Now picture it without fossil fuels giving us a 100:1 EROEI

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[–] neuromorph@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (17 children)

The chariot lasting as high tech for 3800 years has some part to do with the dark ages.....

[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Chariots wasn't really high tech unless for a relatively brief period of time a couple of millenia ago. They are not very suitable for combat. They can be fast though.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Chariots were an extremely effective weapon, they lasted so long for a reason?

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[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

otoh, people in both eras used gas powered cars, telephones, telegraphs, and manual typewriters. They could both go to movies, ride trains, and take ocean voyages.

A person from 1903 would need a few days to adapt themselves to 1969 technology.

But someone from 1969 coming into 2025 would be lost. Most people in 1969 didn't use credit cards, and had never seen an ATM. They used rotary phones and antenna TV.

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