Comment on Existing Absurd Technologies

Tue, 31 May 2011 14:45:05 GMT

I wondered about that too, and I think your parents may have a point.

We humans have been into space, we landed on the moon, we built computers that destroy humans at chess, we have the entire Internet in our pocket, we have Avatar in the cinema and Crysis on our computers, we read genes, we created synthetic life, we print transplantable bladders and blood vessels, we have self-driving cars, and we mass-produce transistors just 220 hydrogen atoms wide -- but so what?

People died of cancer in 1960, and they still do.

Drunk drivers ran over people in 1960, and they still do.

There was violent crime in 1960, and it's still here.

Politicians were inefficient and corrupt in 1960, and they still are.

To normal people (like your parents and many of my normal friends), an ordinary human life essentially remains the same no matter how drastically human technology improves. Birth, childhood (good or bad), school with friendships and bullies, marriage, nine-to-five job, retirement, grandchildren, death.

Perhaps this is what's going on with your parents -- and with a lot of my "normal" friends and coworkers.

Discuss