# It's the 21st century. I can't believe we still... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 5, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126 "2009-12-05T20:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/41 "2009-12-07T05:30:10Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > And Homophobia. It’s the 21st century. I can’t believe we still have to have a civil rights movement in America. And that it’s still a 50/50 split issue. Yep. I couldn’t believe it when prop 8 went through. It’s like if one day it was announced that witch-hunts were to resume. “Witch hunts make no sense from a rational point of view…you can’t win a ‘debate’ about the sanity of witch-hunts. But hey, much of the electorate thinks they’re a good idea, so motion passed…” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/42 "2009-12-07T14:03:40Z")
How cme we don’t have Orgasmatrons? i mean, you step into a cabinet with a friend, push a button, and get an immediate and explosive orgasm? Surely we have the technology for that? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/43 "2009-12-07T14:16:36Z")
We do, bit it doesn’t require a friend, costs $200, and 10 bucks a minute. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/44 "2009-12-07T14:42:36Z")
have to extract blood from ourselves and put it in banks to store for when our fellow humans need it, depending on our humanitarianism for their lives, because if we don’t donate blood they might die, and if we have done something that puts our health at risk, it puts our unknown recipients at risk too. Where’s the quality synthetic blood? ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/45 "2009-12-07T15:24:12Z")
Moon bases. Where are the moon bases? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/46 "2009-12-07T16:04:45Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > have to extract blood from ourselves and put it in banks to store for when our fellow humans need it, depending on our humanitarianism for their lives, because if we don’t donate blood they might die, and if we have done something that puts our health at risk, it puts our unknown recipients at risk too. Where’s the quality synthetic blood? Good one. Hopefully synthetic blood will be the norm by the end of the next decade, based on articles like [this](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientists-to-create-synthetic-blood-1651715.html). * * * Note some of the nonsense that abounds even in a relatively respectable newspaper like The Independent: > [@The Independent](#): > > But developing blood made from the cells of spare IVF embryos will raise difficult ethical issues for people not happy with the idea of destroying embryos to create stem cells. In this scenario, they are _not_ destroying embryos for stem cells. So the argument is moot. …except that many pro-lifers seem to see it as far better to destroy extra IVF embroys than use them for something before destroying them. > [@The Independent](#): > > It also raises the intriguing philosophical question of whether the synthetic blood will have come from someone who never existed. Yes, I can think of similar intriguing philosophical questions. If you have a blood transfusion, using someone’s blood _who’s died since giving blood_, is that blood coming from someone that _doesn’t exist_? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/47 "2009-12-07T16:08:34Z")
This is just a head-scratcher to me. I’m a 13-gallon blood donor, and every time I do it, I think _this should not be necessary_. It’s just so primitive. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/48 "2009-12-07T16:18:13Z")
I can’t believe that so many people are still opposed to having their organs donated after their bodies are dead; and that millions of people are enslaved. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/49 "2009-12-07T16:51:23Z")
… we still have to sit at stop lights. Why can’t we have cars that navigate themselves and negotiate with other approaching cars so that stopping is not required? While I am spit-balling, this mythical car might as well fly too. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/50 "2009-12-07T17:15:55Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > \ Where’s the quality synthetic blood? Quality synthetic meat, too. I want my vat-grown steak and pork chops already! ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/51 "2009-12-07T17:36:37Z")
Re umbrellas: I have been waiting for force fields since childhood. I never have enough hands for an umbrella. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/52 "2009-12-07T18:26:18Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Quality synthetic meat, too. I want my vat-grown steak and pork chops already! I _Really_ wanna see Peta’s take on that. It looks like pork, it tastes like pork, but it’s NOT PORK. There’s also some enthusiasm for this technology as it would be quite a bit more efficient than growing feed, feeding critters, dealing with the byproducts, and killing 'em. I can’t believe I still have to plug in my phone once a day to get it to last 24 hours. (Yeah, it’s an iPhone, and it does lots of stuff, but still.) I’ve got a battery that will let my netbook run for 10 hours, it doubles the weight of the laptop. I want one that DOESN’T weigh 1.5 lbs and lets it run for a week. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/53 "2009-12-07T20:29:29Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Instinctively? Even granting a loose poetic license, I can’t agree that anyone \*instinctively \*blesses anyone. I can say that this was the first social convention that Celtling adopted, even before “please” or “thank you.” . . . have painful menstrual periods. I mean really, we can’t do something about this by now? . . . have no simple way to get baby, groceries and misc. accoutrements from car to house and back again. Where’s my hover-board carrying device? Or at least a reliable collapsible personal grocery cart? Sheesh! . . . are allowing anyone to argue against informing our children of how their bodies work. Seriously? A young girl doesn’t have the right to understand human reproduction unless her parents sign a form? Could we at least offer a free class to 18-year-olds (of both sexes) who missed out due to parental stupidity?!? . . . involve ourselves in marriage on a Governmental level. Here’s a thought, let’s provide benefits to people whoa re raising children, for the support and education of the children, and let the adults sort themselves out on their own. There’s no need to provide any societal impetus for childless couples to marry. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/54 "2009-12-07T20:48:56Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > . . . involve ourselves in marriage on a Governmental level. Here’s a thought, let’s provide benefits to people whoa re raising children, for the support and education of the children, and let the adults sort themselves out on their own. There’s no need to provide any societal impetus for childless couples to marry. Yep, in the UK it seems we’re about to get _more_ tax breaks for married couples. So in many cases, we’re giving tax breaks to DINK (dual-income, no kids) households, who may only differ from long-term unmarried couples in that they could afford a wedding, engagement ring etc. (I’m probably spoiling this thread by constantly chirping in with my take. But I can’t help it, and it’s _my_ thread anyways :D) ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/55 "2009-12-08T04:00:47Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > …use umbrellas – they just look so _primitive_, and they can be worse than . Not only that, but the umbrella I borrowed today for 40 minutes on the parent pickup line leaked in the middle. Who makes an umbrella that actually leaks??? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/56 "2009-12-08T04:13:30Z")
I want my own personal grocery cart, too. My grocery stores are the perfect distance away for a nice walk - except when I need milk, which is always. Then I have to drag the inconvenient old lady shopping cart along with me (and since we moved to a hillier neighbourhood, I have to drag it back, loaded, up all those hills). I also vote for more personal involvement in government - when my city decides to close a road, I would like everyone to be able to vote on it (hint - everyone who doesn’t live on that road will vote to keep it open so we can use the damned roads to drive on, already). Uh, just for an example, that is. Send us an email on the referendum - if you care enough to vote, you vote. If you don’t care, you don’t vote and you don’t get to bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/57 "2009-12-08T04:16:32Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I can’t believe that so many people are still opposed to having their organs donated after their bodies are dead; > and that millions of people are enslaved. I think the biggest fear of donating organs is that the doctor will say “well, this guy has a 10% chance of survival. But, I know 100% that I can use 90% of his organs, including his [face](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_transplant). Let’s do it!” I know they aren’t supposed to do that, but then again… ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/58 "2009-12-08T04:29:04Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I’m not ethnocentric, and let me ask you is a culture that pratices cannibalism, human sacrifice, and etc. not savageic? I never said you were. But the word “savage” implies that someone’s cultural practices are inherently inferior to one’s own. Hence, it is an ethnocentric term. I’m also gonna ask for a cite for the cannibalism and human sacrifice. Although even if they _did_ practice these things, who cares? Some cannibalistic, etc., societies kept these practices contained within their own. There are societies where consuming a dead relative is considered an honor: the better you know the person, the more of them you eat. And if they’re only being “savage” to themselves, why bother trying to change them? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/59 "2009-12-08T04:44:07Z")
I’m still waiting for the-house-that-cleans-itself (just a Roomba won’t do), and where’s my flying car?? I thought by now we’d all be wearing something like this www.meetthegreens.org/episode2/images/future\_fashions1.jpg but with all the obese people around, I guess cooler heads prevailed… ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126/60 "2009-12-09T00:45:26Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I’d like to see a cite for your claim that these tribes currently practice cannibalism. > [@Maiira](#): > > I never said you were. But the word “savage” implies that someone’s cultural practices are inherently inferior to one’s own. Hence, it is an ethnocentric term. > > I’m also gonna ask for a cite for the cannibalism and human sacrifice. Although even if they _did_ practice these things, who cares? Some cannibalistic, etc., societies kept these practices contained within their own. There are societies where consuming a dead relative is considered an honor: the better you know the person, the more of them you eat. And if they’re only being “savage” to themselves, why bother trying to change them? Cite for recent cannibalism in Papua New Guinea: [http://www.heretical.com/cannibal/nguinea2.html](http://www.heretical.com/cannibal/nguinea2.html) And if cannibalism and such practices are what their cultural practices are than their culture in inferior in comparison to others. Also you say it’s nobody’s business; well not everybody especially missionaries think that way. For instance if someone was going to commit suicide should we not care about them or should we try to help him? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-21st-century-i-cant-believe-we-still/520126.md?page=4)