# Visitors in the 21st Century **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 2, 2000, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185 "2000-01-02T00:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Phaedrus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@Phaedrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phaedrus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/21 "2000-01-03T04:41:00Z")
AuntiePam: HA! A lot you know. Most of us had the chip activated during the Y2K blackout, New Years Eve! I saw the mothership just before I blacked out. Now it’s too late! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/22 "2000-01-03T05:58:00Z")
AuntiePam wrote: > [@](#): > > I’m sorry I don’t recall [Arthur C. Clarke’s] exact words – but he said he has no doubt that star travel is in our future. Knowing Clarke, he probably also said we would abandon our “frail” human bodies in favor of having our brains integrated directly into the control mechanisms for giant invincible machines or space ships. Which is kinda dumb, if you think about it. A big steel automaton would make a LOUSY lover. * * * The truth, as always, is more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![Keeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f05b48/32.png) [@Keeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeves)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/23 "2000-01-03T19:26:00Z")
The phenomenon described in the OP does not always conform to arbitrary dates on the calendar. It has been said, for example, that The Sixties did not start until JFK’s assasination, and did not end until Watergate. Similarly, I’d say that The Fifties began on V.J.Day, and The Nineties began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But a lot depends on personal preferences. A strong argument could be made for The Fifties ending on The Day The Music Died, the Sixties with John Lennon’s murder, and The Seventies with the disappearance of Elvis. The important thing is that people often define themselves by the era in which they matured. Those eras are a lot shorter than 100 years. ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/24 "2000-01-03T23:00:00Z")
Phaedrus, what great poem. Thank you for taking this up a notch. Have you had that published? I agree with much of what you said, and for the same reasons. I hope we are both wrong on where this is leading. Yes, I remember Camelot and that great feeling of hope, which went up in a puff of gunsmoke in Dallas. It was a great time of life, but we’ll never see that agian. But hasn’t it been that way for every generation? I do see people drifting away from each other due to science. It seems that all the new technology eliminates the human touch,i.e., PC’s Thanks for the input. I had a feeling we’d agree on some stuff. * * * Things are not what they seem to be; nor are they otherwise. [lankavatara Sutra] ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/25 "2000-01-03T23:06:00Z")
keeves > [@](#): > > The important thing is that people often define themselves by the era in which they matured. Those eras are a lot shorter than 100 years. ## Very good points. Is the era that we all identify with our special 10 or 20 years, do you suppose? What is the time frame that defines us? Am I part of the 50s or 60s? Both, I think. Things are not what they seem to be; nor are they otherwise. [lankavatara Sutra] ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2000, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/26 "2000-01-03T23:09:00Z")
tracer > [@](#): > > Which is kinda dumb, if you think about it. A big steel automaton would make a LOUSY lover. Don’t knock it… That automaton 8A series was great on cold nights. 🙂 * * * Things are not what they seem to be; nor are they otherwise. [lankavatara Sutra] ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/27 "2000-01-04T00:45:00Z")
True, and you could always count on it to be hard. (I can’t believe I just said that.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/28 "2000-01-04T01:51:00Z")
tracer > [@](#): > > True, and you could always count on it to be hard. > (I can’t believe I just said that.) You must mean the 8B male series. Not my cup of tea. I’ll stick with the 8A female series. So far I’ve been lucky and mine is hard on request. ## tracer, how do we always wind up in this? Things are not what they seem to be; nor are they otherwise. [lankavatara Sutra] ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/29 "2000-01-04T02:09:00Z")
john john asked: > [@](#): > > Will we be an anachronism in the new age? Will they think we’re quaint? First off; I’m certainly not the age group you were asking this question to- I’m 27, which in theory means that I’m of the generation that will be shaping ‘the new age.’ However, there are times I already feel like an anachronism. I came of age and reason in the early to late '80’s, and the absoluteness and eternity of the Cold War and anti-communism was something I fervently believed in. By the time I was nineteen, the Soviet Union was dead, and there have been many times since that I’ve felt like I outlived my era. Certainly, certain parts of life will be taken as anachronisms; imagine someone today telling you that they feel just ‘marvy’ or ‘grody.’ But as for being touted as ‘quaint’ or ‘old-fashioned’; that all depends upon how willing you are to just abandon change and settle back in the more comftorable memories of how things were. I know people in their 60’s who are, if not hip, at least not without their own personal coolness. I know people in their 30’s who have trouble getting out of the '80’s. Then again, being ‘quaint’ ain’t all bad; especially when people consider such things as standards of morality or inter-personal decency to be ‘quaint’. (Yes, I do hold doors open for other people.) * * * JMCJ “John C., it looks like you have blended in very nicely.” -UncleBeer ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/30 "2000-01-05T00:25:00Z")
John Corrado you raise very good points, I’ll have to rethink the under 30 thing. Hmmm. Your example of the 80s was very valid. I think you’re right. I don’t say grovy anymore or hey man because people would look at you strangely. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/31 "2000-01-05T01:32:00Z")
This is beginning to remind me of an episode of _South Park_ they re-ran last week. Kyle and Stan found a “prehistoric ice man” that had been frozen in a glacier since … 1996. When they revived him, he was a man completely out of his era and couldn’t adapt. They had to build a special plexiglass room for him to live in with an ID4 poster on the wall and Ace of Bass playing on the stereo. ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/32 "2000-01-05T01:49:00Z")
Are you sending me back to Woodstock? ---
**Author:** ![Phaedrus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@Phaedrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phaedrus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/33 "2000-01-05T03:08:00Z")
Thanks for the compliment John John! “We are Stardust, we are Golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to Garden…” ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/34 "2000-01-05T12:27:00Z")
Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/35 "2000-01-05T14:11:00Z")
This can’t be the 21st Century. Where are all the Jetsons-style cars? 🙂 * * * Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush ---
**Author:** ![Phaedrus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@Phaedrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phaedrus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/36 "2000-01-07T19:48:00Z")
It is hard for me to believe I speak with intelligent adults that do not remember what is was like to not have a VCR. Soon even the adults will not remember albums. It just seems so weird. I wonder if they think of us like I thought about my Dad and the fact he could remember no tv. ---
**Author:** ![John\_John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@John\_John](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_John)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185/37 "2000-01-07T21:11:00Z")
I remember 45s, no PC, no calculator and no VCR. Do you think we will still rely on gas driven cars in the late 21st? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visitors-in-the-21st-century/17185.md?page=1)