I’ll be 30 in a few months, and am starting to think about the whole having kids thing. So, I remember being amazed that my dad grew up without television, and even when tv did arrive that it was (gasp!) black and white!
I’ll probably have even better ones for my kids. I can tell them that I remember a time before personal computers, certainly before the internet, before MP3 players. Seems amazing in retrospect.
So, assuming I have a kid in a year, and my kid has a kid at 30, then 40 years from now, what will my ten year old grandchildren be amazed that my own child grew up without?
I’m not thinking about earth shattering things, like medical discoveries, because I don’t think ten year old **Fiveyearlurker **was too concerned about the cure for polio. More, I’m thinking day to day things that it’s hard to remember life without.
The old flying Jetsons car comes to mind, but they’ve been pushing that one for decades! I think I lack imagination, because I can’t figure out what it will be, and it will certainly be something!
The first thing that comes to mind is The Internet, and all its ramifications, like instant messaging and file transfer and Google. And the SDMB. I think that the communication aspects of the net are even more revolutionary than personal computers themselves.
Nanotechnology. It seems to be just around the corner, and once we figure it out it will truly revolutionize the way the world works. Off the top of my head, nanotechnology is supposed to bring: near limitless energy; the end to disease and possibly the beginning of immortality; replicator technology; and, well, pretty much the way to make anything we can’t make today.
That was the first thing I thought of. It fits in quite well with the progression of “In My Day” sayings about entertainment delivery.
You had to see it in person.
Then there was sound, but no picture.
Then there was a picture, but it was monochrome and small.
Then there was color, but only a few channels.
Then there were hundreds of channels and high definition.
Then there were holograms.
How about mind-computer interfaces? In my day, we had to actually physically push buttons to turn stuff on and off.
Back in my day, you couldn’t just put your shoes in the NBA All-Star transmuter and have them change. If you wanted a different pair, you had to go to a store and BUY them.
Back in my day, everybody went to the same building – called a school – at the same time every day. They learned from an actual human being called a teacher.
Back in my day, we ate real food, made from plants and animals. None of these damn capsules.
“People were advocating legalizing marijuana? Ha! And to think of all the money the American Lung Association spends trying to get people to quit each year!”
“Back in my day, the Internet was only on computers and electronic devices! We didn’t have these chips in our brain that let you Instant Message people just by thinking about it! You actually had to use your voice and talk to them, or type a text message with your hands! Brb.”
“Back when I was your age, ‘liberals’ weren’t considered a bunch of greyhaired reactionary dinosaurs.”
“You know, when I was a kid, people were all up in arms about video games where you killed people. They even tried to ban games where you had consensual sex with characters—oh, no, these weren’t avatars, mind you. Most of those games didn’t have online play, so the other characters were computer controlled…well, they weren’t really true ‘A.I.s’ back then—consciously, they were more like flatworms with a lot of clever pre-scripting…”
