Are we living through an amazing era?

This was suggested on the Middle-Eastern Protests thread.

Are we living through an era of amazingness?

The rise of terrorism, new technology developing at warp speed, and now these Middle-Eastern revolts, there have been more things happening in these past 10 years than in any other decade.

People born after 1990 have grown up in a world where nearly all information is ready at fingertips, and will be the first to be screwed over in their future.

The realisation that 'holy fucking shit we've fucked the future so bad' for many nations, and the global recession, has changed the face of the modern world.

What other amazing things have happened? And where will we go after this?

Yes, yes we are. In fact, I would go one step further and say that 1990-present has probably been the closest thing to a Golden Age of Peace and Prosperity that the world has ever seen.

After this? I'm pretty sure we're on the edge of a singularity of some kind (not necessarily the hard, "true" kind). Predicting the future any meaningful distance in advance is rapidly becoming an exercise in futility. Predicting technology is notoriously pointless... and as for politics, it's quite possible that nations as we know them will become an obsolete concept within the lifetime of the younger tropers here.

edited 19th Jun '11 11:06:34 AM by Jinren

If you told a tech expert in 2003 that in 2007, you could use the internet on your phone, you'd be insane.

My computer was bought in June 2010. In July 2010, I saw my computer in the same shop I bought it at, for over £100 less. In a month, my computer lost £100! Today, it'd probably be worth scrap metal.

Did you know, that landfills contain more kg/m² of precious metals than an actual precious metal mine? That is how much tech is thrown away.

I would say that, in my lifetime, (I was born in the mid-90s) governments are no longer useful. The next big wars will be fought by economic and technological prowess, and even then, possibly by transnationals. Literal price wars maybe, if they surpass the GDP of countries and snap them up as subsidies.

Americorp - a subsidy of Walmart, Google, T-Mobile International, and Ford Motors!

edited 19th Jun '11 11:11:25 AM by Inhopelessguy

If an era in the history of humankind could be cosidered a Crapsaccharine World, than it's this one.

Hey, its an upgrade from our previous Crapsack World !

Not in my opinion. If it's a Crapsack World, at least you know what's gonna get you from the beginning.

I reckon that, in a couple hundred years, this era will be remembered as an era of great change. In fact, just to see how all of history will eventually settle and unfold is enough to make me desire immortality.

Inhopelessguy: There were early smart phones in 2003.

edited 19th Jun '11 11:16:50 AM by annebeeche

Every generation thinks it's in an era of great upheaval and technological change.

I'll agree with this, but the onset of the internet is going to change the way the world communicates amongst itself for antiquity. It's like the telephone all over again.

In fairness, most of them were right.

Nah, only for the last 300 years or so (less than that for the countryside or the third world).

As for the original topic: yeah, we live in an awesome era, with luxury beyond the wild dreams of kings, and we should be grateful to be alive today.

No, back in the Rennaissance day people thought their era was the shit.

OK, maybe you could pull it back to 400 or 500 years ago in some places; but I think in the Renaissance the feeling was mostly "Wow the ancient Greeks and Romans were awesome, how come we fell so low?"

Dunno, I guess 100 years ago people were also pretty bewidered by seeing the first cars, and electricity, some of them surely went around screaming "THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!". Not to mention the two world wars after it, ending with HOLY SHIT, ATOMIC BOMBS!!!

Or in therms of politics, someone born in the middle of the 18th century, could hear news of American independence, the French Revolution, then the rise and fall of Napoleon, in a single lifetime. Coincidentially, this was also the generation that saw balloons soaring over Paris, and boats moved by steam engines.

Or someone born in the age of Augustus, could see the fall of the Republic and the formation of the Empire, again, in a single lifetime, while possibly also noticing the early formation of Christianity, in the same years.

Yeah, but then they adopted all the greco-roman art and literature and were all "ha ha, we are a million times more sophisticated than those unwashed club-flailing infidels of the dark ages! Yay, roman and christian influence!" Historiography of the day was a mite biased for the classical era for all its amazing shit, and the contemporary era for revitalizing interest in said amazing shit.

edited 19th Jun '11 1:05:39 PM by annebeeche

@OP: I would say yes, but in a more neutral sense of the word amazing than it's usually used. It's amazing in the sense of "Holy shit, look at all this stuff that's happening so quickly!", not in the sense of "All this stuff that's happening is so wonderful and beneficial!" There are still serious problems. First World consumerism is directly contributing to the perpetuation of slavery and horrible labor regulations in the Third World. When we buy a piece of clothing or technology that was manufactured in the Third World, we aren't paying for the actual human effort and suffering that was put into making it. If we insisted that everyone we trade with have the same human rights policies as we do, or even if we just banned slavery and child labor, all our stuff would get very expensive, very fast, and all this rapid technological expansion would slow down dramatically.

On the other hand, in a more globalized society, we are at least more aware of these injustices now, and can fight for change more easily. And I'm tentatively hopeful that as the Internet becomes a part of life for more and more people, and it's a regular thing to get on your computer and discuss things with people thousands of miles away from you, war will become more distasteful because people in other countries seem more human to us. Sure, it won't happen overnight, but there's a good chance that in a few decades, many people will consider themselves global citizens, just as in the past we graduated from considering ourselves members of our family to members of our town to members of our region to members of our nation. Global interaction is definitely an awesome thing.

^ It's not just the third world. Have you heard about what's happening to Georgia's agriculture industry?

Yeah. That kinda amazing. I didn't want to look like I promote terrorism when I said that but...

Its weird though. We are part of history, yet we are not making it. Sure, we're better informed thanks to 2hr news and the internet, but does that make us less sensitive? For example, Causes on Facebook. One click on "I support X" and you feel that you've supported X. But have I really? No, I've just clicked a button to show that I would like to support it, but I haven't really. That is slacktivism. Man, the media and its portmanteaus. It also makes us feel that we're also the rebels as well. When we say 'we took over Bengazi', no we didn't. NATO did, or the NTC troops did. Not we.

Of course, with this even massier media, the lowest common denominator is better pandered for. Reality shows are everywhere. For me, and most other Britons, the only bastion of actual television is the BBC. I'm not a hipster, but I'm sure the music industry can influence children and adolescents (who are basically the main audience for many of today's bustin' tunes) can cut the crap and actually get a good message into thier heads? I mean, its nice to sing about love and shit, but maybe like 'stay in school' or 'say no to drugs' lines could slip in as well?

However, it sure has been one hell of a ten years. Compare the tech at 2001 with that of today's and you'd be surprised at the leaps and bounds.

Here are some stats on market penetration (approx.):

• Telephone - 150yrs to reach 1mn users
• Radio - 50yrs to reach 1mn users
• TV - 20yrs to reach 1mn users
• Internet - 10yrs to reach 1mn users
• MP 3 players - 5yrs to reach 1mn users

How long will the next big thing take to reach 1mn users? A year? 6 months? A week? Who cares. By the time it does, whatever it has replaced would've been obsolete years before.

edited 19th Jun '11 1:44:21 PM by Inhopelessguy

Change would probably be the word to describe 2000-present. Dictatorships that have lasted decades were toppled, it became socially acceptable to text and completely ignore everyone around you, small scale assaults are the new face of war.

There's a Chinese curse that goes "may you live in interesting times".

Meh, it's alright.

Radical Taoist: Fuck the people who say that. Wanna have an adventure?

Hmm, yeah, I'd say that this time is really interesting. That means that the future is going to be even more interesting! For the privileged, of course

I agree with the "who cares" part, but for different reasons-1 million people is, relatively speaking, a lot less than it used to be. It's relatively easy for any facebook group to gain 1 million members, for example.

The real question, as you note, is to what extent these people are actually willing to do something for that group (hint hint it's probably nothing or next to it).

Also, I don't think that anyone could argue that the world has ever been a tenth as globalized as it has become in the last 15 years.

Anyways, the craziest part of all this change is that each technological jump tends to make the next change of any kind-social, technological, political, etc.- that much easier. It really is accelerating itself at a rate that borders on ridiculous.

edited 19th Jun '11 8:12:59 PM by deathjavu

It is certainly interesting, and more than a little worrying. But this one would have no other.