Are we living through an amazing era?

That depends completely on who you are. Some of us have been involved in historical events, or contributed in some small way to them. Someone has to make history, it's just that now the whole world gets a ringside seat as it happens, even if they aren't involved or nearby.

I'd like to somehow be more intimately involved with the history of the times I'm living in, but right now all I can really say is that I went overseas.

That, and how you define "making history". It's actually being incredibly closed-minded to think that only politicians are responsible for the state of the modern world.

The biggest thing that I could point out would be the scientific/engineering/research communities, responsible for all those wonderful magical toys that power the modern lifestyle. Someone had to invent those, and a huge number of people had to work on perfecting them. Someone else has spotted new areas for market penetration and is busy designing the next big thing. These are massive fields, employing millions of people, that progress almost entirely separately from the petty world of politics, while having an arguably bigger impact on the average person's everyday life.

edited 19th Jun '11 8:58:51 PM by Jinren

OP: yep, that's a really interesting era we're living in. The world is turning upside down on an almost daily basis, and we know about it a few minutes after the event itself, while, indeed, those of us (like me) who aren't versed in the "new big thing" can feel like old gramps impressed at all those new toys and who still struggle with their old devices. It's really, really weird to feel outdated when aged 22.....

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

Hell yes we're living in an amazing era. Things are changing faster now than they ever have before in exciting new ways that are difficult to predict. Traditional practices and established norms are becoming obsolete as the world rushes ahead of them. Things we thought were facts of life, that we thought we knew, become undone. The only solution is to change ourselves, to adapt to catch up. Stagnation is certain death.

yey

Interesting times. In some ways I'm optimistic, and in other ways I'm horrified, but interesting nonetheless.

Care to elaborate? If there was anywhere to do it, it'd be here.

yey

You feel old? I feel old at 15! My cousin asked me what My Space was, and what a 'shiny Frisbee' [she meant CD] was for. For the life of me, the only thing a CD is for, is for listening to music in the car and playing videogames on a console, but thanks to the web that doesn't matter, and thanks to 3.5mm jacks as standard in most stereos I don't need a music CD. The only reason I need a DVD drive on my PC is for ... DV Ds.

The internet does worry me though. My Xbox isn't hooked up to the internet, mostly because I get unreliable speeds due to 'traffic shaping', and my parents ain't gonna pay £20/mnth on top of the communications bill. In the future more games will be online-based, and some games need you to stay online constantly in order to do the single-player campaign, so they can check if you're running a legit copy or not. And the threat of hacks. No-one's gonna take over my PC, but it could be another pawn in e-terrorism, as like a bot or something.

We are a smaller metaphorical world, but smaller spaces means less room for each person.

edited 20th Jun '11 2:13:43 AM by Inhopelessguy

At the end of the day, living now is much better than living at any point before now and things will generally keep improving. I mean we will make a lot of fuck ups on the way - we're a two steps forward, one step back deal - but on the whole things should keep getting better. Of course, like every generation we'll view the next generation with fear and dislike, but that's just how we roll.

And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)

We are living in an era where energy is amazingly abundant: fossil fuel. It won't last forever.

Anime geemu wo shinasai!

That's why fission is there and why all the big countries are working on fusion: to ensure cheap energy for a few thousand years.

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

Fusion would probably last for millions. It's not as though hydrogen is rare.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

I wouldn't be looked like as an boasting guy, using millions here and there. And for the average Joe, thousands is well enough. Anyway, when will Steve Jobs sell his iFusion, the nano 10 TW fusion reactor for the iPhone (that and the iTime app to travel through time)?

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

Won't last for millions. Last for until the plant breaks down. But yeah, hydrogen is one of the most common elements in the known universe.

The average plant could last for about 80 yrs. The energy will be cheap, plentiful, near-clean, no radioactive waste (so if the plant melts down, we're fine), however the cost and time needed to decommission a plant is enormous. The energy produced (although plentiful) per kg is much less than fission plants, but significantly more than fossil-fuel plants. (compare about a few million MJ to about a few thousand MJ)

The products are not that radioactive, but after about 80 yrs, the plant will be as potent as a fission plant is now. The cost to clean up after will be enormous as well.

However, we need to focus on getting the first commercially viable plant running. At the moment, the best plants are amazing at producing power, but they can only for a few minutes. And they suck up phenomenal amounts from the National Grid (at least JET does).

edited 20th Jun '11 6:09:46 AM by Inhopelessguy

*Insert Eric DVH's posts about renewable energy sources and my defense of integrated fast breeder technology here*

Just to prevent the derail.

Zersk: I always thought that curse said more about the person uttering it, myself.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

Nah, I agree nuclear power is best. Gravitically-confined fusion, to be specific. Current efforts at tokamak reactors are hopelessly boneheaded. For one thing, there's no way their fuel cycle could breed tritium.

To be a little more… Neutral, I agree that the transition from fossil fuels will be an interesting one, but I can't help but roll my eyes whenever anyone mentions peak oil as an indication we're going to have to get off our collective butt and actually advance. Fact of the matter is, the main source of energy from fossil fuel has always been coal, and since peak coal isn't projected for centuries (coal exhaustion centuries more) then we'll still have a golden opportunity to do absolutely nothing. And if there's one thing humanity is good at, it's milking a “good enough” solution as long as it can possibly last.

Given the way the transport industry has drug its heels on electrification, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if liquified coal was the dominant fuel in 50 years. The future won't be fossil-free, just a bit filthier.

They're pretty incredible, but nothing to write home about in my opinion until real gains in public rights and security over the prior status quo materialize and stay for… At least 5 years.

Peace? Yeah, the number of dictatorships is at an all-time low, though there's still a shocking number of low-level wars going on in the usual hotspots (Africa, East Asia, and South America to a lesser degree.) Prosperity… Probably not, the industrial economy of the USA (and, to a lesser extent, Europe) have been gutted by offshoring, while the 2nd world was basically plundered by cartel capitalism when the iron curtain fell, and the 3rd world's economic growth has come at the price of rampant famine and questionable influence on quality of life.

Today is probably the final gasp for white collar jobs before they're all offshored, so it'll be interesting to see what effect that will have on scientific progress and 3rd world politics.

I myself probably would've just shown them the smartphone I'd already been using for a few years (yes, the cellphone and PDA features were only loosely connected, and data was absurdly expensive through Cingular, but darn it, web and eMail from anywhere was so cool!).

This is nothing new, it's not even that bad. Back around the late '80s, they had all sorts of dumb nonsense (manual checks, decoder wheels, duplication resistant disks, even DONGLES,) people responded by pirating the daylights out of them (creating a HUGE crack scene,) then developers got the hint and stopped being jerks throughout most of the '90s and early '00s, causing piracy to vanish for the most part. Now the cycle is winding up again, once the pirates teach them the futility of their greed, they'll stop for another decade.

Eric,

edited 20th Jun '11 8:21:07 AM by EricDVH

There's always the indie scene.

I've never really seen the appeal of yet another COD clone that justifies it's price purely through expensive graphics anyway.

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