Have things really improved much over the past 50 years?

I guess I'm just old now and that's why things don't make sense to me any more. But, honestly I really can't see that nowadays as much improved compared to 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago. I had a pager instead of a cell phone in high school. Big deal! I even had a computer, printer, scanner, and Internet over 40 years ago. 42 years ago my friend's dad had a cell phone in his car. 

There's nothing now that didn't exist back then. Sure, things are a little smaller and a little faster now. But, they are no longer simply and easy to use. Simple things have become stupidly complicated. For some reason Android on my cell phone wouldn't give me the option to answer the phone all of a sudden. I could see that someone was calling me but I couldn't answer it. WTF! I looked on the Internet to discover it is a common problem. Nice! So, I reset the phone, cleared all the temporary files, and for some reason I couldn't get the options to answer the phone to show up. So, I ended up changing a hard to find setting to allow pushing the menu button to answer the phone. So, you might say, it's time to get an old person's phone that is primarily just a phone. Well, I did that. Then I kept getting tons of texts and calls I didn't want that ate through all my minutes. The carrier wouldn't block them. So, I had to quite using the phone.

Even TVs are basically the same. They are just boxes with light shining through them. By now we should have mastered holographic imagery nearly to perfection. We tried to make a few 3D tvs. But they sucked and the manufactures stopped producing them because they sucked.

I purchased a virtually 3D headset hoping to experience the magic. It was cool to see the video appear right in front of my face for about 20 seconds. Then I started to feel a little dizzy. But, I pushed through it and after 20 minutes I had a nasty headache. It didn't immerse me into a different realm. They are crap! Seriously? That's the best we can do. I thought that maybe I should get the super high dollar unit until I read reviews that the early unit is actually better. Wow! 

Things were built to last. Nowadays things don't last for honeysuckle. Then they end up in the trash make even more problems for us to deal with LATER. But, if we build things too well, like in the past, then people would be spending less money. That would be detrimental to our economy. After all approximately 70% of the US gross domestic product is us spending money. It's not creating products. Yeah, we appear to be doing well because we are circulating money. That's our product. But, wait, don't we just create US dollars out of thin air. Yep. So, isn't it all just a huge scam? It certainly is. But, hey, going off the gold standard in the past to a standard of nothing is much better right? Well, only as long as the other countries don't get together and stop the BS the US is doing. That's better now then before right?

We are still driving around the same basic vehicles with slight improvements. Really? Is Tesla really that great? They took early 80s technology, small lithium batteries which do not work well together in large numbers, and stacked tons of them together to power a motorized car. In order to make it work better they removed all the batteries safety features. If you use lithium batteries too much, drain them too fast, or they get too hot they explode and catch fire. Many Teslas have burned to the ground. Woohoo! Great technological improvement!

Batteries still really suck. We still can't store electricity for honeysuckle. Well, some old ways work for large production. Pumping water up to a lake on a hill during low power requirements and then letting it drain down to power turbines during high power times is still the top contender. Then there's super heating molten salt during the day to power steam generators at night.

How about our food? We keep screwing with it in order to feed more and more people. Most of the fruits and vegetables at the grocery stores taste like crap now. They are picked way before they are any where near ripe. Then they are sprayed with chemicals to keep them from rotting before we buy them not to mention the chemicals used to grow them. I have completely giving up on tomatoes and avocados. They go from unripe to rotten in one day.

The answer, according to most politicians, is to keep growing. We will just grow our way out of all of our problems. We can just keeping spending money we don't have if we just calculate that in such and suck year there will be XXXXXXX more people and $XXXXXX more money. So, if you bring those number back to current day we actually have $XXXXXX trillion that we aren't using right now. So, lets spend, spend, spend.

The family unit is being broken apart and more and more people are living the single life. It usually takes two working people to raise kids and get ahead now. The more educated people are having less children because they see how expensive kids are with the expenses continually increasing. The less educated and less intelligent people can't comprehend money, are continually given hand outs, and have as many kids as nature allows. This further burdens the slightly higher dollar earners to the point where having kids is too costly. Is that an improvement to our society? 

Oh wait, porn and access to drugs has certainly improved greatly. So, I guess that's good right?

So, what do you guys think? Is today better then yesteryear or am I just old now and can't appreciated all the wonderful new stuff we all have now?

You covered a lot of ground here. Like I said in a former posting "I am a pessimist" and in my opinion things are not improved as well as people themselves putting stress on other people----like all the beeping when you drive and things move so fast now and parking is a problem as well. People seem to have more manners back in those days now all they do is say fkyou or something in regard to that or even maybe another word and give you the finger..People are breaking the law now and no one cares especially now with police budget being cut to "nothing" (defunding the police now is the radical push)---these people are nuts.. No it is not  better my dear forum friend and this is only a few changes and I could go on and on....lol lol  Now to begin my day and this day is one of work for me...Thanks for the posting...

I am having the same day you did yesterday only I'm at home.. Called up to order a platform truck that is 26 inches high and the same kind I bought last year. Well now they do not have any and won't be getting them in because they are from China. Then I called up this other company and they have the cart but no swivel wheels and he told me they can't replace the rigid wheels with swivel ones and I informed him that they do replace because I already replaced the cart that I got last year with swivel wheels and they work just fine. In the meanwhile he is going to check as he "mutters" away acting like I am doubling his work load with this information. This particular cart goes into the bird loft "inside" so that I can move it when I want to with no problem in order to clean around it. I explained to this person without swivel wheels it would be worthless for me---so he is checking...In the meanwhile I called up this caster wheel place and he was wonderful so if the other place does not work then I will call him back and he asked me about the size and I told him but in this case since I know very little about the wheels I can send him the original wheels that I took off so that he can match them up if he has swivel ones..The cart place just called and said they do not have swivel wheels that work so now I am going to call the caster people back and see if something can be done after I send them a link to the cart...Oh Brother...the world is getting harder and harder to deal with but I will continue this stuff tomorrow. Watch tomorrow they will not have the cart no longer--my luck...priscella.. Now I am dealing with the lawn service company and asked them to call me before they come over next time and they said they do not do that but will try real hard to call me. i said "just to make sure that I am home on that day"---so they can't gurarentee but will try to call me but maybe not and I said --I do not care if you call a week ahead of time just let me know that is the week that you are coming..He then informed me they have over 500 people and he might not be able to then I asked: "if I do not know your coming and I am not home=="How are you going to get into the yard"..? He then said he will try to call to let me know but not sure if he can and then I said: "It will be a wasted trip for you if I am not at home and don't dare charge me"---that's how we left that,,,,,Oh Brother another week to finish....'Lord have Mercy"....

Well a update---the cart is coming from one place and the swivel wheels from another....Anybody want two fixed wheels?  lol lol I am very lucky to get this particular cart because they are obsolete now and that's the only one that will work in my loft---"Yes".. I am sure hoping the wheels work with the cart and if not I will return them.....They should work---hoping they do.....priscella

Ha! ha! It's awesome that you still have the energy and motivation to take care of stuff like that. Good Job!

This is not over with just yet---when the wheels fit on the cart then it will be over with but----I am taking a chance here because I measured them and I know "nothing" about "wheels"...but I can return them if I have to and get other ones....so we will see "old forum friend" we will see how this works out... Hoping that cart is exactly like the first one that I bought that  company said they were obsolete. I had to order it from another company who I never dealt with and I sure did not leave a good impression with the salesperson. He tried to rush me and I told him this was very important for me and if he did not have the time to help me I can always call back and get someone else. My voice on the telephone I believe sounds old and this turns off some people and he was definitely one of these folks. This very well might turn into a very long story maybe even a book---I will keep you all posted...priscella..

I feel you've taken the words out of my mouth.  Except I'm 34!  Although, I was told I was old when I was in highschool, so..

I haven't found an answer.  The people I interact with on a daily basis, or at least have interacted with, seem to be trying to tell me the trick is to, 'not care,' or, 'not give a fresia.'  I sit here and feel rather insulted by such sentiments; but, if I look deep down within myself, I too have given up.

The one thing, I suppose, for me, is the following.  I see those stars up there at night, fortunately for me quite frequently; but, so many of them I don't see due to light pollution.  However, I just don't think, 'planet earth,' is the final frontier.  I don't even think space should be or is the final frontier.  I find myself, lately, in the type of frame of mind that leads almost any continual thought train to the end destination of, 'nothing matters.'  However, that's a feeling.  It's a statement also; but, probably not a true one.  And, if you can flip that statement around, and view it from another perspective; 'nothing,' DOES matter.  You can't have objects in space, without that empty, 'nothing,' for them to fill.  Just like a white painting on a white canvas doesn't do much.  Might be an interesting art piece; but, trends in art shift and change.

I think there is sort of the, 'top of the mountain,' effect.  And, I may be speaking in ignorance here; however...  You climb that perilous mountain, you reach the top, you observe the glorious view.  Then, you come down.  Then what?  You've seen it all.  Now what?  I don't know.  When I finish reading a good book, there is a sadness that comes with it, whatever the ending, however happy, or unhappy.  The characters are gone, the story is over, I can't re-experience any of that ever again.  Maybe after enough time has elapsed, and I've forgotten enough of the book, I could re-read it.  I may have done that once or twice and gotten away with it; but, it's not fresh.  Once you eat the apple, it can't be un-eaten.

I can use words to try to apply this to situation of civilized humanity; but, and, I hate to say we aren't that civilized.  It's an old argument.  There have been those, who have been concerned about the environment, long before I was born.

What if there was a way to communicate, that didn't use words?  What if I could have a meal at a fancy restaurant, and then, a few hours later, 'transmit,' that experience, in it's full entirety, to some one else?  We know this in a very crude form to be, 'empathy,' the ability to be able to, 'feel,' what another feels.  Some are cursed with more of it than others, some are blessed to have nearly none of it, with each having mixed results.  Perhaps, some day, we will get there.  Perhaps, our collective AND individual failures, are merely for lack of, 'having hands.'  You see a dog, for example.  A dog is a keen creature, quite intelligent, perceptive, etc..  However, a dog can not, and will not, EVER, be able to make you a peanut butter jelly sandwich.  The dog just lacks hands.  So, perhaps we, 'lack,' certain things, in that way.

Are we evolving into these machines we are creating?  Will they think and feel like us?  Seems a bit sad for humanity to become, 'obsolete.'  These ideas don't really interest me the way they used to.  They intrigue some, though.  


I think for me, my biggest fear, is this beast we have created will continue.  There will be no great big societal collapse.  Humanity will more and more become less human.  The great truths, the great epiphanies, the history, the knowledge, will be lost.  The machine will march on, destroy everything in it's path, and eventually, maybe like in blade runner, people will just be trying to escape to greener pastures, 'off-world.'  I know Elon Musk and his ilk, would have it that way.

I suppose I'd rather see contact happen like how Carl Sagan imagined it; rather than us, foraging ahead, and dominating a new world, like we did the old, 'new world.'  Which wasn't new at all, and rather quite familiar to a great many.  But I don't know what I think anymore, or I'm just tiring myself out.

Good news though, I think.  We have hands, many of us.  We have capacities.  We can think, reason, and feel.  I can put a seed in some dirt, give it some water, and some one's un-picked up dog crap; and, if my thumb is green enough, something will grow.

I don't know.  But my lungs still work.  They still accept tobacco smoke.  I've got some root beer in the fridge.  I can put that honeysuckle on some ice, have a smoke, look at the sky, feel the wind.  Maybe later I can play a little poker.

The politicians and the profiteers, heh.  I feel almost, now, almost, a bit ashamed for thinking so highly of them.  If politicians and profiteers, and perhaps even others, were really so intelligent, would we be in this mess?  Aren't they just like us?  They want more of the food that makes them fat, which makes them unhappy.  They want more of the drugs that make them feel better in the short run, but can wear them down if not observed in moderation.  So you eat the food, it makes you fat, then you hit the gym or take the pills to lose the weight.  Tires me out even thinking about it.

Human DNA is not the only DNA.  To me, DNA is the first Turing Machine.  I mean, if you read up on what Alan Turing envisioned as a computer, that is, 'EXACTLY,' down to the G-A-C-T, WHAT, DNA, IS.  It's a computer; but, apparently computers need something more.  Computation alone is not enough.  Objects need space.  And nothing isn't really nothing with out something in contrast.  The number 3 is pretty useless, except when it is, 'describing,' some, 'thing(s)'.

There isn't a word for it, and I've tried to invent one; but, there is knowledge of a situation, some tribal peoples found themselves in.  Certain tribal peoples became so proficient at hunting.  What they did was, they learned a tactic to hunt that involved exciting, stirring, and scaring herding animals.  The animals would become so frightened, and in trying to flee, these herding animals would run off a cliff.  They would fall to their death, and meat became so plentiful, nobody wanted for anything.  However, eventually, they would kill the entire population in the area they hunted.  They just killed to fast, to quickly, and too efficiently.  The herd never had time to replenish.  I think the Polish just call it, 'being Polish,' heh.

I don't have any answer for the, 'situation,' as I see it.  Perhaps I shall try to grow something...

- Turing Machines explained.

- short TED talking showing off some 3d animations of human molecular biological processes involved with DNA and such

That was absolutely fascinating and your thought patterns are wonderful...Thank you so much....priscella

priscella said:

That was absolutely fascinating and your thought patterns are wonderful...Thank you so much....priscella

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Thank-you

TropicalStarfish said:

I feel you've taken the words out of my mouth.  Except I'm 34!  Although, I was told I was old when I was in highschool, so..
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I think I can mark you down as, things have NOT really improved over the past 50 years. Ha! Ha!

Yea sometimes I like to play with people especially if they are a lot younger than me----like that "old finished", but the difference is on how "they treat you" like in my case the  person on the telephone and the affected person can tell how they are acting if they want to be bothered or not with you for they already made up their minds about seniors through past experience. One can tell this though instinct on how they are treating you.. Now you when you were younger was called old but this at that age was a absolute compliment meaning "how very wise you were for your age" and now at 34 you are sharing your concerns about the future on how it is progressing kind of in a straight line like it has always done..One person puts out a theory and than other people build on that theory with their own type of thoughts and where that is leading us is a world that is small in size that we can not naturally see only by way of descriptions with these descriptions put on video's for us to see instead of just imagining and that is why the people clapped for here they were actually experiencing a unknown world..But there are big BUTS out there especially if you happen to be into some of the other types of science for it could have a completely different way of looking at things. Like for instance the dark stuff in our world and in galaxies the only way they know it is there is by the results what happens when it can bend light---something is there but what? I think you have great hope for the next fifty years and that's the question the other poster was asking---Is it a negative for the future or a positive for the future,  I am a pessimist for I do not see a much improved world maybe in the sciences like what was shown on the neat video's but people make a world and decide for the future and to tell you the truth I do not have much faith in that for people are being dumb down by the very science that is suppose to advance us  because of profit and greed and power and many other reasons as well....It is a world conquest by the owners of this world (meaning the ultra very rich) whose decisions advance the sciences and they are the ones in control and you can see this by the lying fake news out there and what people say when they know that it is nothing but lies and continue anyway because they have to make a pay check for "their" love ones.. This is instinct " taking care of ones own.". Thank you everybody for the thought producing postings...    priscella..

I think smart technology is making people stupid, spoiled, and lazy especially the younger generations.

you have a wrong attitude-------I feel the same way.....lol lol....Wait until after this election then we will have all kinds of stuff to say.....Thanks you made my day...

It'll be interesting if Biden / Harris wins. The US dollar will become nearly worthless. But, it would be nice to have health care. I haven't had any healthy insurance for over a decade.

There is no reason for that for you can get health care now at a cheaper price you are not that poor.  You can still apply for medicade if you need it and if you were in the service you can get those benefits as well. Heck I am sure I am poorer than you and I have health care ----in my opinion you better have a good reason other than being cheap..Priscella..

Ha! ha! I do not qualify for Medicade. I was in the service but my house has too much equity in it to get any help from the VA. So, I don't qualify for that either. My only option is to buy private insurance just for me but it is ridiculously expensive. I looked into it several times. If I need to see a doctor then I just pay cash and get the real rates not the BS inflated insurance rates. However, if I have a real problem that could get expensive too.

My plan is to not get sick or injured until I can get on Medicare. But, that's still a few years away. Ha! Ha!

What health care are you on?

Yea I forgot about your young age old thing finished and that is expensive----you cannot get veteran health care I do not understand this? I do not think that they take your house into consideration...maybe I am wrong for I just do not know---we can start a go fund page for you...lol   priscella...Yea you have more money than me but I have medicare and your not old enough--lol lol..

Yeah, I don't need a go fund me page. The VA health care is wealth based. If you have some then you get no health care from them unless you were at least, if I remember correctly, 30% or more disabled while being in the military. Although some would say I'm mentally disabled. Ha! ha! To the VA I'm 0% disabled.

What I do need is for our country to pull it's head out of its ass and come up with a reasonable health care system. Right now the insurance companies are the ones making the big money. We should completely remove them from the system. We don't need insurance to fix our ailments. We need doctors, nurses, and other health care workers. The **** insurance companies have turned our health care system into a real nightmare for everybody concerned including all the health care workers.

Obamacare just helped make them even stronger. Going on a reasonable universal fee based health care plan could possible work. Other countries have done it. One big thing is we need to stop treating people that don't need treatment. Medical care shouldn't be to make people more comfortable. It should be to fix trama injuries, severe sickness, and save lives. We should also stop handing out so **** much antibiotics unless absolutely needed.

Oh "old hat" to you.. Priscella...Wish I had a icon that would be just perfect....It would be a elephant's ass facing you and flipping its tail...lol

Ha! Ha! You keep saying you're a pessimist. But, compared to me you are an optimist. Ha! Ha!

I know that I'll be on this planet for a long time. God doesn't want me because I'm too negative. The devil doesn't want me because I'm kind hearted. So, I guess that makes me universal unwanted. Ha! Ha!