One of my favorite quotes is from Arthur c Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Just think what someone from a mere 500 years ago would think if they stepped into the current day. TV, radio, cell phones, planes, computers, etc. Every one would be magical to them, yet they’re ordinary things to us.  So whenever I think about things, say in this forum, about aliens, science and technology, etc. I always come back to the same thought applied to ourselves in the current day. What things might be like magic to us today, that our future selves (or another e-t civilization a mere thousand years ahead of us technologically) will think of as ordinary?  How does that affect our current thinking?

I grew up in a small town in Eastern Europe and having family in Canada I was always the first one introducing all kinds of “magic” to people around me. I remember being the first person in our town who had a digital watch. Nobody even knew what it was AND I WAS WEARING IT! How cool is that? Or remember those thin thermometers you would press against your forehead and it would tell you if you had a fever? When we were asked to bring different kinds of measuring devices to school one day (clock, thermometer, galvanometer, etc.) I brought that magical thin plastic thermometer I got from my uncle from Canada. They even called the principal to come and witness this thermometer from the future. Sometimes I miss communism; I had so much fun… 

That’s how I feel about those damned Iphones, G4s and all that other stuff I no longer want to learn about. 

Occam

You don’t really need to learn how to use an iPhone. Those things couldn’t be any simpler. Thanks, of course, to Steve Jobs for that.

One problem is that I live on the ocean side of a steep hill so not even my old cell phone works here.

Occam

That’s a very nice problem, Occam. When my phone doesn’t work it’s because there is a snow storm. 

How about “growing new organs”?  That will likely be possible in the next few hundred years.

CuthbertJ - 05 June 2012 11:01 AM

One of my favorite quotes is from Arthur c Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Just think what someone from a mere 500 years ago would think if they stepped into the current day. TV, radio, cell phones, planes, computers, etc. Every one would be magical to them, yet they’re ordinary things to us.

Some years ago I watched a TV segment made at an airport.  The video team went around asking people who were waiting on flights to explain how the planes flew.  What held them up?  Of course I don’t know how they edited their video but not one person they showed could explain the aerodynamics of a wing.

We live in a society where most people are accustomed to technology, but to most people it is still magic.  Even 100 years old stuff that could have been explained to grade school kids.

One of my favorite videos that I love to hate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg

I worked in a camera department in high school.  People who bought, then expensive, Polaroid cameras did not know how to clean them and ruined hundreds of photos.  I think we are getting ridiculous with computers already.  I have a Linux book from 2001 that talked about the planned obsolescence of software.  As far as I am concerned that is what Vista and Windows 7 and soon to be Windows 8 are about.  I don’t believe for a second that minor upgrades to XP could not have been all that was necessary. 

I was at Radio Shack today.  I bought one of these:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12688458

I thought about buying a potentiometer but they wanted $3.19.  I remember when they were $.50.  But it is amazing that that sophisticated electronics costs less than 10 potentiometers.  I’ll dumpster dive and steal something out of electronic junk.  LOL But computer stuff is getting interesting again like in the 70s with things like the Raspberry Pi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

Kids just need good explanations of the stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dg96tefnEU

psik

CuthbertJ - 05 June 2012 11:01 AM

One of my favorite quotes is from Arthur c Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Just think what someone from a mere 500 years ago would think if they stepped into the current day. TV, radio, cell phones, planes, computers, etc. Every one would be magical to them, yet they’re ordinary things to us.  So whenever I think about things, say in this forum, about aliens, science and technology, etc. I always come back to the same thought applied to ourselves in the current day. What things might be like magic to us today, that our future selves (or another e-t civilization a mere thousand years ahead of us technologically) will think of as ordinary?  How does that affect our current thinking?

Do you really foresee another 500 years of advances?

Have to ever wondered if we could be reaching our apex?

Do you think anthropogenic global warming is happening?  . . .  and how does that influence your vision of the future? 
What about resource depletion? 
What about our seemingly dysfunctional local and geo-political systems?

psikeyhackr - 05 June 2012 04:05 PM

Some years ago I watched a TV segment made at an airport.  The video team went around asking people who were waiting on flights to explain how the planes flew.  What held them up?  Of course I don’t know how they edited their video but not one person they showed could explain the aerodynamics of a wing.

We live in a society where most people are accustomed to technology, but to most people it is still magic.  Even 100 years old stuff that could have been explained to grade school kids.

I’m an aerospace engineer and I frequently sit on airplanes next to people who are afraid to fly.  I’ve found that a good way to both calm their fears and pass the time on the plane it to explain to them how airflow over the wings keeps the plane in the air and how strict manufacturing and flight rules are to make sure everything is as safe as possible.

citizenschallenge.pm - 05 June 2012 09:03 PM

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Have to ever wondered if we could be reaching our apex?

Its funny you say that. I remember reading a quote once from someone very influential in the 1800’ saying something to the same effect in that he believed man had invented everything of significance that could ever be invented. Its always a bit tricky when you try to predict the limits of humanity’s ingenuity and creativity or the limits of what the universe has to offer for that matter.

ts funny you say that. I remember reading a quote once from someone very influential in the 1800’ saying something to the same effect in that he believed man had invented everything of significance that could ever be invented. Its always a bit tricky when you try to predict the limits of humanity’s ingenuity and creativity or the limits of what the universe has to offer for that matter.

I remember that quote well. It seems that every generation makes the same statement, “there’s nothing new under the sun from 8 tracks to mp3’s. After Bell patented the phone everyone except a few religious extremists who touted it as a work of the devil, stated that this would be the last form of modern communication. It couldn’t get any better but there are no limits to the human imagination. Cyborg technology is next folks. Implanted communication devices! We already have no touch computer devices that respond to eye movement. Linking human and machine.

Cap’t Jack

Citizenschallenge, you’re right, and Einsteins quote is appropos: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Barring that, I think villageatheist is right on…linking human and machine (and organ growing probably related).  As for the scientist in the 1800’s, the question is will we ever reach a point where we *can* say that’s it, no more big things, just refinements on existing things.  I try to lump stuff into categories, like Transportation, Medical, Communication, etc.  Maybe that’s the place to start. Gather up all the general categories of technologies, stuff, etc. and see where we’re at.  I guess there’s always the question of have new categories come into existence?

A little note:  The person who said that was the head of the U.S. Patent Office when suggesting that it should be closed since there were no longer any significant inventions for it to handle.

Occam

A little note:  The person who said that was the head of the U.S. Patent Office when suggesting that it should be closed since there were no longer any significant inventions for it to handle.

And to the head of the patent office, using the vernacular of the 40’s, “Tell it to the Marines”, there’s a lot of young Edisons out there eager to patent their software!

Cap’t Jack

Austin Harper - 06 June 2012 07:24 AM

psikeyhackr - 05 June 2012 04:05 PM

Some years ago I watched a TV segment made at an airport.  The video team went around asking people who were waiting on flights to explain how the planes flew.  What held them up?  Of course I don’t know how they edited their video but not one person they showed could explain the aerodynamics of a wing.

We live in a society where most people are accustomed to technology, but to most people it is still magic.  Even 100 years old stuff that could have been explained to grade school kids.

I’m an aerospace engineer and I frequently sit on airplanes next to people who are afraid to fly.  I’ve found that a good way to both calm their fears and pass the time on the plane it to explain to them how airflow over the wings keeps the plane in the air and how strict manufacturing and flight rules are to make sure everything is as safe as possible.

The curious thing to me is the rates at which different technologies change and the ways they interact.

Like the SR-71 Blackbird is a really amazing plane but how much better has aerospace technology gotten since than?  But computers from 1964 would be a joke today.  But then those computers are necessary for genetic engineering.  I “ASSUME” we are nowhere near close to the limits of knowledge yet but we are passed certain things that will never need to be figured out again.  Like the basic structure of the atom is not going to change though who knows what details still need to be added.

But someone might figure out anti-gravity in the next 100 years and that would change space exploration within the solar system.

psik