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Comment by paulcole

3 days ago

I started getting online in around 1996 for whatever that’s worth.

> You post achievements in conveniences as major milestones for human progress

A careful reader will note that I did not do this.

8 comments

paulcole

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solomonb  3 days ago

You didn't explicitly call your examples major milestones of human progress but you did use rather trite examples of consumer capitalism as a counter example to my disappointment at the lackluster end game of 20th century techno-futurism.

As other commenters have stated the techno-futurist vision that comes out of the Whole Earth Catalog was radically utopian and far grander then "I get to watch low value consumer media whenever I want."

  • ch4s3  3 days ago

    I’d say dirt cheap solar panels and CRISPR based vaccines are pretty cool. I’m also quite optimistic about the proliferation of plausible SMR designs. That new concrete that self heals and sequesters carbon is cool too.

    • fhennig  2 days ago

      I think it's a category error. The optimism isn't about tech, but rather about society changing in ways that make life better:

      > More peace, no apartheid, no Soviet union, removing borders between countries in Europe, tech felt like a way to connect us.

      If I read your comment charitably, one could maybe argue that we're actually making decent progress in the electrification of things, and that we're also improving health globally, but I'm not sure if that's the case. It doesn't quite feel like it at least.

      3 replies →

    • vermilingua  3 days ago

      And we have the administration of the ex-hegemon working to demonise most of the cool innovations we do have.