Reminscing about the last 5 decades and thoughts of the future...

[karlrschneider]

I've been thinking that I've lived in the most ...interesting, or significant or maybe even important generation in human history. It isn't hubris (or isn't meant to be) but when I think back from when I was born (1942) there have been a huge number of events and technological inventions and discoveries that don't seem to have parallels in history - in 1942, airplanes were still relatively primitive compared to what we have now - jet engines were envisioned and prototyped but not really functional.

I saw the commercial development of television, the invention of the transistor, computers from the first "Eniac and Univac" through their own evolution to "mini computers" which I worked on and with back in the early 70s which had hard drives the size of a washing machine and supported a whole 10 megabytes on a disk the size of a dinner plate.
I wrote FORTRAN programs to do payroll and many other tasks with a true "core" (the little ferrite doughnuts) that had a whole 16K capacity.
And now, most video cards have far more than that. How amazing is that?

I can pick up my cell phone and call anyone whose number I know in most any country. Copy old VHS tapes to a DVD? No problem! Send or receive a fax (anybody recall that's an abbreviation for 'facsimile'?)

My very first vote for President was in 1963, for Barry Goldwater. Yes, I was raised a conservative christian, both of which I renounced many years ago (but I still have SOME conservative positions, most of which don't have a seat at the table of the neocons...you know what I mean)...

Saw Neil Armstrong land on the moon. (No doubt a staged event.../sarcasm), I actually met him one day at Love Field in Dallas,
I parked my plane next to a NASA aircraft and I walked over to it...the door was open and I hollered into it "anybody here?" No answer, so I walked into it (this was WAY long before all the 'security measures'...
and I sat down in the left seat (and now I can't even recall what kind of plane it was...I THINK it was a Lockheed Jetstar...it's been 30+ years. As I sat there looking at all the 'clocks' in the cockpit, 3 guys walked up to it, and asked me something like "what the hell are you doing here?"...I said "I just parked my plane right over there and wondered why you left your door open, so I came in to have a look around." Turned out one of them was Armstrong. We chatted for a few minutes...so cool. :D

And there are other things: the discovery of planets orbiting other stars, the GPS system, evidence of the Big Bang, satellite TV, first and only use of a nuke on another nation and so on.

So now I find myself wondering if all this technology and "progress" is good, or bad. If there are humans still inhabiting this "3rd rock from the Sun" in a couple hundred years, how will they remember us? I don't think it will be with much fondness. It's hard to imagine that future history could regard the Chimp, or we who allowed him to steal two elections, in a favorable light.