We Can't Do It Today by Karl Denninger 20
Post# of 63700
Posted On: 07/21/2014 11:08:03 AM
We Can't Do It Today
by Karl Denninger
2014-07-20 21:48
It was 45 years ago today when I sat in front of a (B&W and tube-powered) television as a young boy and watched a man set foot on the moon live.
We didn't have computers, our telephone had a rotary dial and was on the wall, a mere transistor radio was several times the size (and weight) of today's cell phones, gasoline was well under a buck a gallon, you could see the engine in a car when you opened the hood, car windows were opened with a crank and a watch was a mechanical thing you wound up. Music was played on vinyl records that turned at 33-1/3 RPMs for albums with about 30 minutes per side or 45s containing a single song a side along with a much larger center hole and, for a few folks (including my parents) they still had a few 78s. "Text messages" were sent by Western Union and were god-awful expensive, as was a voice telephone call anywhere outside of your local area. Most people communicated over distance by writing letters long hand and affixing a stamp.
Today most younger people can't even write in cursive any more.
And today, were we to want to, we couldn't go back to the moon; we literally lack the ability to do it right here and now.
Progress? I'm not so sure.
Yeah, there are many wondrous things we have today that didn't exist then. But how many of them really enrich our lives and how many turn them into plastic nonsense? Facebook and its cousins -- really?
I work with technology every day and have for 30 years. But many times I wonder exactly why I have, and why I do. What purpose it truly serves, and whether it really advances anything at all, or whether it's simply another means of covering up this scam or that, placing "feel good" in front of doing, faceless machines in front of time with people -- or even time alone.
Today, perhaps, as we look back at that Prime Time broadcast of the first man to set foot on the moon, perhaps we should contemplate all of that -- with our computer screens turned off.
Goodnight everyone.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229215
by Karl Denninger
2014-07-20 21:48
It was 45 years ago today when I sat in front of a (B&W and tube-powered) television as a young boy and watched a man set foot on the moon live.
We didn't have computers, our telephone had a rotary dial and was on the wall, a mere transistor radio was several times the size (and weight) of today's cell phones, gasoline was well under a buck a gallon, you could see the engine in a car when you opened the hood, car windows were opened with a crank and a watch was a mechanical thing you wound up. Music was played on vinyl records that turned at 33-1/3 RPMs for albums with about 30 minutes per side or 45s containing a single song a side along with a much larger center hole and, for a few folks (including my parents) they still had a few 78s. "Text messages" were sent by Western Union and were god-awful expensive, as was a voice telephone call anywhere outside of your local area. Most people communicated over distance by writing letters long hand and affixing a stamp.
Today most younger people can't even write in cursive any more.
And today, were we to want to, we couldn't go back to the moon; we literally lack the ability to do it right here and now.
Progress? I'm not so sure.
Yeah, there are many wondrous things we have today that didn't exist then. But how many of them really enrich our lives and how many turn them into plastic nonsense? Facebook and its cousins -- really?
I work with technology every day and have for 30 years. But many times I wonder exactly why I have, and why I do. What purpose it truly serves, and whether it really advances anything at all, or whether it's simply another means of covering up this scam or that, placing "feel good" in front of doing, faceless machines in front of time with people -- or even time alone.
Today, perhaps, as we look back at that Prime Time broadcast of the first man to set foot on the moon, perhaps we should contemplate all of that -- with our computer screens turned off.
Goodnight everyone.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229215
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