Yesterday my girlfriend and I were cruising the internet via stumbleupon.com and we found a funny picture of Steve Jobs holding the latest product of his, smiling like he has changed the world again. The caption said something reminiscent of "remember when progress sent us to the moon, not the latest way to get your twitter feed." I thought it was funny, sad, and true. Currently I'm listening to a podcast about how the Voyager 1 spacecraft is still fully functioning and carrying out it's mission, some 30+ years later. This little guy was a technological wonder for its time-complete with: two high power radio transponders, energy sensitive resting equipment, the ability to rotate, a plutonium powered battery, cameras, and an 8 track player. This multi-million dollar piece of machinery is still fully functional, 40 years after its creation.
This item is a high mark in science: recording and documenting events that happen here in our solar system in great detail. And now, the high mark of science is finding new ways of telling everyone what's on your mind? I don't mean to be cruel, but that's sad for so many reasons...
I don't want to make it seem I'm just miffed about space exploration and inhabitation. Last week the super-colider held antimatter for 16 minutes, beating the old record of a couple seconds... and nobody I talked to knew about this,a seemingly important event in the scientific world. Though I have to counter argue myself here: it's effects and data are still compiling, so its importance _is_ still fluid at best.
The American society on the majority part had decided stem cell research and therapy is wrong. This had more to do with people not understanding the difference between embryonic and adult branches of the science. For those behind the times, blanking adult human cells was successful, just not from an American, so we didn't advertise or support it. It is a big deal, but when it happened we were more impressed and blown away by the new Apple product that had a high def screen!(that outdated piece of crap...) But that's my point: we as a people have become more impressed with a cheap plastic computer *that does absolutely nothing new* than with the abilities a new bounding science field presents.
We have the ability to travel (and place basic buildings) on Mars. No, this isn't a hopeful scifi nut spewing, there have been multiple proposals internationally to attempt this-st this rate creating a Martian community would take the supposed better part if 30 years by most conservative guesses, but that's with current technologies in the areas represented. The main reason this is never long at is because of initial costs v. profitability. (Might I point out that didn't stop us from going to the moon on a rocket and computer dumber than my calculator?)
I just see a disturbing trend growing more since AIM existed and myspace didn't exist yet: we care more about ways we can communicate (which is important) but so we don't have to actually face thee people we communicate to (virtual friends). It has more to do with being lazy than anything, and we here in the states invest in it so we can be lazier and more socially inept than before. Great progress science is going through when we can compare numbers of people who are our "friends"...
I'd take a society that hails the people responsible for getting us further into space and brings better medicine any day over twitter and facebook.
This item is a high mark in science: recording and documenting events that happen here in our solar system in great detail. And now, the high mark of science is finding new ways of telling everyone what's on your mind? I don't mean to be cruel, but that's sad for so many reasons...
I don't want to make it seem I'm just miffed about space exploration and inhabitation. Last week the super-colider held antimatter for 16 minutes, beating the old record of a couple seconds... and nobody I talked to knew about this,a seemingly important event in the scientific world. Though I have to counter argue myself here: it's effects and data are still compiling, so its importance _is_ still fluid at best.
The American society on the majority part had decided stem cell research and therapy is wrong. This had more to do with people not understanding the difference between embryonic and adult branches of the science. For those behind the times, blanking adult human cells was successful, just not from an American, so we didn't advertise or support it. It is a big deal, but when it happened we were more impressed and blown away by the new Apple product that had a high def screen!(that outdated piece of crap...) But that's my point: we as a people have become more impressed with a cheap plastic computer *that does absolutely nothing new* than with the abilities a new bounding science field presents.
We have the ability to travel (and place basic buildings) on Mars. No, this isn't a hopeful scifi nut spewing, there have been multiple proposals internationally to attempt this-st this rate creating a Martian community would take the supposed better part if 30 years by most conservative guesses, but that's with current technologies in the areas represented. The main reason this is never long at is because of initial costs v. profitability. (Might I point out that didn't stop us from going to the moon on a rocket and computer dumber than my calculator?)
I just see a disturbing trend growing more since AIM existed and myspace didn't exist yet: we care more about ways we can communicate (which is important) but so we don't have to actually face thee people we communicate to (virtual friends). It has more to do with being lazy than anything, and we here in the states invest in it so we can be lazier and more socially inept than before. Great progress science is going through when we can compare numbers of people who are our "friends"...
I'd take a society that hails the people responsible for getting us further into space and brings better medicine any day over twitter and facebook.
posted from Bloggeroid
And the other nice thing is when writing things on paper, you can't accidentally close out of your writings... I'll see what I can remember... It was a lot though...
ReplyDelete... a lot...
Screw it, I'll just keep writing where I left off.
So the continuum I've been interested with lately is the democracy-elitist continuum. Does the regular at the bar really have as much say as a doctor in regards to what that guy is eating/drinking? Do either of them have much to say in regards to law or computer science? Yet, I've learned that people don't like it when you call them idiots, even if given the contexts, it is entirely true. So this brings me to the crux of the pondery: people don't want to feel like idiots, but they don't want to research for the facts either. Of course finding the right facts could be difficult in this day in age too.
So to summarize, you are quite spot on with people doing more talking/texting, but not saying anything; it is in our nature to at least talk to someone some times; you can't go too an emotional or intellectual extreme or else the other side with react against to balance things out, which is often times more of a problem for the intellectuals, but if this is the case then to what extents does democracy have? At what times does the mindless masses have merits and when does the disconnected leaders know best?
Good post! Sorry I lost 3/4ths of mine. C):-\
Dag yo, i hate losing posts. But Just because you get smarter, doesn't make you any more emotionally detached. They are not black and white or polar opposites, they are just different parts of the same whole! So i can be super smart, and still have emotions!
ReplyDelete