Like millions of people I was carried to work today in a comfortable metal box by the controlled explosion of 600 million year old dinosaur juice. (You call that petrol).

I avoided unexpected traffic on my way thanks to flying machines orbiting the earth, which talked to a metal and glass supercomputer in my pocket smaller than a bar of soap. (You call that a phone).

My pocket supercomputer is – of course – wirelessly connected to the entirety of humanity's knowledge. The entirety of humanity's knowledge is – of course – free. And I can search all of it as fast as I can type.

None of this is even interesting to anyone anymore.

credit: http://oliveremberton.com/2014/you-should-be-amazed/

http://www.thatvideosite.com/v/94

Shit! I fold. You win.

Quote from: rcjordan on January 20, 2014, 01:11:04 PM
None of this is even interesting to anyone anymore.

Actually, at least once a day, I turn on a faucet and am amazed that clean, drinkable water comes out. The fact I can make it come out hot is just bringing it to the next level.

I've spent more hours in my life as a sixteenth-century historian than probably any activity other than sleeping, so my perspective is skewed. But frankly, in the grand scheme of humanity, the water thing is the one that blows me away.

The self-propelled, climate-conditioned box that allows me to travel comfortably in the rain and snow while lightly dressed is another one that regularly blows me away. But above all, the speed. I drive to Mariposa to dump my garbage. In the 1860s, that was considered two days of hard riding each way. It was a minimum four-day trip.

I live just off the King's Highway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Highway_(Charleston_to_Boston)

My home town is ancient by US standards (geo: just between the Lost Colony and Jamestown) ...but to head NFFC off, not as old as that damn barrel in the Citte of York pub.  I think about horse and stagecoach travel quite a bit --particularly when I leave my house in the sticks at 8am and arrive in Orlando at noon and almost all of the time was spent not in a plane.

>None of this is even interesting to anyone anymore.

I still get frustrated when people plop down at a window seat to sleep during a flight.  Let me look out the window!
I played a multiplayer real time strategy game on a wifi flight.  Told the other player I was killing his forces from 32,000ft at 500mph somewhere over Arizona.  We both thought that was pretty cool. 

I'm still amazed to be communicating with my UK friends, hoards of Vikings and all the rest daily, without having to book a call with the international operator and then waiting for a line to clear.  Or airmail letters on rice paper taking 2 weeks to reach then West Germany.  I still can't help but think that this is so cool.

Something I hadn't thought about was recently reading something from a producer about not wanting to make a tv series about the Tudor dynasty too realistic. It would have meant everyone (even royalty) would be dealing with lice, itching, etc. etc. and no one would really want to watch that.

We take a lot for granted related to our current health and well being, and I think it's going to improve much more in the near future.

Turkish Prime Minister gives speech as a 10-foot hologram

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/28/5353200/turkish-prime-minister-gives-speech-in-izmir-as-giant-hologram