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What was the last truly innovative thing you witnessed? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Born in 1890, my great-grandfather had great-uncles who fought in the Civil War. He saw the invention of the automobile, the airplane, two world wars, and saw the Apollo 11 moon landing a month before he died.

I was born in the 80s, I have been trying to take stock of how much life has changed since then. Cable television? Satellite television? Cell phones to smartphones? The internet? Life hasn't seemed to have made much progress. When we get down to it life isn't radically different now than it was in 80s. Just hoping there is more that I'm simply not noticing

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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

After reading the comments here, I see the problem: You judge past things by what they have become, and new things by what they are. Nothing will ever be "truly innovative" by those standards.

The automobile was for a long time just a more expensive carriage. The airplane was a pass time for the ultra rich, while anyone else got by with hot air balloons if they wanted to fly. The soviets got to space first by pointing a ballistic missile upwards.

We have CRISPR and can alter the Genes of any living organism to match our needs, but oh well, it's only used by labs right now and anyone else got by perfectly fine by selective breeding, can't call that innovative, can we?

[–] mukt@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

... The automobile was for a long time just a more expensive carriage...

100%. To add:
Automobile was actually slower than the horse for good many decades.

[–] pipes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

A good horse is like 3 horsepower at least :)