I heard an interesting viewpoint on the ABC Radio National "Counterpoint" show the other day. The standard "Party Line" is that we live in an era of exciting radical change and that the world in even 20 years time would be incomprehensible to us but our children of course will adapt to all this...
The commentator basically said "bullshit" and gave an example. So paraphrasing:
Guy steps into his HG Wells time machine in 1860 and goes forward a century to 1960, and is astounded. He finds it almost impossible to take in the wonderful and radical things he is seeing.
Jet Planes in the sky - you can phone up and get a ticket to fly anywhere in the world - fast cars on freeways, skyscrapers in big cities, helicopters. Everywhere is electric lighting and telephones, supermarkets and (a little embarrassing) ladies in short skirts and pants. He visits your home and marvels at the television in the corner, the telephone which enables you to talk to your family and friends a continent away, the amazing kitchen with the electric stove and the refrigerator - the electric lighting of course, the air conditioning unit lodged in the window frame. There is a box in the lounge room and a touch of a button, or the use of a record disk will immediately bring a full orchestra into your lounge room. You can ring up on the telephone and luxurious foods only available to the rich in 1860 will be delivered to your door........ and to top it off, men are travelling into space and the Moon is to be explored.
Excitedly our traveller jumps back into his machine to travel half a century forward to our own time see what amazing changes await.
Everything looks strangely familiar. The cars are a bit smaller and smoother and less decorated, the supermarkets look more frequent, bigger, and some of them just sell stuff like home improvements or furniture. Hmm, planes are still in the sky, look about the same shape and sound. Freeways. Looks like they have still got electricity happening. Ladies still dressing indecently and some of the men don't look too manly either. He goes to a home. Kitchen is about the same - the fridge freezer is bigger and snappier, stove about the same - couple of little gadgets like a rice cooker or a box that reheats stuff in a couple of minutes, the lounge room looks the same, TV is a lot bigger but showing Beverley Hillbillies like the old one did. Ah, here's something new - in a bedroom a young man is sitting at a box with a little television attached.
"Hey dude, have a look at this - this will astound you - this has changed the Planet and you won't believe what you are about to see..."
Traveller goes over to have a look "Look, man, you can get Justin Bieber streamed right to your desktop....."
The commentator basically said "bullshit" and gave an example. So paraphrasing:
Guy steps into his HG Wells time machine in 1860 and goes forward a century to 1960, and is astounded. He finds it almost impossible to take in the wonderful and radical things he is seeing.
Jet Planes in the sky - you can phone up and get a ticket to fly anywhere in the world - fast cars on freeways, skyscrapers in big cities, helicopters. Everywhere is electric lighting and telephones, supermarkets and (a little embarrassing) ladies in short skirts and pants. He visits your home and marvels at the television in the corner, the telephone which enables you to talk to your family and friends a continent away, the amazing kitchen with the electric stove and the refrigerator - the electric lighting of course, the air conditioning unit lodged in the window frame. There is a box in the lounge room and a touch of a button, or the use of a record disk will immediately bring a full orchestra into your lounge room. You can ring up on the telephone and luxurious foods only available to the rich in 1860 will be delivered to your door........ and to top it off, men are travelling into space and the Moon is to be explored.
Excitedly our traveller jumps back into his machine to travel half a century forward to our own time see what amazing changes await.
Everything looks strangely familiar. The cars are a bit smaller and smoother and less decorated, the supermarkets look more frequent, bigger, and some of them just sell stuff like home improvements or furniture. Hmm, planes are still in the sky, look about the same shape and sound. Freeways. Looks like they have still got electricity happening. Ladies still dressing indecently and some of the men don't look too manly either. He goes to a home. Kitchen is about the same - the fridge freezer is bigger and snappier, stove about the same - couple of little gadgets like a rice cooker or a box that reheats stuff in a couple of minutes, the lounge room looks the same, TV is a lot bigger but showing Beverley Hillbillies like the old one did. Ah, here's something new - in a bedroom a young man is sitting at a box with a little television attached.
"Hey dude, have a look at this - this will astound you - this has changed the Planet and you won't believe what you are about to see..."
Traveller goes over to have a look "Look, man, you can get Justin Bieber streamed right to your desktop....."
