Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Uncle Steve Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: I Feel Old Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2016 22:05:53 -0500 Organization: Friends of the Galactic Collective Lines: 35 Message-ID: <0049c7efe3eeef0-a531c@gmail.com> References: <9dcde262-7129-4a8f-b034-105b67d61cf5@googlegroups.com> <20160101213359.c4fa91b81ade324004208803@eircom.net> <6080e724-4d4a-4f96-a0b6-06d6c86668d8@googlegroups.com> <7db2ed440bca8c0-13432@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="451d67796bf6fcf36587c3e0e2ac5633"; logging-data="31832"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19EcKQCEMZSSIfpgSPN0adq" User-Agent: nn 6.7.3 Content-Length: 1563 Cancel-Lock: sha1:679uC6xMY9SZVZPlwzhsP23yMOI= Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:156164 On Sun, Jan 03, 2016 at 08:42:37PM -0800, Quadibloc wrote: > On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 7:28:20 PM UTC-7, Uncle Steve wrote: > > I wonder whether > > some of the ancients (in Rome, for instance) looked upon technological > > developments of their age and imagined in some dim way the potential > > we now see looming. > > Generally speaking, in the distant past, people didn't notice change within > their lifetimes, and so it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that the > possibility really entered the popular consciousness. > > However, long before that, Roger Bacon wrote his vision of a future with > increased technical capabilities. > > And then, perhaps the earliest, the Bible speaks of a time when "people shall > go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased". Myths of a fountain of youth and such, and perhaps even the tale of Achilles, suggest a more fully developed understanding of progress. At least among scholars. I suspect the phenomenon of vivisection in ancient times was instructive on the nature of mortality to a degree it is difficult to appreciate at this distance. So to the arts of ship-building, metallurgy, civil engineering, and so forth at least in relation to the time of the Roman Empire -- the collapse of which appears to have delayed progress considerably. The current climate of unreason, blind faith, unrestrained corporatism, insular clannish psychology, and no small amount of naked cultural aggression is not terribly helpful. -- We all cannot be intelligent, but at least we can all be polite.