Technology moving too fast?

[haha]

It's too late to change for me, but I can't help but wonder where today's children will be when they get to be my age... and whether there will be any vestigial memories of the times that are still clear to me.

It's always hard for me to tell if you have any interest in the questions you pose, or it you are just the board Socrates..

But if you are personally involved here, just climb off the train. I have quite a few friends who retired from academic or professional lives that gave them a good living without needing to master what we call technology. So they paid no attention to it. I joked to one guy that he really needed to get a cell phone. He said what for? I'm 73, well off, have a woman and have never had a cell phone. Why would I want one?

I see young couples passing by my place both with their faces buried in phones. No young guy in my generation would look at anything other than his woman when he was with a pretty woman, except regrettably sometimes another pretty woman.

Just because it is a change doesn't mean it is good.

Ha

 

[timwalsh300]

I do believe we are missing things that happen when technology or societal knowledge goes beyond what "we the people" understand, because we can't be on the front edge of what is affecting our lives... both directly or indirectly.

Who really knew the housing bubble was happening?
Who understood the bank bailouts?
Even now, who understands what part derivatives play in interest rates?
How long was nano second trading going on before we knew about it?
How long did it take for government spying (NSA) to become public?
What do retailers or online social groups know about you?
Dozens of lawyers chasing pharmaceutical errors that happened... why?
Why the F35 costs?
How much do doctors really know about ADHD?
Why does congress rely on lobbies for their knowledge?
Why has the US fallen so far back in edcuation?
Why hasn't technology paid off in medical costs? or National Health?
Why has the middle class income and standard of living fallen?

My dad was a textile worker with limited education, but he knew more about what was going on in government, the economy and his own personal welfare, than I do today...

Here is my theory: If not for today's communication technology, you wouldn't even know which questions to ask unless your local newspaper or radio station just happened to stumble upon these topics. You wouldn't even know they were issues. In effect, you don't know what you don't know.

I suspect that your father actually knew very little and it just seemed like the world was much simpler. In fact, the world was just as complex but nobody could see or hear anything beyond their own little day-to-day existence.

Look at people living in rural North Korea or China who don't get to benefit from open internet access. All they get is the heavily censored, revisionist-history (sometimes blatantly false), party line on whatever matter their government wishes to talk about. Very few of them probably even suspect that anything is missing.

Tim

 

[donheff]

It's always hard for me to tell if you have any interest in the questions you pose, or it you are just the board Socrates..

Yeah Imolder. Yours are often heavy questions set forth with a lot of angst from an old guy struggling to understand the world around him. Yet you seem to be getting by quite well in almost all respects, including technology. Oh well, keep posting your queries regardless the motivation, they are often very thought provoking.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I am not an early adopter but I love technology.

And for what children today will encounter techwise?

"I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, What a wonderful world."

 

[Cooked]

Early this morning out for a nice bike ride. We were going down this fabulous road; quiet and tree lined. Up ahead is a horseback rider. We are always cautious with horses and announce our arrival and cut a wide berth. The rider paid no attention. So we made more noise and finally startled the horse.

As we passed we noticed the rider was texting. Horseback texting, what has the world come to?

 

[Lsbcal]

Here is my theory: If not for today's communication technology, you wouldn't even know which questions to ask unless your local newspaper or radio station just happened to stumble upon these topics. You wouldn't even know they were issues. In effect, you don't know what you don't know.

...
Tim

Good points. I wouldn't ever want to go back to my early day's where the small town newspaper and the major TV broadcasters were my only view of the world. That plus the local library with a modest book selection and magazines.

At least we know what questions to ponder now. And we can talk about it with people even if homebound and bedbound ... thanks to the web and forums like this.

 

[Larro Darro]

My first novel is set near Emden East Frisia {northern Germany} in 1717. The rapid rate of technical change was a subject then, just like it is now. They were struggling with the effects of evironmental degradation from fuel extraction {peat}. People worried about what kind of world their children were growing up in. Gutenberg's invention caused such a marked drop in memory that scholars of his day lamented the death of education as they knew it.

But I know what you mean. For years I was able to control the beast in my study. I used Google to find 15th and 16th century texts I needed in my research, and left Face Book {stupid people saying stupid things} alone.

I can trace my downfall down to the day. My mom had been after me for a while to cut up a little garden spot for her. I was always so involved with my writing back then, it took me a month or two to do the thirty minute job. My old Ford 3930 tractor was having trouble with it's lift, so like I did for everything else, I Googled it. At the top of the page was a link to a forum about Ford 3930 hydraulics. Little did I know what that click would lead to.

I found good info for my problem, but I also found a community of tractor guys at TractorByNet.com. Soon I was not doing any writing at all, other than short posts on 'good morning' or 'I-phone photo of the day'.

A thread on retirement over there led me to you guys. Other threads have found the The Forestry Forum - Index for me. I do have money, tractors and timber, so all are good resources for information that I need. It is up to me to decide how much time I spend on them. So far the new hasn't wore off, so I spend way too much time reading and posting, and almost no time writing.

But I still have drawn the line at cell phones. The other night my friend came by my work to visit with me. While we were talking, he would constantly pull out his smart phone and read or send text and e-mails. Each time he would do this I would stop talking. It would take him a few seconds to even realize. Each time he would apologize and promise to put it away. But a few minutes later, it was back in his hand. And he is my age {52}. Young kids' brains are still evolving with this new technology. When a baby born today is my age, odds are the chips will be on the inside, not just in Google Glass.

 

[bUU]

I see young couples passing by my place both with their faces buried in phones. No young guy in my generation would look at anything other than his woman when he was with a pretty woman, except regrettably sometimes another pretty woman.

No guy in my generation would refer to any woman as "his" woman.

Just because it is a change doesn't mean it is good.

Just because it is old doesn't mean it is good.

 

[RunningBum]

Here is my theory: If not for today's communication technology, you wouldn't even know which questions to ask unless your local newspaper or radio station just happened to stumble upon these topics. You wouldn't even know they were issues. In effect, you don't know what you don't know.

I suspect that your father actually knew very little and it just seemed like the world was much simpler. In fact, the world was just as complex but nobody could see or hear anything beyond their own little day-to-day existence.

Look at people living in rural North Korea or China who don't get to benefit from open internet access. All they get is the heavily censored, revisionist-history (sometimes blatantly false), party line on whatever matter their government wishes to talk about. Very few of them probably even suspect that anything is missing.

Tim

I think this is spot on. There have always been things that the people in power can and have done that we aren't aware of or have little power to stop. Technology can give them more power, but it also can give the people more awareness of it and hopefully have some power to stop.

Where I'm concerned about technology getting ahead of us is in weaponry. We got nukes 68 years ago, and we're still hoping to control who else has them. It seems like technology and knowledge make that closer and closer to being impossible, though maybe technology is helping us track uranium and monitor its use.

As far as a personal basis, you don't really have to keep up if you don't want to. We tried talking my parents a few years ago to get a DVR with their cable box but they just don't want to learn anything new, even if it could be more convenient. They have a cell phone for emergencies and could care less about accessing the internet with a smart phone, and I'll bet they've never texted.

 

[haha]

Just because it is old doesn't mean it is good.

So are you annoyed if a woman refers to "her man", or this a one way problem of yours? Remember that great song, "Stand by Some Man.."? Or its sequel, "Stand by some properly chosen completely unattached self-directing erotic interest of unspecified classification"?

And regarding old etc, you perhaps don't realize that my statement is not invalidated by making an invalid attempt to inverse it. Catch up on some old disciplines like symbolic logic.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
Where I'm concerned about technology getting ahead of us is in weaponry. We got nukes 68 years ago, and we're still hoping to control who else has them. It seems like technology and knowledge make that closer and closer to being impossible, though maybe technology is helping us track uranium and monitor its use.

I'm concerned too and feel that society forgets at it's peril. If biological warfare and/or nukes get used we will see a very different set of concerns in the media.

As far as a personal basis, you don't really have to keep up if you don't want to. We tried talking my parents a few years ago to get a DVR with their cable box but they just don't want to learn anything new, even if it could be more convenient. They have a cell phone for emergencies and could care less about accessing the internet with a smart phone, and I'll bet they've never texted.

DVR -- new ones are wonderful
internet on smartphone -- not for me .... internet on tablet, yes ... smartphone with big screen, yes
texting -- who to, DW?

 

[Lsbcal]

bUU and Ha, come on guys ... I'm sure you both appreciate the opposite sex in your own way.

 

[Larro Darro]

Where I'm concerned about technology getting ahead of us is in weaponry. We got nukes 68 years ago, and we're still hoping to control who else has them. It seems like technology and knowledge make that closer and closer to being impossible, though maybe technology is helping us track uranium and monitor its use.

Nukes can kill hundreds of thousands at a pop. With MIRV's that might get into the millions. A virus like we sent to damage the Iranian centrifuges can be sent back at us now. If the electrical grid was to go down for a few months, just as many people could die from starvation.

 

[bUU]

So are you annoyed if a woman refers to "her man", or this a one way problem of yours?

The problem is not with what I wrote.

And regarding old etc, you perhaps don't realize that my statement is not invalidated by making an invalid attempt to inverse it.

Your original statement wasn't "valid" just because you made it.

 

[ERD50]

No guy in my generation would refer to any woman as "his" woman.

Really? Don't young men talk about "their girlfriend", or "their wife" in conversation? As in "My wife has a really great job", or "My girlfriend can change a flat faster than most guys." Girlfriends and wives are 'women', I think haha just used that terminology in a general sense.

-ERD50

 

[Arifriekinel]

It does seem kind of disrespectful to refer to someone as your woman or your man instead of your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife, because I don't think any of those titles disqualify them from being their own woman or man. I doubt I'd stay with anyone who referred to me that way, but I've never met anyone who does.


As far as technology moving too fast, not as an entity, but for us to keep up, it seems that that's just the way the world is for humans, whether for technology, or social phrases like the one being discussed.

We change and adapt, biologically, very well up until certain ages where we naturally become a bit more set in our ways. It's not completely set, but it's a lot more set, and so it might seem like everything is moving too fast, but it's a combination of things moving and the human naturally slowing down, is what I'd imagine the case is.

 

[bUU]

I think haha just used that terminology in a general sense.

Let's go forward assuming that, then.

 

[haha]

This just shows how easy it is to be misunderstood. Remember the context of my remark- two unknown young people of opposite sex walking down the street together.(Or sitting in a restaurant, or any thing similar. I think my people reading skills are good enough to tell that people are together, but certainly not good enough to know if they are "boyfriend" 'girlfriend" "husband" "wife" "SO" etc. As to using woman in reference to girl-what female over 18 wants to be called a girl? None that I know. Remember, it has been feminist women who have taught us to use the term woman, never girl(disrespectful) or female (too biological, may imply a childrearing role, too confining etc.), or lady (Puleeze, are you stuck in some tired old outdated idea that you have not had the sensitivity or wit to deconstruct?)

I don't think any woman has ever felt disrespected by me, or if so she did not telegraph that.

I certainly have never felt disrespected by some person of whatever gender calling me a man. Few know better than I how independent people are and how what you think is very stable is not necessarily so. People are always free to make whatever arrangements they like, and IMO that tis the way things should be.

Women tend to speak of wanting "a relationship". Well, I don't completely understand this, as most of them have many relationships, many of them more satisfying than most relationships with a man will ever be, outside of sex and showing your friends and mother than you "have one". I don't suppose I have ever heard a man say he wanted "a relationship". I sure don't know any who have, but obviously there are many men I do not know. Most of us are not quite that abstract in our desires.

One other piece of context- I live in the lgbt center of a city that along with Vancouver and Portland are the most urbane north of SF and west of Chicago. I would go nuts trying to keep up with whatever the latest nuances of acceptable terminology are. Talk about a learning curve!

Anyhow, no more observations about the oddness of people being together with their heads buried in phones.

 

[walkinwood]

Each generation finds/has its own way and the older generation cannot comprehend it.

 

[ER Eddie]

Getting awfully politically correct here... I hear plenty of young men refer to "my girl" or "my woman." Likewise, young women will refer to "my man." They say it with pride, not derision. And it's not a generation-specific term. Btw, would offense be taken to saying "my wife" or "my husband"? Well why not? Let's brand all use of the word "my" as sexist and objectifying. Uh oh, earlier today I talked to someone about "my dog." I feel guilty. I had better apologize to her for my insensitive use of the possessive.

People need to lighten up about this politically correct language stuff. Sheesh.

 

[Lsbcal]

Why don't we go back to the OP's intention in this thread!!!

The title is "Technology moving too fast?"

If you want to talk about how guys see women, how about starting another thread.

 

[bUU]

Why don't we go back to the OP's intention in this thread!!!
The title is "Technology moving too fast?"

If you want to talk about how guys see women, how about starting another thread.

Truly. The only point in bringing it up in the first place is that the antiquated manner toward women went, explicitly or inadvertently, hand-in-glove with the antiquated manner toward technology. walkinwood summarized the situation very well.

Each generation finds/has its own way and the older generation cannot comprehend it.

That is the crux of the issue.

 

[HFWR]

So are you annoyed if a woman refers to "her man", or this a one way problem of yours? Remember that great song, "Stand by Some Man.."? Or its sequel, "Stand by some properly chosen completely unattached self-directing erotic interest of unspecified classification"?

I always liked that old song "Every Day With Your Girl (Is Sweeter Than A Day With Mine)"...

Or something like that...

 

[imoldernu]

I hate to break up a loverly discussion about sexism, but I'd kinda like to go back to the beginning of the discussion and retry the original question, with what I had hoped was the original intent.... l

"Technology moving too fast?" For anyone who thought that the intent was to say "We'd better slow down technology"... let me disabuse you of that thought...
My momma had an ugly child, she didn't have a stupid child.

So let's go back to this post, that I hoped would put the question in perspective...

I do believe we are missing things that happen when technology or societal knowledge goes beyond what "we the people" understand, because we can't be on the front edge of what is affecting our lives... both directly or indirectly.

Who really knew the housing bubble was happening?
Who understood the bank bailouts?
Even now, who understands what part derivatives play in interest rates?
How long was nano second trading going on before we knew about it?
How long did it take for government spying (NSA) to become public?
What do retailers or online social groups know about you?
Dozens of lawyers chasing pharmaceutical errors that happened... why?
Why the F35 costs?
How much do doctors really know about ADHD?
Why does congress rely on lobbies for their knowledge?
Why has the US fallen so far back in edcuation?
Why hasn't technology paid off in medical costs? or National Health?
Why has the middle class income and standard of living fallen?

The questions were posted, because most of the events that were mentioned, had already happened before most of our citizens even had a clue as to how or why they happened. The "TECHNOLOGY" that allowed them to happen occurred within the government, or private companies... long before they cme to the attention of the general public. The general public learned about them after the fact.
After the fact means after the events had already cost the public when they became aware. The horse was out of the barn.

So... although some perceive my opinion to be that of some old fart, sitting in his room alone and wishing back the "olden days"... I am well aware of the benefits of technology, but thought it might be well to point out that as "On Top of Tech" as many feel... there are challenges in the works, that you and I don't even know about... even as we speak.

Oh...one more thing... Technology does not by definition mean IT. Fracking, Fusion, Fission and Fomite... might be things that are getting ahead of us.

Thank you all for your interesting input... Made me feel good about being here. After some 22 years of posting on forums, the folks here are by far,
#1!

 

[HFWR]

Oh...one more thing... Technology does not by definition mean IT. Fracking, Fusion, Fission and Fomite... might be things that are getting ahead of us.

Humans are not so good at asking "what if" questions. Fracking, for instance, has opened much needed petroleum supplies, which increases our GDP, and reduces our balance of payment and dependence on foreign supplies. But is it as safe/clean as we're being told? Count me as skeptical...