Why haven't we really advanced much as a species lately?

[JUST BLEED GOD]

Was watching a 1997 film Event Horizon and it starts setting the scene by saying we colonise the moon in 2015 and start mining on Mars in 2032. I noticed a lot of films that have graphics that are almost as good as today's imagining we are capable of deep space travel on massive ships and stuff not far in the future but then 20 years later we watch the film and think wow we really haven't done much.

Cars from the late 90s imo are not far behind today's, fuel consumption isn't much better as they've all gotten heavier. Hell, some poor countries are only just starting to use efi, developed in the 50s!

Movies like The Lord of the Rings imo from the late 90s are still great looking, better than the Hobbit's cgi arguably. We have some OK 3d stuff but it's 2017 and I can't help feeling disappointed that we haven't done much. The dreams of tv shows like Beyond 2000 in the 80s were big, we don't even have hover boards! Unless you count the water jet and magnetic ones that are...expensive and not really that great.

Sure we have phones and porn in our hands but these are just small evolutions from laptops, things like the psp Playstation Portable or gameboy. Personally the only really big jump for me since 2000 has been flat screen tv affordability.

We went to the moon in the 60s, what went wrong since?

I am disappointed.

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

It's because our new culture is garbage.

Short term profits and long term control are the new goalposts, not innovation or advancement.

And if you say anything about it, people just give you this lazy dirty look because they don't want to deal with the "stress" of acknowledging the obvious.

 

[Slick_36]

Smart phones changed the world, and no one saw it coming. There's some pretty huge advancements being made in a vast array of fields, they're happening at a pace that we can't really keep up with.

 

[japanese steel]

Because a bunch of selfish asshole idiots are making all the important decisions and are being supported by the selfish asshole idiot masses.

 

[guard_passer]

we're on the brink of AI

 

[fungi]

Instant gratification culture.

Who cares about what self-development/self-improvement may bring one in the future?..

we're on the brink of AI

But humans haven't become much more advanced as a species lately. Stupidity prospers for reasons, which even an intelligent person may find difficult to indicate.

 

[JUST BLEED GOD]

Smart phones changed the world, and no one saw it coming. There's some pretty huge advancements being made in a vast array of fields, they're happening at a pace that we can't really keep up with.

I often see this argument, and I have a new smartphone. But, my main method of communication is still text messaging, something I could do in the 90s on my phone, and we had a laptop then too. The biggest changes I see from smartphones is the ability for people to constantly upload pictures of their food or selfies, hardly a big positive change.

 

[luv24nic8]

You're bringing me down man- wtf Eeyore?

 

[JUST BLEED GOD]

You're bringing me down man- wtf Eeyore?

Sorry bro. I just get into my 2003 car, go to work in a cubicle pressing buttons then come home tired, all for what? Maybe I can buy a bigger tv? A few years and I can buy a car that has a screen in it with touchscreen radio controls instead of buttons?

Sometimes I think I'd like to be in the 80s where we dreamed big, but I don't like mom's ass type jeans.

Just gets me down.

 

[Slick_36]

I often see this argument, and I have a new smartphone. But, my main method of communication is still text messaging, something I could do in the 90s on my phone, and we had a laptop then too. The biggest changes I see from smartphones is the ability for people to constantly upload pictures of their food or selfies, hardly a big positive change.

You are downplaying the significance of having the internet in our pockets. It's not the texting or phone calls that make smart phones so important. The amount of information that can be pulled up in an instant is something that was not possible in history. That's only one function, too.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

You are downplaying the significance of having the internet in our pockets. It's not the texting or phone calls that make smart phones so important. The amount of information that can be pulled up in an instant is something that was not possible in history. That's only one function, too.

But really, is that a good thing? I mean it sounds good in theory. All this information at our fingertips, instantly retrievable. What was the last thing you pulled up on your smart phone? What was the last thing any of us pulled up on our phones? Anything important? Probably not. Not to mention the fact that over time it's gonna dumb us all down because none of us will have to learn or remember much of anything anymore.

 

[JUST BLEED GOD]

But really, is that a good thing? I mean it sounds good in theory. All this information at our fingertips, instantly retrievable. What was the last thing you pulled up on your smart phone? What was the last thing any of us pulled up on our phones? Anything important? Probably not. Not to mention the fact that over time it's gonna dumb us all down because none of us will have to learn or remember much of anything anymore.

It's made younger kids insufferable.

But I'd rather not let the thread spiral into arguments about smartphones, we all have them now and know what they do. Tech wise, tvs have gotten to the point where we just keep increasing resolution, it hasn't really changed the concept from the 1950s. I have 3d glasses but it's no hologram or immerseive VR. VR headsets are nice but not really anything new.

What has held back our big dreams so much? Space exploration, colonisation etc? Is what I'd like to discuss!

 

[Pugilistic]

Seems like an odd assessment to me bro.
Think how much technology advanced from 900 AD to 1000 AD, or 1500-1600. Then think about how much shit has changed since 1917 to now. We went from biplanes to landing a robot on mars in about a hundred years. I don't know about you but I wouldn't use CGI in movies as a metric for evaluating our species.

 

[Michaelangelo]

go and do something about it

 

[The Clinch]

Greed.

 

[steve38]

All the smart people stopped having kids....

 

[JUST BLEED GOD]

Seems like an odd assessment to me bro.
Think how much technology advanced from 900 AD to 1000 AD, or 1500-1600. Then think about how much shit has changed since 1917 to now. We went from biplanes to landing a robot on mars in about a hundred years. I don't know about you but I wouldn't use CGI in movies as a metric for evaluating our species.

This is kind of a good point. Maybe expectations from the 80s were just unrealistic?

I still feel like with what we have, not much has been done. Maybe being in my 30s has made me realise I'll be 6 feet under before we get into space properly. It feels like we've slowed and stagnated.

 

[Slick_36]

But really, is that a good thing? I mean it sounds good in theory. All this information at our fingertips, instantly retrievable. What was the last thing you pulled up on your smart phone? What was the last thing any of us pulled up on our phones? Anything important? Probably not. Not to mention the fact that over time it's gonna dumb us all down because none of us will have to learn or remember much of anything anymore.

That's largely what I was getting at, not that I think that is negative or positive, just that our society will change dramatically because of it. There's nothing keeping you from using it for something important, I've used my phone for stupid and important things. Do we lose out because we don't have to memorize every detail of something we're dealing with because we can pull it up instantly? I would argue it allows us to learn at a quicker pace, and frees us from having to memorize details that we can always pull up. As time goes on, our phones will become an extension of our own minds, they already are to a degree. It absolutely will change our lives, for better or worse.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

I blame the illuminati

 

[Slick_36]

This is kind of a good point. Maybe expectations from the 80s were just unrealistic?

I still feel like with what we have, not much has been done. Maybe being in my 30s has made me realise I'll be 6 feet under before we get into space properly. It feels like we've slowed and stagnated.

It wasn't the expectations being too lofty, it's that they didn't even know where to look for the change to begin with. Also you're basing this off of movies. Movies are designed to sell to the masses, and the masses aren't going to be experts in future technology, a studio isn't going to pour money in to making an accurate representation. Most of the time, flying cars and neon lights are shorthand to denote to an audience that it's the future. If you look in to the literature of Sci-fi, you'll see plenty of examples of modern technology being talked about before it's existence.

It's not that we aren't making steps forward in technology, it's that they're happening so fast and so often, you can't even keep up with the changes.