[extropy-chat] Progress? What Progress?

[BillK]

There is an enjoyable rant in today's Guardian newspaper.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1997242,00.html>

The age of technological revolution is 100 years dead

Dazzled by neophiliacs, we have lost the power of scepticism - the new
is grotesquely oversold, the tried and tested neglected

Simon Jenkins        Wednesday January 24, 2007

I rise each morning, shave with soap and razor, don clothes of cotton
and wool, read a paper, drink a coffee heated by gas or electricity
and go to work with the aid of petrol and an internal combustion
engine. At a centrally heated office I type on a Qwerty keyboard; I
might later visit a pub or theatre. Most people I know do likewise.

Not one of these activities has altered qualitatively over the past
century, while in the previous hundred years they altered beyond
recognition. We do not live in the age of technological revolution. We
live in the age of technological stasis, but do not realise it.

<snip>


It is all a bit over the top, but has some pointed remarks.

I liked his comment about email, that most people email each other
about twice a day, something the Victorian postal service managed to
do perfectly adequately.  :)

BillK