I was born in the 1980s. I remember growing up, I always had the impression that by this time in the 21st century, we’d have figured out some way to break the established laws of physics. Maybe it was because of watching so much sci-fi, but I feel like I’m not alone in this. The media seemed to reflect the same line of thinking. “Back to the Future 2” with its hoverboards and flying cars is now set several years in the past.
Be it anti-gravity, interstellar travel, teleportation, whatever, I always kind of assumed that by now, we’d at least have a working theory of how we might implement it in the next few decades. I think a lot of that has to do with the start of the “information age.” Computers and the way they could connect us were so revolutionary, it seemed like “magic” to the layperson. More “magic” would only be a few years away, right? If we could fit all this power into a box that sits on your desk, then it wasn’t beyond the scope of reason to think that anything was possible; it’d just take a few more years for us to figure it out, then we’d be planning the first NASA mission to another solar system.
What I never would have predicted is just how rapidly computer technology would advance. We now have supercomputers in our pockets, powered by CPUs that are well into the realm of nanotechnology and are now starting to run into limitations imposed by quantum physics. As a technological society, we’ve probably progressed farther than I would have ever imagined, just not in the way I expected.
High speed rail.
It’s insane Amtrak is the best we got. You should be able to go from Orlando to New York in hours, cheaply.
Reasonable justice reforms for social media used as public alert and communication systems, AI, crypto, gaming, etc to regulate new markets emerging from new tech to prevent predatory monetization policy and monopolies causing increased wealth centralization and patent trolling slowing down technical innovation in general.
Bluetooth that works. The ability to email large files. Low cost broadband. The right to repair. Not lose the ownership of digital media.
Also printers that work
Digital media just kills me. Back in the CD and DVD days I sent back a bunch of discs that were too scrarched to use and i would get coupons to replace them. Often times the publishers included an extra one just because they didn’t want you to pirate stuff. Buying physical media meant you licensed it even when you physically couldn’t so they were compelled to solve the problem.
It’s been a long, long while that I’ve had any issues with any Bluetooth device.
Can you listen to music or watch a movie while on a discord call using the hands-free microphone in your Bluetooth headset? Full duplex audio still halves the nominal bitrate for both the microphone and media playback audio; same as when the HSP/HFP protocols we’re first showcased in 1999. It’s ridiculous, especially now that very few flagship devices still include a headset jack.
A functional healthcare system.
We have one!
Oh wait, you don’t lol
A global functional healthcare system, silly, not just for your local residents.
Universal Healthcare.
Fiber to the Home Internet connectivity that was paid for 30 years ago.
We have that!
Oh wait, you don’t lol
Yup. Maybe a bit bitter at US telecoms pocketing the subsidy money from the 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s, without delivering.
Not backsliding into feudalism?
You don’t like the extra steps we added?
more international cooperation for global benefit. instead we have more profit taking from everyone
- open source software that pays for contributions
- privacy laws that protect people against corporations
- living wage
- end of sexism and mysoginy
- global democracy
This one hits different
Humans on Mars. We are 15 years late already.
High speed rail (USA)
#FUCKcars
Land of the free™.
You’re free to choose anything you want as long as the shareholders benefit.
The one thing I feel deprived of, is the proper sci fi aesthetic in our devices.
The beeps, the switches, the UI. All forsaken for an asinine black mirror .
TBF all those sci-fi transparent displays would be terrible to use
They’re not transparent when viewing from the front, but there’s not really any point to it being transparent either, unless it’s a holographic projection.
Member the matrix all white control room? I want that.
I’m just mad as hell at how many things seem to have topped out in the 1940’s. My car is basically the same. Five wheels and I chase an explosion around. Air travel is basically the same. Big aluminum tube that’s expensive size as hell. TV is basically the same. Tune in, sit on ass, watch.
You look at how life changed between 1900-1945, and how life changed since then, and we’ve really stagnated.
That’s not to say it’s all the same, phones are amazing, but they don’t change my life fundamentally, a day without my phone is very much the same as a day with my phone.
I think we’ve still made amazing progress, just in different areas. For example, communication. In the 40s, if you were in the US and needed to contact someone in, say, Australia, the options would either be to send a letter and wait maybe weeks or months for a response, or possibly a prohibitively expensive phone call.
Nowadays you could click two buttons and have a six-hour HD video conversation if you wanted to, essentially for free. And you could send them documents, videos, money, whatever you want basically instantly. Heck, if you really wanted to you could both create realistic 3D avatars and hang out in VR if that’s your thing lol
Since around the 1940s and the 1950s scientists and Engineers have definitely kept progressing. Do you think all that human experimentation by the Nazis Etc came to nothing? No. Much was learned & implemented.
Scientists & engineers are keeping a ton of technology proprietary while they’ve also figured out how to hypnotize the plebian masses into being consumers, entertainment-seekers, and obedient ignorant workers.
Not a particular technology, but I really had a little bit of hope that we’d be able to tackle climate change like we tackled ozone depletion due to CFCs/HCFCs/HFCs with the Montreal Protocol.
Yes what the fuck happened? As a planet, we came together to end CFCs but now everyone just shrugs and says, “nah”
One problem is a bit easier then the other. No one’s economy is entirely based around CFCs and CFCs have excellent alternatives.
