Monday, January 21, 2008

Oh how things haved changed

"Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they
worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably:
Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about
all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much
worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding
horses?

But of course, within a few years, nobody rode horses except for
sport. And in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy
source that was unknown in 1900. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and
Japan were getting more than 30% from this source, unknown in 1900.
Remember, people in 1900 didn't know what an atom was. They didn't
know its structure. They also didn't know what a radio was, or an
airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell
phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU,
IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet.
interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed
dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding,
heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape
recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars,
liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step
aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon,
fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal
transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS... None of this would have meant
anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn't know what you
are talking about."*


* From Crisis of Science by Michael Crichton

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