Read on Twitter
1/OK, just for fun, let's take this tweet seriously, and think of a list of ways that the world has progressed since the 1970s.
2/The first category he names is technology.
Obviously -- and this is why the tweet came off as immediately silly -- information technology has progressed by an unbelievable amount. Personal computers, smartphones, the internet, the Web, wifi, social media, you name it.
Obviously -- and this is why the tweet came off as immediately silly -- information technology has progressed by an unbelievable amount. Personal computers, smartphones, the internet, the Web, wifi, social media, you name it.
3/But there's another equally important way that technology has been progressing behind the scenes. One that has much more to do with the world of atoms than the world of bits.
Sustainability technology.
Here's how the price of a watt of solar power has changed since 1977:
Sustainability technology.
Here's how the price of a watt of solar power has changed since 1977:
4/And cheap lithium-ion batteries are revolutionizing energy storage.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/05/the-story-of-cheaper-batteries-from-smartphones-to-teslas/
https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/05/the-story-of-cheaper-batteries-from-smartphones-to-teslas/
5/Cheap batteries are enabling electric cars and electric power storage to help switch to renewable energy.
They're also enabling the Drone Age. (Obviously this has its drawbacks...) https://globisinsights.com/tech-innovation/drones-drones-everywhere-the-rise-of-drone-technology/
They're also enabling the Drone Age. (Obviously this has its drawbacks...) https://globisinsights.com/tech-innovation/drones-drones-everywhere-the-rise-of-drone-technology/
6/On top of green energy and batteries, sustainability technology has been reducing resource use in a million small ways.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-23/economic-growth-shouldn-t-be-a-death-sentence-for-earth?sref=R8NfLgwS
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-23/economic-growth-shouldn-t-be-a-death-sentence-for-earth?sref=R8NfLgwS
7/Sustainability is REAL PROGRESS!
Being able to maintain an industrial society for 1000 years is so much better than being able to maintain it for only 100 years before things run out. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-15/how-to-boost-productivity-and-make-it-last?sref=R8NfLgwS
Being able to maintain an industrial society for 1000 years is so much better than being able to maintain it for only 100 years before things run out. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-15/how-to-boost-productivity-and-make-it-last?sref=R8NfLgwS
8/Now let's talk about how technology is changing society.
Social media, of course, is upending society, for good or for ill. But another recent invention made this much more possible: The digital camera. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/how-the-digital-camera-transformed-our-concept-of-history
Social media, of course, is upending society, for good or for ill. But another recent invention made this much more possible: The digital camera. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/how-the-digital-camera-transformed-our-concept-of-history
9/Ubiquitous cheap digital cameras and social media have literally changed the nature of human existence. Everything is recorded. The world has memory now. That had never happened before.
This is as significant as the printing press.
This is as significant as the printing press.
10/OK, so let's talk about scientific progress.
Our understanding of biology has advanced enormously since the 70s. Genetics was barely a field in the 70s; since then we've sequenced the entire human genome. https://www.science.org.au/curious/people-medicine/human-genome-project
Our understanding of biology has advanced enormously since the 70s. Genetics was barely a field in the 70s; since then we've sequenced the entire human genome. https://www.science.org.au/curious/people-medicine/human-genome-project
11/And we're discovering ways to purposefully edit and change our genome. https://www.vox.com/2018/7/23/17594864/crispr-cas9-gene-editing
12/The whole field of synthetic biology has essentially sprung into being in the last few decades. (Of course, again, like most technologies, it has its downsides and dangers.) https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/what-happens-if-we-engineer-a-superbug-and-the-lab-gets-hacked/
13/And biomechanical engineering is seeing amazing progress.
Watch these deaf people hear for the first time.
Watch these deaf people hear for the first time.
14/We're making progress on artificial eyes, too! https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/new-technologies-promise-sharper-artificial-vision-blind-people
15/The field of deep learning (what most people call "artificial intelligence" existed in very rudimentary form in the 70s, but most advances have been very recent. https://medium.com/mindsync-ai/history-of-deep-machine-learning-1842dc3a4507
16/These are just a few examples. Behind the scenes, scientific fields like chemistry have been making a million small advances that the average Twitter shitposter knows nothing about! https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2015/06/biggest-chemistry-breakthroughs-discoveries/
17/Or materials science. https://singularityhub.com/2020/05/21/3-major-materials-science-breakthroughs-and-why-they-matter-for-the-future/
18/Or neuroscience. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/10-big-ideas-in-10-years-of-brain-science/
20/Anyway, there has been a ton of technological and scientific progress since the 1970s. And it has already completely changed the world we live in, and will continue to do so.
21/As for progress in art, I know very little, and it seems like the notion of "progress" is pretty subjective there, but basically my counterargument is a single Twitter account:
@TokyoFashion. There was nothing like that in the 1970s, and I say it's art. And damn good art too.
@TokyoFashion. There was nothing like that in the 1970s, and I say it's art. And damn good art too.
22/Or just google "Afropunk"!
23/I'm just throwing out random stuff I like, here.
Here's a 49-tweet thread from an art festival I went to last year. And there are tons of festivals all over the world, with totally different stuff. https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1130004969233379328
Here's a 49-tweet thread from an art festival I went to last year. And there are tons of festivals all over the world, with totally different stuff. https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1130004969233379328
24/I am no art critic or art historian. I am not qualified to say whether art has made Progress since the 1970s.
But I'm sure that I, personally, going back to 1970, would be bored with the variety of art on offer.
But I'm sure that I, personally, going back to 1970, would be bored with the variety of art on offer.
25/Oh I forgot to mention anime, heh.
Let's rectify that oversight.
Let's rectify that oversight.
26/The final field that the original shitposter mentions as having no "progress" is philosophy.
I don't know much about recent advances in philosophy, so I'll field this one to @lastpositivist.
I don't know much about recent advances in philosophy, so I'll field this one to @lastpositivist.
27/Also, the original shitposter didn't mention social progress, but I think that's worth considering as well. Obviously social progress is subjective, but I think we've advanced considerably since the 70s. I, for one, would NOT go back to the society of that era.
28/Anyway, I could go on and on and on, but I think it's apparent that there has been a huge amount of progress in the world since the 1970s.
There is, of course, concern that progress is getting tougher and more expensive. That could be happening!
https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/IdeaPF.pdf
There is, of course, concern that progress is getting tougher and more expensive. That could be happening!
https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/IdeaPF.pdf
29/To deny the progress of the last half century is to deny reality. Obviously, it's easy to get on Twitter and say things that just totally deny reality. Just type some B.S. into the little box and hit the little button!
Maybe that, too, represents progress...
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Maybe that, too, represents progress...
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