Reflecting on how a teacher insisted we learn math without a calculator, asserting we wouldn’t always have one handy, really highlights the evolution of times.
The sheer wonder of how we, as kids, dedicated hours to flipping through encyclopedia pages for snippets of information contrasts starkly with today’s reality where children can instantly access any fact via Google. The extent of transformation the world has undergone is staggering. A Reddit discussion recently delved into this topic, exploring everyday occurrences that were once deemed as fantastical ideas of the future.
Most people lose consciousness for about 1/3 of the day to hallucinate vividly.
Clapping. We show appreciation by slapping our hands together to make a noise.
You can go into a store any day of the week year-round and it will be stocked with milk, eggs, meats, fresh produce, breads of all kind, untold varieties of frozen and dry foods, virtually any spice or seasoning you can think of, coffee, tea, etc etc etc. To think that for most of western human civilization people ate bread made from the local staple grain and not much else..
I carry a computer in my pocket with more processing power than the one that took us to the moon. It also has a built in camera, telephone, internet connection, and video games.
Drinking a cow’s breast milk
Being able to chat with someone on the other side of the world any time you like.
People. Ghosts driving meat covered skeletons made from stardust. What are we.
The internet-the largest source of information ever created by mankind-and increasing exponentially every minute.
Honestly, an old school answer but mail. The US mail system isn’t perfect but the fact that I can mail a letter to my in-laws that live across the country and they get it in 2-3 days is crazy.
Work from home/remote.
Only spending the time at work that you get actually paid for is amazing and one of the best developments of modern times. People who demand that you waste your lifetime to come to an office when your work can be done remotely are just as ridiculous as people who think they have the right to ‘test’ their friends by making ridiculous and unnecessary demands just to see if they do it.
Some people can just grow another human inside them and squirt it out and it eventually just starts doing stuff on its own. Absolutely mental.
Life itself really. The fact that chemicals somehow combined at the right time. temperature, and energy level to form the basics of organic life is mind boggling. It’s something we humans take for granted.
“So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
‘Cause it’s bugger all down here on Earth”
Ordering something huge and having at your door the next day.
Computers and the chips that power them are nothing short of magic.
The process for [semiconductor fabrication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication) is simply mind boggling. Are are to the point where we are adding and subtracting individual atoms as part of the process to make these chips. Then we take the chips and have them do things using just two commands – on and off. Like everything in front of you is just a series of 0s and 1s.
Ray tracing graphics and physics modules are insanely complex and their primary use is for GAMES!
We are replacing the air inside hard drives with helium because of turbulence inside the drive. Are you freaking kidding me?
Im going to get in my car to drive home and I have my portable super computer that will connect to satellites 23,000miles in the sky to determine my exact location on the planet to tell me the best way to get home. My handheld super computer will know the best way because every other car has a hand held super computer and they are reporting their speed automatically to the big map in the sky and then the big map in the sky tells me what way to go. And by that I mean a lady talks to me and tells me to get off at a different exit and go a different way if the traffic is too bad. In between giving me directions my hand held super computer is delivering me what ever music, book, or video from roughly the last 100 year I might happen to want to hear. And if my wife wants to talk to me she can either call or text me and my handheld super computer will either connect the call or read me the text while still doing all the other things.
All of that is possible with 0s and 1s flowing through a chip made using witchcraft that costs less than my first keyboard.
Water is the only common material we know of that expands when it turns solid instead of compressing. Wild stuff. Imagine if ice sank.
Google Maps – possibly the most impressive piece of software ever. Requires an entire network of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
Planes. People usually don’t look twice but c’mon. That’s upwards of over 1 million pounds of metal, equipment and cargo just flying through the air like it’s paper. Imagine your car flying. It seems impossible yet there’s aircraft that can carry many many many many models of any car like it’s nothing. It’s one thing they fly in the first place but for example, a Boeing 747 can take off carrying more weight than it itself weighs, which I believe at max load is pushing 1,000,000 pounds. This plane can take off weighing about the same as 312 Nissan Altimas. Is that not crazy to anybody else? Don’t even get me started on the engines they use. The Boeing 777 uses the GE90-115B. ONE of those engines alone produces upward of 115,000 pounds of thrust and it has TWO of them.
Edit: just to add to it, the 747 bone dry weighs about 412,000 pounds depending on exact model. It can take off weighing 970,000lbs. It weighs 412,000 and can take off loaded with an ADDITIONAL 558,000 pounds. That is literally unimaginable weight. And it lifts off the ground like a damn feather. If you don’t think that’s crazy idek of anything realistically crazier.
Nearly every night you can go outside, look up, and observe in fine detail an astronomical body that’s larger than Pluto, glowing brightly, floating around us. More than 50 years ago, humans traveled there on a giant bottle rocket, walked around, took some pics, got back on the boom tube, and rode it back to Earth.
The concept of HOA. You are basically paying someone every month to tell you what you can and can’t do with your property and if you get tired of them and disobey them, they TAKE your property away from you.
In the 19th century, refrigeration and reliable canning processes made it possible for fresh meat and vegetables to be stored safely for long periods, and even shipped around the globe. All this replaced the reliance on salting and drying of these comestibles which damaged the food quality, didn’t last well and then damaged the health of the consumers.
Refrigeration and canning have also reduced famines by allowing stockpiles of food to be built up and reduced the individual’s need to collect and store their own stockpile just to get through winter.
Modern transportation.
We used to walk *everywhere* or at best, ride a horse and then eventually in a carriage. Traveling took weeks, months, and years; not mere minutes, hours, or days. We can cross oceans and mountain ranges; objects that were barriers completely for a long time.
We have cars that *drive themselves* and train services that operate *without drivers*. We can now go places without *doing* anything.
It’s amazing.
We let people drive these massive machines that can go high rates of speed and cause enormous damage and don’t really retest their abilities beyond a renewal or minimal testing.
U.S. healthcare system.
People just spend $100s a month for health insurance so they can..hopefully avoid to ever going to a medical facility.
And those are the people that vote AGAINST universal healthcare.
It’s legit insane behavior.
Hearts. How a muscle in your body just keeps repolarizing over and over again to pump blood throughout your body over and over, years on end is just crazy to me. Everyone has one and doesn’t think about it unless there are issues. But, it is really wild to think about.
21% of our planet’s atmosphere is made of plants burps.
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