Radical Technological Change in the 21st Century
We've been living in a world of truly radical technological change for over a decade now. This post by @tylercowen explores how the entire nature of human life has radically altered.
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦
Writes about economics, tweets about rabbits. For serious opinions/analysis, read my blog: https://t.co/KfUxUlCYPz
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This post by @tylercowen is very good, and I also disagree strongly with one of its basic premises. We've been living in a world of truly radical technological change for over a decade now.https://t.co/1mOZbbWWKe
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023 -
The entire nature of human life has radically altered. When I was a young adult, human beings spent most of their day socializing in real life. Now, people spend most of their time staring at small glowing screens.https://t.co/5RLWOu0cC4
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023 -
When I was a young adult, people mostly met lovers in real life, through friends or at work or in public places.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
Now, people mostly meet online. This has radically altered the nature of human romance. pic.twitter.com/cLzuZy6d0W -
When I was a kid you had to work to keep in touch with family and friends living far away. Now those people are all a button-click away, and always will be.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
Human social relationships became radically more enduring as a result. -
When I was a kid, foreign countries were very distant, you didn't often meet people from those countries, and it was difficult to understand foreign languages. Now, we talk to people from other countries EVERY SINGLE DAY, if necessary with the help of translation apps.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023 -
When I was a kid, you didn't know what anything looked like unless you could somehow find a physical photo of it somewhere. Now you can instantly see what the Matterhorn looks like, or Shwedagon Pagoda, or a degloving injury.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
Visual mystery vanished from the world. -
When I was a kid, you could only learn a new skill by finding someone to teach you, or *maybe* by reading a book or manual. Now you can watch YouTube demos to teach you absolutely everything. And if you need even more help you can ask forums.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023 -
When I was a kid, you could get physically lost. In fact, it was easy to get lost, and people spent a ton of time and effort avoiding getting lost.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
Now with GPS, getting lost is an almost unimaginable rarity. One of the most basic human experiences has just...vanished. -
When I was a kid, cameras were rare and video cameras were rarer. Now digital cameras mean that video and images of anything can be captured and shared instantly, from anywhere.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
The world became suddenly and radically more transparent and recordable. -
These are only a few of the ways that information technology has radically, suddenly, and completely changed the very nature of human life in the time since I was a kid.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
I have been living through a time of radical technological change for my entire life. -
So yes, AI is going to change the world in important and interesting ways. Even radical ways. But I'm ready for it. I've already seen human life change into something unrecognizable to my younger self, and I'm ready to see it change again.
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) March 28, 2023
I am here for the ride.
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