this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 27 minutes ago

It’s why a lot of sci-fi written in the 1900’s takes place in like the 90’s and 2000’s. Writers thought that we would keep on exponentially advancing and have Mars colonies and flying cars by now. They could have never predicted that interest in space exploration would have waned, like people stopped caring about the space shuttle, and that the actual technological revolution took place in the computing space.

[–] MasterBluster@sopuli.xyz 4 points 37 minutes ago

There is no individual. There is only network. System. Systems create. They output. They produce. They produce well and tremendously when the system is healthy. Make the system healthy for once. I mean again.

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 1 points 20 minutes ago

My Great Grandfather lived that change. He went from walking, horses and buggies, steam engines, with no telephones or electricity, to sitting on a couch next to me and watching the first Apollo moon landing. He saw more insane changes to this world than we will ever probably see. But.....

It took 2 world wars and millions of dead to drive all that change in that time period of one life. War is the great driver of technological leaps. I'm not sure I feel the need to drive tech advances that fast at the cost of all those lives. Slow and steady might be a better path to travel.

Still, within my lifetime, which much like my Great Grandfather I'm nearing the end of, there have been great changes that everyone just takes for granted. The internet has caused a great disruption in the world. You have access to nearly all the information this world has in an instant. No matter where you are. No more going to a library to look up outdated information in a card catalogue. You can talk to nearly anyone on this planet at any time. When I grew up, we had a party line we shared with 5 other families. And using that phone was expensive. You got billed for each phone call for the duration of that call. You can do business with almost every business on this planet directly. Or Amazon/Walmart/Temu yourself to death if you want. All we had as the Sears or Wards catalogue to mail order from. And then you waited a month to get your order.

You can affordably travel to London, Paris, Tokyo, and nearly everywhere else in a matter of hours. There are re-usable space rockets now. And while the stars might still be just out of reach, there is nowhere in the solar system we can't go if we really want to. The planets are ours for the taking as soon as we want them. Even true self driving cars are a solid possibility now.

Those are just a few of the things I've seen change. And there are many more. But we seldom notice and just take them for granted.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 57 minutes ago

My great-grandfather grew up with horses and carriages and saw man set foot on the moon and the early days of the internet. He saw the rise and fall of the USSR. What will I see?

[–] phdeeznuts@mander.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

I'm certainly not.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

But what if...

[–] neuromorph@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

The chariot lasting as high tech for 3800 years has some part to do with the dark ages.....

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 points 16 minutes ago

Chariots were an extremely effective weapon, they lasted so long for a reason?

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 6 points 2 hours ago

Most modern historians consider "The Dark Ages" to be a myth.

Even if that weren't the case you are talking about 500 years out of nearly 4 centuries.

This is also an extremely 'Western' centered POV. While Europe was in the "Early Middle Ages", cultures around the world were thriving. The 'Byzantine Empire', The Tang dynasty in China, The Maya Civilization etc. Innovation happened all over the world, not just in Western Europe.

[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

Chariots wasn't really high tech unless for a relatively brief period of time a couple of millenia ago. They are not very suitable for combat. They can be fast though.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 15 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The dark ages weren't dark. Humanity didn't just stop for 1000 years, you know?

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 5 hours ago (4 children)

Western history classes gracefully ignore things like the chinese empires, the golden ages in the arabic world (which oh so happened to be to be during the "dark ages" of Europe and saw science flourish there) and anything that happened on the american continent prior to colonialization (not like we know too much about it given the colonizers' rampages and targeted cultural destruction). Let alone African history, Indian, South-East Asia, Australia…

Same of course with religions. But watching that Martin Luther movie three times was definitely important I guess, cause it "changed the whole (!) world". I fucking hate all of this bullshit.

Sorry for the rant.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 5 points 3 hours ago

Even within Europe, there was significant scientific progress during said dark ages. It's extremely obvious by just looking at a 9th century building to those from the 14th century (especially churches). The latter require profund knowledge of mathematics/civil engineering. We went from tiny windows in 2m thick brick walls to vast, airy Gothic cathedrals (although those did take a couple of centuries to actually finish).

Although to be fair, that knowledge did largely come to Europe from the scholars of the Arabic world.

[–] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

Only thing I, as a European, know about MLK is that "I have a dream" speech and that he has something to do with rights for black people in America. My memory stops there.

Funny enough, in Catholic religion class I learned more interesting things about history than in history class itself. My teacher made sure we knew about other religions, how all of them are connected, how they developed, what some did while others went crusading, etc. Best teacher I’ve ever had.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

To add to it. A lot of the European antique that the West loves to pride itself in, such as the work of Roman and Greek philosophers and scientists were only preserved by the Muslims in the Middle East and subsequently rediscovered from Arabic and Persian works. So a lot of European culture and history was preserved by outsiders as the white barbarians couldn't hack it. Unlike the imperial museums in the UK, France, Germany or other countries, that preservation was achieved largely without pillaging.

[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

The amount of ancient Hellenistic texts rediscovered from Arab and Persian texts is neglible, compared to the texts which were preserved in other ways.

Your rant about museums is completely unrelated to that particular subject as well.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Dark ages didn't happen is the issue with your point. There were many new technologies developed and progress being made.

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

We also created nukes and religion. So there's that too.

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 12 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

Bunch of real hoopy froods there

[–] Undisputedscoop@discuss.online 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Check out those prosperity churches. They are like nukes for grifters. They are like gambling on getting free shit with god while the priest gets filthy rich in gods place.

[–] Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 1 points 43 minutes ago

When I was in my late teens I was visiting family about 1000 miles away. My aunt insisted we go to christmas service at her mega church. Apparently the place was like a massive stadium-esque concert and performance hall with like a recreational and shopping area. My parents paid me to just go along and not alienate our family. So, as we are going up the stairs to the entrance of the chapel, I see, in the lobby, they had a line of ATMs from different banks, they had a kiosk for foreign currency, and a cash register set-up, for tithing. I looked at my dad and said "they invited the money changers into the temple". My aunt asked what I meant by that, and I recounted a reduction of the Jesus flipping tables stories. Then I pointed to the ATMs, kiosk, and register, and said "money changers, they literally have money changers in the temple".

I was then admonished and told it was only an hour, I can keep my thoughts to myself.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 hours ago

The Babylonians knew a * b = 1/4 * ( (a+b)^2 - (a-b)^2 ), and and used tables of 1/4 * x^2 to do multiplication by addition. It took three thousand years for Napier to discover modern logarithms. The slide rule was invented eight years later.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 26 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Don't forget the weird rocks that, when refined and enriched, it gets a bit of... well you know...

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 36 points 17 hours ago (15 children)

A man named Peter, who had escaped slavery, reveals his scarred back at a medical examination in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while joining the Union Army in 1863.

Yup, that's far alright:

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 9 points 14 hours ago

MFW I’m in a technology singularity racing full bore toward its conclusion.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 25 points 17 hours ago

My grandmother was an adult through that 66-year period. Lived to be 99. She rode to town on a horse as a kid and took trips on jets before she died.

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