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fueledbycoffee
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15 Jun 2013, 12:32 pm

This is really long. TL:DR version - Millenials kick ass, and futurism and transhumanism are the philosophies that will drive our generation and that of our kids.

I see it everywhere. Gen Xers, Boomers, and other older folks seem to love to hate on us Millenials. We are whiny (True), we are lazy (Arguably true), we're arrogant (arguably true), and we want everything handed to us on a silver platter (... Jury's out, but I call bull&*^%). I've heard several, both individuals that I've spoken to and supposed luminaries in Op Eds describe us as something akin to the plague. It seems like the verdict is that we are the worst generation ever to be inflicted upon our glorious world.

I mean, how can we really argue? Our grandfather's trashed the Nazis with class. Our parents participated in the largest and longest period of growth in the history of the US and Europe and ended the Vietnam War, Generation X gave us the technological basis upon which our lives are now built. How can we possibly compete? We are seen as listless, directionless, and seriously obsessed with our cell phones.

Simple. We, more so than any other generation, have the potential to make the future our own. Technology has been improving at an astounding rate. Just think. A little over a century ago, it was unthinkable that man could fly. Now we fly everywhere. A half a century later, we put a human being on the moon. A century ago, the telegram was the only reliable form of communication over long distances. Now, we can call someone anywhere in the world and speak in real time, or post a message instantly that can be read around the world. Civilization has been around for somewhere around seven thousand years, and in that time, followed a logical path of slow, steady improvement. Yet, in the last two hundred years, technology, and our society as a result, has truly blossomed. Our technology is such that if we ran back only three hundred years, we would be akin to gods. In the last thirty years, this accelerated advancement has more than doubled! Where will be be in fifteen?

What does this have to do with anything? Every generation has had achievements in technology, where do millenials fit in? Well, that's the thing. Technology has improved as usual, but what we are living through is the beginning of a radical restructuring of our society. The Computer, the global network, green energy, biotechnological advances, and the advancement of science over religion as a priority will see a massive shift. We will see a greater importance placed on contributing to a global community over dominating it. We will see technological advances we dared not even dream of. We will colonize Mars and Titan, be sure of it. We will cease to think of ourselves as citizens of the nation, and rather consider ourselves citizens of the world.

Sounds like science fiction, eh? Between the research that is being done in Nanotech, Biotech, and cloning, we already have some capability. I read about a year ago about a firm in Michigan that has produced the world's first functional artificial organ, a lung. I've read about tiny machines that can regulate the blood sugar of a diabetes patient. And, of course, the famous Dolly. Put this together. All organs could be cloned for a perfect donor match. Cancer, diabetes, obesity, and infection would all cease to be an issue. Whether it's cancerous cells or excess fat, it could be targeted and destroyed by nanomachines. Finally, a lung is just the beginning. Can you imagine being able to combine prosthetic advancements and organ implantation to be able to replace our old, natural parts and improve them? We could be the bionic man. Between physical enhancements and nanotechnology's potential for cellular regeneration, we could end aging. All of this, within my lifetime.

At this point, you probably think I'm ranting. This is about technology, what does it have to do with generations?

Well, simply put, millenials can accept these advancements in a way older generations simply can't.

I'm a fairly outgoing guy. I have about ten people that I would call "friends", but thanks to a wide variety of highly social jobs, I have upwards of three hundred acquaintances that I talk to when I go out and about, spanning every age group and demographic. The only thing that is universal between all of them... they idealize how they grew up. Older generations, who did not have the kind of technology we take for granted today, often see their upbringing as ideal, often telling me how their childhood of small towns and pastoral society was so much more decent than our self-indulgent, wired generation. I virtually guarantee that their parents felt the same way about them. I rarely encounter someone older than forty who gives a damn about the Higgs Boson. To them, cloning, nanotechnology, etc. is unnatural, dangerous, and for many of them, open defiance of God's will.

It gets better for those younger than forty. Yet, none of them compare to the openness and technologically adventurous nature of those under thirty. To them, the Higgs Boson was a fascinating discovery. To them, technological advances from China are something to be admired and emulated, not feared as coming from an enemy nation. To them, Mars and Titan are not just possible destinations, but expected. To them, reliance on Oil is often seen as an attachment to an old technology that will be made obsolete in their lifetimes. To we Millenials, we psychological cybernetic freakazoids, technological advancement isn't just our duty, it's really, really cool!

We have no attachment to a world of lower technology, for we've never known it. This is why Millenials, and especially our children and grandchildren, will save the world. We will end war, thanks to communications and increased reliance on limitless resources. We will end sickness and aging, thanks to biotechnological advances. We won't just put men on Mars and Titan, we will establish colonies.

Five hundred years ago, Europe had a boom of science and culture. They called it a renaissance. To them, I say, this is a Renaissance. We are on the cusp of a revolution, and we lazy, listless, bored and boring, disrespectful, socially ret*d Millenials will be the ones driving it.

Think about that, you polluting, warmongering, fast-food guzzling, oil-addicted old fogeys. (No offense meant to anyone. That's just a rhetorical device attacking every generation that came before because they sucked. Okay, maybe it was offensive. Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.)



WildTaltos
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15 Jun 2013, 1:22 pm

That is probaly the most unrelisticaly optimistic post Ive evre read. I cant say who exctly is in yuor circle of friends - maybe they aer all science officianados who preach humanistic philosphies - but from my observatoin of millenials, they only know slightly moer abuot science than older generations. They haev a vague understanding of technical terms fir the current popular technology (which primarly consists of cell phones and videoo game consoles and hd tellies [miracles of mankind there {sarcasm}]) and they know how to work saiid technology, but similarly did baby boomers knoow how to mouth off technical termss dealing with the tellies and popular tech coming uot when they were young whiel their hapless elders wer mostly clueless or cuoldnt adapt to it - and similarly, most of the stunnin millenials will be scratching their heads ovre new technology 40 yers from now asuming the monstrously unstable modrn world hasnt collpsed in on itself by then, as it is human natuer to desire conservationn of ones beliefs and immediat world once one reaches a certin age, as one is no longre rapidly developin synapticlay and is more inflexible and les impresionable to change.

And similarly they wil be seing their upbringin as ideal and wahtever changes being wruoght in the future they will be railing aginst - thats just the ego-ethnocentric human nature. War is also a part of humann nature, as aggresion is a natural and necesary part of the animal psyche, so unless oen belives one can engineer aggresion out of the human genome (if it is even posible becuse many genes aer linked closly to othre genes and so removing oen may cause genetic instablity to many othre aspects of th organism if not instabilty to the entier genome), which wuold probably stagnate competition and hence progression along wth creatin a species taht cant responnd well to emergencies and survival situatins, thats nevre going to hapen - there wil always be civil unrest and war. Similarly, tribalism/placing one's own "kind" befoer others is an adaptive and inhernt part of the human animal - humans wil seek to belong to a certin limited gruop of others, whethre family or a surogate family, and identify with them and help to protct them from outsidde interfernce, and so that will only perpetuat civil unrest and violnce and war; man will forvre be a teritorial or pack animal and onlly thuosands upon thuosands of years of evolutin in a setting taht dos not require competition of resuroces (and there is no such setting as ther is always a limit of food and enrgy and precious things) wuold safely defuse these primal inclinations. Milenials aren't some kind of new breed of man - its saem man, just with diferent values than thir elders, and their childrn will similarly haev diferent atitudes dependin on what the envrionmnt is at the time, and so on.

As in any othre period of history, there is the men (and women) of learninng, there is the ruling classes, and thn there is the dumb masses that haev to be divertd and/or entertained - the men of lerning are the oens with any apreciable understnding of the sciences and arts, as measuered against thm, most people aer still next to animals and aer only adaptd to using so much sciennce that will entertain them or get thm by in their jobs withuot truly understanding it. I have read a study taht shows taht millenials aer genraly more optimistic than the previous fw generations and are a bit moer tolerant, but tahts about all it had to say abuot them, as longitudinal examinations of techonology usage in cohorts seems to sugest what I already said - they knw how to use the technology of thier age, liek the previous generatins, but most will start fall behind on current tech oenc they pass the age of 30. Your esteem of green technolgy is also over-optimistc in my openion; while modern western cuontris are adopting it slowly, much of th rest of the world wth the much largre populations, such as china and india and certainly most of africa and indonesia, aer scarcely if at all using green technolgy, contributin to the failing health of the biosphere just as evn the cuontries that aer using some green intiatives are, as its too little to maek a diference, and unless the whoel world can band togthre and taek extreme mesures that will be very costly to the global economy (fat chance becuse of said reason), the environment is liable to becoem so unstable that it will have catastrophc effects on human life. So to sum it up - milenials are no diferent from previous genrations save an optimism that is charactrestic of those raised in periods of prosperity, as most aer only proficient with their curent technolgy and lack deeper undrstanding of said technolgy, liek previous generations, and most stil have career and pleasuer-orinted lifestyles liek previous generations of modern man. I cuold go on and on into more detail abuot this and that and the social and cultural cost of certain things and why yuor other expectations of sciencce besides the green technolgy is overoptimstic based on how I undrstand grant money workin and regulations and peer review, but this is long enuogh.


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15 Jun 2013, 2:42 pm

WildTaltos wrote:
That is probaly the most unrelisticaly optimistic post Ive evre read. I cant say who exctly is in yuor circle of friends - maybe they aer all science officianados who preach humanistic philosphies - but from my observatoin of millenials, they only know slightly moer abuot science than older generations. They haev a vague understanding of technical terms fir the current popular technology (which primarly consists of cell phones and videoo game consoles and hd tellies [miracles of mankind there {sarcasm}]) and they know how to work saiid technology, but similarly did baby boomers knoow how to mouth off technical termss dealing with the tellies and popular tech coming uot when they were young whiel their hapless elders wer mostly clueless or cuoldnt adapt to it - and similarly, most of the stunnin millenials will be scratching their heads ovre new technology 40 yers from now asuming the monstrously unstable modrn world hasnt collpsed in on itself by then, as it is human natuer to desire conservationn of ones beliefs and immediat world once one reaches a certin age, as one is no longre rapidly developin synapticlay and is more inflexible and les impresionable to change.


First, yes, a large portion of those who I consider friends are what might be called futurists. It's not exclusive, though. One is a religious fanatic. Anyway, it might be overly-optimistic, but that's also because I wrote is as a reaction to the ridiculously negative view of us that older generations seem to hold. Any action warrants a ridiculously equal and opposite reaction.

I agree that every generation will be outpaced by technology. My point is that we are more open to it. We've grown up wanting the cutting edge; the next generation of console, or the new Android phone. We've become so used to new or improved technology being thrown at us that our instinctive reaction is to accept it. We're going to get to the point where the bleeding edge befuddles us, but I'd bet money that we'd actually think it's cool, rather than the extremely negative reaction of many old people to our stuff. Our kid's will still think we're ret*d, though.

WildTaltos wrote:
And similarly they wil be seing their upbringin as ideal and wahtever changes being wruoght in the future they will be railing aginst - thats just the ego-ethnocentric human nature. War is also a part of humann nature, as aggresion is a natural and necesary part of the animal psyche, so unless oen belives one can engineer aggresion out of the human genome (if it is even posible becuse many genes aer linked closly to othre genes and so removing oen may cause genetic instablity to many othre aspects of th organism if not instabilty to the entier genome), which wuold probably stagnate competition and hence progression along wth creatin a species taht cant responnd well to emergencies and survival situatins, thats nevre going to hapen - there wil always be civil unrest and war. Similarly, tribalism/placing one's own "kind" befoer others is an adaptive and inhernt part of the human animal - humans wil seek to belong to a certin limited gruop of others, whethre family or a surogate family, and identify with them and help to protct them from outsidde interfernce, and so that will only perpetuat civil unrest and violnce and war; man will forvre be a teritorial or pack animal and onlly thuosands upon thuosands of years of evolutin in a setting taht dos not require competition of resuroces (and there is no such setting as ther is always a limit of food and enrgy and precious things) wuold safely defuse these primal inclinations. Milenials aren't some kind of new breed of man - its saem man, just with diferent values than thir elders, and their childrn will similarly haev diferent atitudes dependin on what the envrionmnt is at the time, and so on.


I think you're taking an overly... genetic view of the human condition. Genetics play only a small role in human behavior. Society is the greatest influence on how people behave. Put a Medieval Mongol next to a modern man. Virtually no genetic difference, but for the Mongol, violence, extreme reactions, and rape and pillage were expected. We consider that abhorrent behavior today.

I consider it a sort of evolution. Since we don't have to adapt to our environment, as we adapt our environment to suit us, our culture, our civilization evolves. War, once seen as glorious, is now considered horrific. Rape, once commonplace, is considered to be one of the greatest crimes one can commit. As such, the attachment to tribalism has largely vanished. In the United States, we used to be loyal to our state, which had a unique culture of it's own. Now, we consider ourselves American, rather than say, a New Yorker. We see that in a great deal of modern society. The culture of most western nations, while unique and individual, is considered to be a part of a wider cultural blanket, "The West".

As far as the environment is concerned, a great many of us want to fix the problems. The problem is that the entrenched corporations of oil and coal don't want to see competition. However, you can't stop progress. A few companies have been getting successful, and as the improve their technology and make it more efficient, sooner or later it will outpace oil and coal. The food shortage could be solved by learning to build up and not out, and moving into the cities, freeing up a lot of land for food production. And energy... Man, we have the greatest fusion reactor we could ever want in the sun. Stick some satellites up in orbit to collect solar, I mean massive satellites rung around the Earth like a ring of Saturn, and have them beam electricity back to the Earth as radiation. It could be picked up, converted into electrical energy, hey voila. The solution is there. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better, stronger, faster. We just lack the ambition and vision.

Finally, yes, you have a bunch of people in this generation whose knowledge of science and technology is superficial at best. Yet, knowledge is easier to access than at any other point in history. It's no longer cloistered in universities and monasteries, but out on the internet for everyone. I made a thread a while ago, as I was worried that the internet would cheapen knowledge, education, and expertise. A few people set me right. It doesn't cheapen it, it makes it cheap. It democratizes it. Anyone who does care can educate themselves, at least to a certain point, on the web. You no longer have brilliant men being held back because they are poor. We have a class system, I've commonly said so. But climbing between the classes has become easier than ever before, because knowledge is free.



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15 Jun 2013, 3:46 pm

As my generation sometimes says, The Kids Are Alright (a Who song, you youngsters!). I do hear a lot of tut-tutting from others of my generation about Kids These Days. I remind them that it was only 30 years ago (!) that the even older generation was saying the exact same thing about us. We were a bunch of pot smoking idiots who read too much science fiction and kept nattering on about how cool computers were (although at that time they had graphics that were no better than an Etch-A-Sketch and memory that was little better than a filing cabinet).

Now here we are with your generation. You don't natter on about how cool computers are. Computers are so ubiquitous in your life that you use them without a second thought. And it is this ease you have around this technology that really can make you accomplish at least some of the things on your list. My generation is still stuck in the gee-whiz awe of what computers can do. We are used to them to an extent but they aren't as integrated into our lives as they are in yours. Because you are so comfortable with them, you can think up uses we never would have thought of.

Yes, your generation has vacuous idiots. Mine did too. And there were vacuous idiots in 1945 (don't let your grandparents say different). Every generation has them. But they don't define the generation no matter what us old folks say.



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15 Jun 2013, 3:55 pm

fueledbycoffee wrote:
First, yes, a large portion of those who I consider friends are what might be called futurists. It's not exclusive, though. One is a religious fanatic. Anyway, it might be overly-optimistic, but that's also because I wrote is as a reaction to the ridiculously negative view of us that older generations seem to hold. Any action warrants a ridiculously equal and opposite reaction.

I agree that every generation will be outpaced by technology. My point is that we are more open to it. We've grown up wanting the cutting edge; the next generation of console, or the new Android phone. We've become so used to new or improved technology being thrown at us that our instinctive reaction is to accept it. We're going to get to the point where the bleeding edge befuddles us, but I'd bet money that we'd actually think it's cool, rather than the extremely negative reaction of many old people to our stuff. Our kid's will still think we're ret*d, though.


Not particulrly - I dont see any diference between how genration x and how the baby boomers felt abuot the new technolgy of their time when they wer in their priem - enthusiastic, becuse its "hip" or "cool", yet now, as we see thes people geting older, they aer geting more hesitnt abuot newer things and becomin out right suspcious or skeptical just as their eldres were - so it is a safe bet taht, in the spirit of conservation bein bruoght on by age, the vast majuority of millenials will feel similarly, and it is hygienic to do so, for as Jung wuold advocate, stabilityy and tradition is the province of the aging, whiel inovation and recklesness is the province of the yuong, and for either to continue the other's role results in an unstable society (lol, I cuold see how that wuold be just by imaginin older people actin liek teenagers and yuong adults rathre than workin to solidify a charactre of their society at taht particulur point in time).

Quote:
I think you're taking an overly... genetic view of the human condition. Genetics play only a small role in human behavior. Society is the greatest influence on how people behave. Put a Medieval Mongol next to a modern man. Virtually no genetic difference, but for the Mongol, violence, extreme reactions, and rape and pillage were expected. We consider that abhorrent behavior today.



~48-52% it is curently estimated basd on monozygotic twin studies evaluatin behaviour of how much of human personlity is based on purely genetics - the rest is up to nurtuer as far as reserch goes to date, so....half, I wuold hardly call "small," unles one is taking the outdated "blank slate" belief or nerly so, which as I said, its been mostly discredited. So if aruond 50%can be said is up to genetics, th othre 50% is up to the environmnt, and for humans, taht would be society/culture primarly, and liek you said, the conventinal cultuers o most modernn societis today mostly point up violeence and rape as bad, but naturaly that doesnt eliminate mans capcity for aggresion and violence. The fact taht we are even arguin abuot this shows the hint of agresion/need to dominate present in all man, and it coems back out quite easly when the ocasion arises.

Quote:
I consider it a sort of evolution. Since we don't have to adapt to our environment, as we adapt our environment to suit us, our culture, our civilization evolves. War, once seen as glorious, is now considered horrific. Rape, once commonplace, is considered to be one of the greatest crimes one can commit. As such, the attachment to tribalism has largely vanished. In the United States, we used to be loyal to our state, which had a unique culture of it's own. Now, we consider ourselves American, rather than say, a New Yorker. We see that in a great deal of modern society. The culture of most western nations, while unique and individual, is considered to be a part of a wider cultural blanket, "The West".

I dont kno how well-traveled you are, but from this statemnt, Im inclined to asume your not wel-traveled or at leastt not very read on regional cultuer. Ive been to america a numbre of times, and Ive been many places in Europe and naturaly within my own cuontry, and I assure you, tribalismm is alive and well - and if one cn see it thrivin in these "advnced cultuers," its naturaly in less developd countries. Cities haev the least amuont of it, becuse it is a manifest of th individulaistic "law-of-the-jungle" modern cultuer (every man for himslf), and most peple livin there only are very tied to thir imediate family and/or work asociates, and soem may also have a religous gruop, but evn amongst them there may be a prefernce for thes few close(r) associates than to strangres, a hint of tribal behaviourr. Ths may also be the way of it in self-centrd suburbia, as thos living there act as services directlly or indirectly for the urbia, but once oen goes out into the cuontry, and even presnt in soem suburbs, one sees strongre ties to family gruops, religous organisations, politicl gruops, othre clubs/societies, etc.. Identifyin with a nationalitty is eithre secondary in most peples thuoghts to the local gruop (for example, I wuold say I am Irish becuse I live in Éire, but doesnt mean much to me in a largre poltical sense, I jus live here, whiel my comunity and immediate afairs is what matters to me) or else it gos into the grandiose version of tribalism, nationalissm, in which oen sees the whoel nation as the tribe and glorifis it as such. Also, yuo are only speking from your cultuer/experince - theres still fair numbre of other places in the worlld that glorify batlle or its a ongoing wayy of life, as in war-torn cuontries, whiel the only thing holdng back many modrn cuontris from engagin in many wars is the globall economic state rathre than moral qualm, but rathre than doin physical warfaer, thyve adopted econmic warfare - i.e. putting bans or tariffs on countries thy dont liek, which for certin poorer cuontries can be as costlly to the comon person as a violent war. Anyways, tribalismm and war is far frim dead. Taht is not what moost anthropolgists wuold assert is the evolution of cultuers, by the way, civilisation evolving just becuse man can shape his environmnt, thuogh agriculture did play a largge part as thn it establishd peple to stay in oen place and not haev to run aftre their food, hence giving th potential for the developmnt of cities; theres many ideas but one of the moer popular ones which I favuor is that direct competitin with outsiders, the "othre" tribe, promotes advancement, "evolution", of civilisation, as oen gruop strives to obtainn a marked advantaeg for themselvs and their offspring ovre other gruops where resources aer sparse - becuse, as has been seen in areas wher resuorces are very plentiful, as in th amazonian jungle, and/or there is not much disputes amongstt tribes/gruops of people, not anythng nearing the wars fuoght betwen city-states of the neolithic world anyways, there is very litle advancemnt technolgy-wise and nothng that one wuold term "civilsation," as there is no need for advncement and such peoples remainn in th paleolithic age (and still moer people didnt maek it much out of the neolithic, up until the last cuople centuries when westrners started interfering wth them and destrying their ancient cultuers).

Quote:
As far as the environment is concerned, a great many of us want to fix the problems. The problem is that the entrenched corporations of oil and coal don't want to see competition. However, you can't stop progress. A few companies have been getting successful, and as the improve their technology and make it more efficient, sooner or later it will outpace oil and coal. The food shortage could be solved by learning to build up and not out, and moving into the cities, freeing up a lot of land for food production. And energy... Man, we have the greatest fusion reactor we could ever want in the sun. Stick some satellites up in orbit to collect solar, I mean massive satellites rung around the Earth like a ring of Saturn, and have them beam electricity back to the Earth as radiation. It could be picked up, converted into electrical energy, hey voila. The solution is there. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better, stronger, faster. We just lack the ambition and vision.

Finally, yes, you have a bunch of people in this generation whose knowledge of science and technology is superficial at best. Yet, knowledge is easier to access than at any other point in history. It's no longer cloistered in universities and monasteries, but out on the internet for everyone. I made a thread a while ago, as I was worried that the internet would cheapen knowledge, education, and expertise. A few people set me right. It doesn't cheapen it, it makes it cheap. It democratizes it. Anyone who does care can educate themselves, at least to a certain point, on the web. You no longer have brilliant men being held back because they are poor. We have a class system, I've commonly said so. But climbing between the classes has become easier than ever before, because knowledge is free.


I dont haev much to comment on that becuse the latter portions is science fictionn and wont happn for many yearrs (if at all) - Im guesing that comes with havin "futurist" acquaintances insted of those moer focused on curent scientific problems and procedure - whiel as for green companis, Im inclined to beliv peple wont pick up on it, and especily not in less-devloped countries, untl its too late. Its certinly easier to obtian knowldge than it was and especily for poorer indivduals - but most people dont taek advantage of it. Humans, as othre animals, aer cognitive misers - they try to get awayy with as litle thinking and knowldge as possible, which is adaptive as yuo wuoldnt want to "waste" time gainin information taht doesnt help you in any way, and most peoplle seem true to taht, as they prefr social sites and games whn it coems to the internet rathre than reading journal articles, whiel ocasionaly they will dabble in news and waht science gets siphoned to thm thruogh popular media, but again, very few aer likely to do furthre reserch on the subject and maintain a superficial quality to their information, whiel only a relativly small few do soemthing more with their information, as at any othre point in history.


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15 Jun 2013, 3:56 pm

I thought being a Greatest Generation was a function of pain, suffering and war. Well we have the War of Terror. And neoliberalism is very good at inflicting needless pain and suffering on people.



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03 Sep 2015, 3:18 pm

fueledbycoffee wrote:
This is really long. TL:DR version - Millenials kick ass, and futurism and transhumanism are the philosophies that will drive our generation and that of our kids.

I see it everywhere. Gen Xers, Boomers, and other older folks seem to love to hate on us Millenials. We are whiny (True), we are lazy (Arguably true), we're arrogant (arguably true), and we want everything handed to us on a silver platter (... Jury's out, but I call bull&*^%). I've heard several, both individuals that I've spoken to and supposed luminaries in Op Eds describe us as something akin to the plague. It seems like the verdict is that we are the worst generation ever to be inflicted upon our glorious world.

I mean, how can we really argue? Our grandfather's trashed the Nazis with class. Our parents participated in the largest and longest period of growth in the history of the US and Europe and ended the Vietnam War, Generation X gave us the technological basis upon which our lives are now built. How can we possibly compete? We are seen as listless, directionless, and seriously obsessed with our cell phones.

Simple. We, more so than any other generation, have the potential to make the future our own. Technology has been improving at an astounding rate. Just think. A little over a century ago, it was unthinkable that man could fly. Now we fly everywhere. A half a century later, we put a human being on the moon. A century ago, the telegram was the only reliable form of communication over long distances. Now, we can call someone anywhere in the world and speak in real time, or post a message instantly that can be read around the world. Civilization has been around for somewhere around seven thousand years, and in that time, followed a logical path of slow, steady improvement. Yet, in the last two hundred years, technology, and our society as a result, has truly blossomed. Our technology is such that if we ran back only three hundred years, we would be akin to gods. In the last thirty years, this accelerated advancement has more than doubled! Where will be be in fifteen?

What does this have to do with anything? Every generation has had achievements in technology, where do millenials fit in? Well, that's the thing. Technology has improved as usual, but what we are living through is the beginning of a radical restructuring of our society. The Computer, the global network, green energy, biotechnological advances, and the advancement of science over religion as a priority will see a massive shift. We will see a greater importance placed on contributing to a global community over dominating it. We will see technological advances we dared not even dream of. We will colonize Mars and Titan, be sure of it. We will cease to think of ourselves as citizens of the nation, and rather consider ourselves citizens of the world.

Sounds like science fiction, eh? Between the research that is being done in Nanotech, Biotech, and cloning, we already have some capability. I read about a year ago about a firm in Michigan that has produced the world's first functional artificial organ, a lung. I've read about tiny machines that can regulate the blood sugar of a diabetes patient. And, of course, the famous Dolly. Put this together. All organs could be cloned for a perfect donor match. Cancer, diabetes, obesity, and infection would all cease to be an issue. Whether it's cancerous cells or excess fat, it could be targeted and destroyed by nanomachines. Finally, a lung is just the beginning. Can you imagine being able to combine prosthetic advancements and organ implantation to be able to replace our old, natural parts and improve them? We could be the bionic man. Between physical enhancements and nanotechnology's potential for cellular regeneration, we could end aging. All of this, within my lifetime.

At this point, you probably think I'm ranting. This is about technology, what does it have to do with generations?

Well, simply put, millenials can accept these advancements in a way older generations simply can't.

I'm a fairly outgoing guy. I have about ten people that I would call "friends", but thanks to a wide variety of highly social jobs, I have upwards of three hundred acquaintances that I talk to when I go out and about, spanning every age group and demographic. The only thing that is universal between all of them... they idealize how they grew up. Older generations, who did not have the kind of technology we take for granted today, often see their upbringing as ideal, often telling me how their childhood of small towns and pastoral society was so much more decent than our self-indulgent, wired generation. I virtually guarantee that their parents felt the same way about them. I rarely encounter someone older than forty who gives a damn about the Higgs Boson. To them, cloning, nanotechnology, etc. is unnatural, dangerous, and for many of them, open defiance of God's will.

It gets better for those younger than forty. Yet, none of them compare to the openness and technologically adventurous nature of those under thirty. To them, the Higgs Boson was a fascinating discovery. To them, technological advances from China are something to be admired and emulated, not feared as coming from an enemy nation. To them, Mars and Titan are not just possible destinations, but expected. To them, reliance on Oil is often seen as an attachment to an old technology that will be made obsolete in their lifetimes. To we Millenials, we psychological cybernetic freakazoids, technological advancement isn't just our duty, it's really, really cool!

We have no attachment to a world of lower technology, for we've never known it. This is why Millenials, and especially our children and grandchildren, will save the world. We will end war, thanks to communications and increased reliance on limitless resources. We will end sickness and aging, thanks to biotechnological advances. We won't just put men on Mars and Titan, we will establish colonies.

Five hundred years ago, Europe had a boom of science and culture. They called it a renaissance. To them, I say, this is a Renaissance. We are on the cusp of a revolution, and we lazy, listless, bored and boring, disrespectful, socially ret*d Millenials will be the ones driving it.

Think about that, you polluting, warmongering, fast-food guzzling, oil-addicted old fogeys. (No offense meant to anyone. That's just a rhetorical device attacking every generation that came before because they sucked. Okay, maybe it was offensive. Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.)


I lol'd.