Comments on: Time Capsule for 2057

By: AJ

AJ — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:57:56 +0000

David this is a riviting post here that really got me thinking. Thanks for this becuase it brings up a good point about how much technology and life has changed in 50 years. In looking into the future THe suv brilliantly illustrates the speed of change, 50 years from now, people will look the suv and the gasoline power and laugh. David a great post man. One thing I wanted to bring up that always intrigued me is from the “back to the future” triology movies.” In the second movie micahel j. fox blasts 30 years from 1985-2015 and the concept of what people saw in 2015 and what life is like 2007 is so much different. Basically there is no alikeness in “their” 2015 and our 2007. So we just have to wait to see what the future brings and no real imagination today can capture what it will be like in 2057. Thanks David.

By: Bobby Ewing

Bobby Ewing — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:26:18 +0000

Here are some high resolution pictures of the car and the items that were stored inside it. Looks like a â€œfixer upperâ€

Pics:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=8700431#8700431

By: david

david — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:28:23 +0000

Mike-

All good points. As to the physical world, your arguments are more valid as it pertains to the U.S., less so elswhere. There were 1 billion people added to the global population between 1907 and 1957. Between 1957 and today 4 billion have been added. Also, all research on the effects of global warming point to more change – increased temperatures, smaller glaciers, fewer species, more CO2 – in the last 50 years than the prior 200, and that is certainly part of the physical world. I agrre with the Information concept.
What is really surprising is that so much of what we started to use 100 years ago we are still using in much the same way today: incandescent light bulb, internal combustion engines for example. It is those usages that will change in the next 50 years.

David

By: Mike Shatzkin

Mike Shatzkin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:10:14 +0000

I would register a disagreement with the characterization with which you conclude this post.

You say:
“The amount of change that has occurred in the last 50 years is nothing short of amazing. It is in fact a greater amount of change than in any 50 year period of time in human history. I am firmly convinced that the amount of change in the next 50 years will dwarf the changes of the past half century. That is both exciting and somewhat scary. It points to the fact that no matter what we put in a time capsule this year, it will seem quaint, nostalgic and perhaps puzzling to the residents of Tulsa in 2057.”

I think it depends on what you mean by “change”. Getting from NY to Tulsa in 2007 takes about the same time as it did in 1957, whether by car or by plane. Compare 1957 to 1907 in that regard.

I’ll bet the maps of both NYC and Tulsa changed a lot more between 1907 and 1957 than between 1957 and now.

You think that car and that gasoline is out of date? Would you have even buried a car in 1907? And weren’t they running on kerosene back then?

In 1957 we got the space race started with Sputnik and setting the goal of getting to the moon was only a few years away. In 1907, either was just a Jules Verne fantasy.

Atomic power? 1907 to 1957 and 1957 to 2007? Peace in the Middle East? Israel? The United Nations? Democrats as liberals and Republicans as conservatives? Fast food? Suburbs?

I think it would be more accurate to say that the world of INFORMATION has changed more in the past 50 years than it did in the 50 years before that. I think the physical world has changed LESS than it did in the prior 50 years.