Jump to content

Are we living on the hinge of history?


Valin

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...

Why Everyone Will Have To Become An Entrepreneur

Paul B. Brown

 

(Snip)Think back 20 years. On a random Saturday morning, you slip on your American made polo shirt, and made in the U.S.A. blue jeans, and while walking downtown you wonder if that new hot CD you want—the one that has been sold out forever—is finally available. Spotting a pay phone, you get the number for a record store you know is near by. Yes, they have a copy they will put aside for you, if you can get there within the hour. Not quite certain where the store is, you pull out a map and double check.

(Snip)

 

The Money Quote

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

 

Seattle might be a key seed in fostering Social Entrepreneurship, but given the nature of the Internet, there will never be a capital nor center, IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Pepper

 

Agree. Although there are those who will try to control it...to be gatekeepers. I wish them a lot of luck....they're gonna need it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally got caught up. i was shocked to see that you started this 3 mos. ago, @Valin. I would have guessed it was only 6 weeks or so ago. Is that part of what this is about? It's a little over my head, but I think I get the gist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally got caught up. i was shocked to see that you started this 3 mos. ago, @Valin. I would have guessed it was only 6 weeks or so ago.

 

This is my new (and improved) obsession.

 

Is that part of what this is about? It's a little over my head, but I think I get the gist.

 

?

Gary Hart put it best IMO...."I believe we are living on the hinge of history, on the cusp of history.

And it's, it happens no more frequently than every hundred years, sometimes every five hundred years, and we are so in the middle of this symbolically new century, new millennium, really new economic age, information versus industry or machines, and a new, a new order in the world uh, to pla...replace the old cold war order."

 

It is more of a way of looking at politics, culture...etc, and putting what is happening in a broader historical context. I still have not been able to put it in 25 words or less what I see, so these posts of mine are all over the map, and kind of disjointed, but it is major changes are happening that are technologically driven. These changes are good...a leveling of the cultural/political playing field, and bad...an atomization of society, at one time everyone knew who Radar was, all us kids listened to James Brown (or at least knew who he was), Newsweek & Time were important drivers of public opinion....today...these things are not true.

 

IMO getting the gist of this puts you way ahead of the pack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally got caught up. i was shocked to see that you started this 3 mos. ago, @Valin. I would have guessed it was only 6 weeks or so ago.

 

This is my new (and improved) obsession.

 

Is that part of what this is about? It's a little over my head, but I think I get the gist.

 

?

Gary Hart put it best IMO...."I believe we are living on the hinge of history, on the cusp of history.

And it's, it happens no more frequently than every hundred years, sometimes every five hundred years, and we are so in the middle of this symbolically new century, new millennium, really new economic age, information versus industry or machines, and a new, a new order in the world uh, to pla...replace the old cold war order."

 

It is more of a way of looking at politics, culture...etc, and putting what is happening in a broader historical context. I still have not been able to put it in 25 words or less what I see, so these posts of mine are all over the map, and kind of disjointed, but it is major changes are happening that are technologically driven. These changes are good...a leveling of the cultural/political playing field, and bad...an atomization of society, at one time everyone knew who Radar was, all us kids listened to James Brown (or at least knew who he was), Newsweek & Time were important drivers of public opinion....today...these things are not true.

 

IMO getting the gist of this puts you way ahead of the pack.

 

Well, thank you. And what you just wrote makes it even clearer. As you said earlier, it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. When you are in the middle of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Have A Nice Day!

 

Attack of the Micro-Drones

Walter Russell Mead

7/7/12

 

Tiny drones are going to invade your privacy and rock your world a lot sooner than you think. Watch this Lockheed Martin video for an early look at the new age of drones. (via Talking Points Memo IdeasLab):

 

 

Once you get over the sheer inventiveness of the people behind these things—from the engineering which brilliantly mimics nature’s best designs, to the clever synchronization of the camera’s shutter with the rotation of the wing to give the pilot a steady video feed—the hazy outlines of what this all means for humanity starts coming into focus. As Francis Fukuyama put it in the Financial Times * earlier this year:

 

What will the world look like when not just the US but many other countries around the world operate fleets of drones; and when powerful, sophisticated drones are owned by lots of private individuals? What would our attitude be if our enemies could pick off visiting dignitaries as they stepped off the aeroplane in a supposedly friendly country, or attack soldiers in their bases in Europe or Asia? Or if Americans became vulnerable in Florida or New York? Drones might become an inexpensive delivery vehicle for terrorists or rogue states that can’t afford to deliver payloads in ballistic missiles. Some of the remotely controlled aeroplanes that hobbyists build are a third to half the size of their full-scale counterparts. As the technology becomes cheaper and more commercially available, moreover, drones may become harder to trace; without knowing their provenance, deterrence breaks down. A world in which people can be routinely and anonymously targeted by unseen enemies is not pleasant to contemplate.

(Snip)

 

 

(* Free Subscription Required)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

righteousmomma

Yes, I believe we are living on the hinge of history. This morning as I was thinking about our Sunday School class studying Romans it occurred to me that the Book we call the Bible is fast becoming obsolete. Bibles online from IPads to lap tops to IPhones have the words readily available.

While availability is always a plus it's makes me sad to think that the Bible as a special and unique "book" will eventually be a thing of the past. First encyclopedias went and newspaper print editions are fading and next what else?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I believe we are living on the hinge of history. This morning as I was thinking about our Sunday School class studying Romans it occurred to me that the Book we call the Bible is fast becoming obsolete. Bibles online from IPads to lap tops to IPhones have the words readily available.

While availability is always a plus it's makes me sad to think that the Bible as a special and unique "book" will eventually be a thing of the past. First encyclopedias went and newspaper print editions are fading and next what else?

 

I'd make a small wager there were people in the 1460's lamenting the loss of these beautiful hand copied manuscripts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

righteousmomma

Well, if they did not mourn the loss there would be something seriously wrong with them.

However the manuscript gave us in many instances the Book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Draggingtree

One note: I think it is profoundly important that conservatives are aware of this. Valin is absolutely right about our side knowing what is coming, what is happening and engaging in it.

 

Whoever "futzes" with the gatekeeping owns the conversation and we can not cede that wholly to anyone. Even ourselves.

Very well put lightningbolt.gif
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One note: I think it is profoundly important that conservatives are aware of this. Valin is absolutely right about our side knowing what is coming, what is happening and engaging in it.

 

Whoever "futzes" with the gatekeeping owns the conversation and we can not cede that wholly to anyone. Even ourselves.

Very well put lightningbolt.gif

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...


George Siemens, at the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca Universityhas been running "Massive Open Online Courses" (MOOCs). I talk to him about what a MOOC is, how it works, and the educational philosophy behind it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

righteousmomma

The more things change the more they stay the same. Human nature is what it is. I was reminded of this fact this morning.

Chick Fil - A is being boycotted and banned by everyone from the mayor of Boston to the Muffet creators. Why? Simply because Chick Fil A believes the definition of marriage. One man, one woman.

 

(Civil unions in my opinion? Go for it.)

 

On another Forum I often got into a discussion about this issue with two guys who were pro same sex marriage. When all is said and done the main issue is one's belief in Who God is and the Truth and inspiration of the Bible. "They" believe in a nebulous universal God of love who demands nothing of us and expects nothing of us. To them The Bible is mankind's attempt to create a God of their own making and so filled with myths and stories. We who believe its Message, Precepts and Principles are deluded, ignorant (stupid) and bigoted.

 

However this kind of thinking, this kind of perspective

is no different than it was at the Advent of Christianity.

Christianity was a 180 degree revolutionary pivotal point in human history back then. The world had never seen its like before.

Thank our Father God that He chose to reveal Himself to the Israelites by calling forth men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Old (Hebrew) Testament Prophets, David, Solomon and a host of others who were humans just like us today.

Thank God that He Chose to restore and reconcile us to Himself.

Thank God for Grace and the Gift of the Holy Spirit who puts the Presence of the same resurrecting power and active force within us who accept and believe.

 

One of my favorite sayings is a paraphrase attributed to St Augustine:

In the Old Testament the New is concealed

In the New Testament the Old is revealed.

What so many fail to take into account is that mankind (Biblically called the natural man and the world) is dead to God and thus dead to God in Christ Jesus and in rebellion against God

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The more things change the more they stay the same. Human nature is what it is. I was reminded of this fact this morning.

Chick Fil - A is being boycotted and banned by everyone from the mayor of Boston to the Muffet creators. Why? Simply because Chick Fil A believes the definition of marriage. One man, one woman.

 

(Civil unions in my opinion? Go for it.)

 

On another Forum I often got into a discussion about this issue with two guys who were pro same sex marriage. When all is said and done the main issue is one's belief in Who God is and the Truth and inspiration of the Bible. "They" believe in a nebulous universal God of love who demands nothing of us and expects nothing of us. To them The Bible is mankind's attempt to create a God of their own making and so filled with myths and stories. We who believe its Message, Precepts and Principles are deluded, ignorant (stupid) and bigoted.

 

 

One of the reasons so many people no longer Believe, is they don't want someone/something to tell them how to live. Right & Wrong have become passe old fashioned. The idea of a God who Judges who has (dare I say) Standards...Well we are just sooo much more sophisticated today for that kind of primitive thought.

The good news is God made reality...and as the old saying goes...reality is a bi*ch. Societies can no more violate Gods standards without consequences than I can violate to laws of gravity without consequence, one just takes a little longer to manifest its self.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update

 

Food For Thought

 

Supercomputers Replace Wall Street Traders

Walter Russell Mead

 

Trading giant Morgan Stanley is planning to eliminate a number of positions by tapping computers that can make many trading decisions, according to the WSJ:

 

While the effort represents only a part of what the firm is doing to boost low returns in the business, the shift already has reduced the ranks of interest-rate and foreign-exchange traders on some desks by 10% to 20%.

 

Morgan Stanley’s head of interest-rate trading, Glenn Hadden, has told colleagues in recent months and that the trading floor of the future will surround a few traders with the hum of powerful machines. The unit, which has at least 200 staff according to industry estimates, has cut about 10% of staff on some trading desks. Morgan Stanley declines to discuss employment levels, but there according to these estimates the company employs more than 1,000 traders.

(Snip)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
righteousmomma

Valin, have you seen this:

Mindset List: Class of 2016 doesn’t use radios or watch TVs, and sees women as leaders

 

MILWAUKEE — Remember when suitcases had to be carried instead of rolled? Or when an airline ticket was a booklet of pages separated by carbon paper? Maybe you remember when Lou Gehrig held the Major League record for consecutive baseball games. This year’s college freshmen don’t...

 

They never lived in a world where Kurt Cobain was alive or an NFL team played its home games in Los Angeles. The Class of 2016 has no need for radios, watches television everywhere except on actual TV sets and is addicted to “electronic narcotics.”

These are among the 75 references on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List, a nonscientific compilation is meant to remind teachers that college freshmen, born mostly in 1994, see the world in a much different way.

The students are also accustomed to seeing women in position of leadership. They came of age at a time when Madeleine Albright was serving as the first female U.S. secretary of state, and women have held the position for most of their lives.

And the old Hollywood stereotype of ditzy blonde women has given way to one of “dumb and dumber males,” according to the list.

“In general, there was always the complaint that it was too slow for women to get to positions of responsibility,” said Ron Nief, one of the two Beloit College officials who compiles the list. “Now the question is, ‘What took so long?’”

The compilation, released Tuesday, has been assembled every year since 1998 by Nief and Tom McBride, from the private school in southeastern Wisconsin. Over the years it has evolved into a national phenomenon, a cultural touchstone that entertains even as it makes people wonder where the years have gone.

The lists have begun attracting attention from government agencies, athletic organizations and other groups that want to know how the younger generation thinks. Nief and McBride will be sharing their insights with employees of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October.

The new generation gets a lot of its news from Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” But if they miss an episode, they can always get instant news from YouTube (No. 5 on the list).

Here are some other items to make you feel old: These teens weren’t born when “Pulp Fiction” came out. Instead of asking who shot J.R., they wanted to know who shot Montgomery Burns. And to them, “Twilight Zone” is about vampires, not Rod Serling.

Thorin Blitz, 18, disagreed with that last item. He said it’s 13-year-old girls who watch “Twilight.”

“I’ve seen quite a few ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes,” said the incoming freshman from Charleston, Ill. “Most of us know what that is.”

Blitz’s comment reflects a common criticism of previous lists. Some teens were insulted by the insinuation that they had no knowledge of events that happened before they were born, as if they had never studied history. So Nief and McBride have softened the tone, replacing “They don’t know about...” with “They never experienced...”

The theme of last year’s list was how wired the incoming class was. This year’s class includes students who might be bitter at the previous generation, Nief said. While their elders went to college in good times and had jobs waiting for them, these students grew up watching their parents worry about unemployment and foreclosures.

That sentiment was captured in item No. 16, which notes unemployment has risen 2 percentage points in their lifetimes.

But they also live in an era of potential. Gene therapy has always been available, and they don’t waste time with outdated technologies like radios and point-and-shoot cameras.

They’re also less likely to identify with a specific religion. As item No. 3 notes, biblical terms such as “forbidden fruit,” ‘’the writing on the wall” and “good Samaritan” are unknown to most of them.

“When I teach Shakespeare or Milton there are a lot of biblical allusions,” said McBride, an English professor, “and I have to explain them all.”

------------------------------------------------

Rush talked about it today and I thought it pretty well makes the point that yes we stand on the hinge of history.

 

Horribly sad and tragic for us all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

righteousmomma

Btw Rush said (in part)

 

This is about societal evolution. But I think when I ran through it and started thinking about this Akin business, it's more important than ever that we save this country because we need to save it for people who have no idea it's in trouble. We need to save it for young people who have no idea that it is in any threatened state whatsoever. And if there's ever a role for adults to play, it is to protect and guarantee for their kids that which they sought for themselves. And what we're talking about here is preserving liberty and freedom from which everything else in this country sprang.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Valin, have you seen this:

Mindset List: Class of 2016 doesn’t use radios or watch TVs, and sees women as leaders

 

They’re also less likely to identify with a specific religion. As item No. 3 notes, biblical terms such as “forbidden fruit,” ‘’the writing on the wall” and “good Samaritan” are unknown to most of them.

“When I teach Shakespeare or Milton there are a lot of biblical allusions,” said McBride, an English professor, “and I have to explain them all.”

------------------------------------------------

Rush talked about it today and I thought it pretty well makes the point that yes we stand on the hinge of history.

 

Horribly sad and tragic for us all.

 

 

When we were in school (shortly after the glaciers retreated biggrin.png ) How many people actually knew about Shakespeare or Milton? I when to what was for all practical purposes a college prep school, and I'd say most of my class mates only knew as much as it took to pass the course...then promptly forgot it...I know I had to relearn a lot of that.

OTOH today there are places like ShakespeareAndMore &

 

Keep in mind....

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

BTW Thanks for posting to this thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • 1711669032
×
×
  • Create New...