Comments on: The Next Age of Invention

By: Al Fin

Al Fin — Thu, 15 May 2014 16:15:58 +0000

Remember: You are not done until you say you are done.

As Toddy Cat says, the future is only likely to be bright for us if we make it happen ourselves.

Bad things can just happen. Good things usually require a bit of help.

No one explained to us what “raging against the dying of the light” would entail. I suppose we will have to make it up as we go. Perhaps if we perform well enough the road will be made clear for a technological cornucopia of sorts.

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Wed, 14 May 2014 18:18:15 +0000

“This is cargo cult.”

Yes, Nassim Taleb has made a career out of displaying the flaws in this kind of thinking. We might actually have a bright future, but only if we make it happen. The idea that we can all just sit back and chill while the gods of the magical marketplace shower goodies on us is beyond absurd.

By: Rollory

Rollory — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:49:38 +0000

“because past pessism has been wrong”

This is not THINKING. This is not reason.

This is cargo cult.

By: Space Nookie

Space Nookie — Wed, 14 May 2014 05:01:47 +0000

This reminds me of the viewpoint that sees vegetarianism, small homes, and bicycling as a repackaged poverty. They may not be able to afford a family, a car, or meat in their diet, but hey, it’s a more earth-friendly lifestyle and thus, Progress!

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Tue, 13 May 2014 20:21:25 +0000

That techno-optimism is way past it’s sell-by date. This ain’t 1955, Jack Kemp is dead, and anyone who thinks that a wheeled suitcase somehow makes up for record-low labor force participation is not on the same planet as the rest of us.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Tue, 13 May 2014 19:17:02 +0000

Oh, Steve, your insistence on outmoded and frankly ridiculous measures of value like courage, honesty, industry and especially strength (ableism much?) flies in the face of the tremendous advances in ethical theory over the past 50 years. The man on the couch is absorbing vastly more hedons than some poor fellow sweating away at making or doing something. More seriously, funemployment might almost be fun, were it not for the student loan Debt of Damocles hanging over the heads of many of my peers. About 1/4 of my college acquaintances (pretty universally 3.2+ GPA, science/engineering BS or MS degrees) are unemployed, and at least half are underemployed, even a couple years after we graduated. More than half (myself included) have experienced long periods of unemployment. It's not fun. My wife was unemployed for a long stretch last year and was not approved for benefits of any kind, not even for the medicines she relies on to be able to breathe without difficulty. Methinks Mr. Mokyr is speaking from an orifice other than his mouth.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Tue, 13 May 2014 18:02:59 +0000

“And thanks to new technology, leisure — even involuntary leisure such as unemployment — can be more enjoyable than ever before. At little cost, anyone can now watch a bewildering array of sports events, movies, and operas from the comfort and safety of a living room on a high-definition flat-screen TV.”

Unemployed, sitting on a couch staring at a large television is the opposite of being undervalued.

It’s mindless and degenerate and destroys the only important thing a person can have — virtue. What does sitting idly in front of entertainment that’s built to pander to the worst instincts of people do to improve their courage, honesty, industry or strength?

That’s the story of the 20th century — and the beginning of the 21st century — asserting that things are getting better in the face of evidence that’s plain to see if you haven’t been anesthetized that things are actually getting much much worse.