Have you ever wished you were born decades later?

[Roll]

Ugh, growing up during the social media era? Pass! It was insufferable enough in my 20s!

Seriously though, I like when I was born all things considered even if I wish I had transitioned sooner. I feel being born in the early 80s and growing up primarily in the 90s as a nerd gave me a better handle on technology, be it for practical purposes or simple entertainment, than most people in older generations and the younger generation. It was at that sweet spot where computers and the internet were becoming ubiquitous so the kids had easy exposure, but at the same time the technology was early enough to not be dumbed down like the current iteration of everything (*cough*apple...). It's a good middle ground perspective I like having, at least given my interests and proclivities. Not to mention with a lot of the 90s pop culture resurgence, I totally get nerd street cred!

[Roll]

I think it would be cool to be born like 50 years from now. I'm sure technology will be way cooler then.

Assuming humanity still exists and we aren't all dead. Because honestly, that is quite possible at this point.

[BT04]

You mean you preferred it back when there was only basic technology?

Yup! More and more complex isn't always better - oftentimes it's actually worse across many metrics.

Assuming humanity still exists and we aren't all dead. Because honestly, that is quite possible at this point.

Exactly. Thanks in no small part to all these bells and whistles most everyone is vying for. It all takes fossil fuels, and fossil fuels wreck nations, wreck biospheres, and, based on our current trajectory, will most assuredly wreck the entire human species.

[Julia1996]

Assuming humanity still exists and we aren't all dead. Because honestly, that is quite possible at this point.

You're such an optimist Ellie. Lol.

[Chloe]

Yup! More and more complex isn't always better -

I'd really like to see Classic Vinyl make a comeback!! Now all artists do is whine about "loss of royalties"!

"Going Up The Country"
Before the 60's (note how clean cut) . . . youtube.com/watch?v=nBhpiUFSYWI
After the Sixties (same song) . . . youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0Dm-OaTNk
( Anyone remember when "copy & paste" involved 'Silly Puddy"? )

"I'm gonna leave the city got to get away . . . we might even leave the U.S.A 'cause it's a brand new game and I don't wanna play" Sorry! On a roll

Tech is nice (have solar power) but it's not The Answer. Which city ya think gonna be NUKED first?

[Gertrude]

Maybe. As much as I can be old school OG about fashion and to some degree about relationships, I sometimes see I have some things in common with millennials and it surprises me. I guess I am ahead of my time. Insofar as being trans, later is better.


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[FinallyMichelle]

I remember thinking and being told the world was going to end when I was a child, I had no doubt that I would never be an adult. Decades later I am still here.

My grandmother and I reconciled a little, bare minimum really, when she was dying. We would talk on the phone some every day. She said it was the same when she was a child.

I read a biography on John Edgar Hoover years ago, he felt the same way.

I don't understand human psychology and why we are the way we are. Why are we so fascinated with the end of the world. I had actually thought for a while the possibility it was some racial precognition, like in Arthur C Clarke's, 'A Childhood's End'. The Mayan calendar, zombie apocalypse, pandemic, alien invasion, meteorite or just plain global warming, seriously what kind of precognition is that muddled? Might as well let Nostradamus pick our future. Not precognition then. So why? I have a friend that was so certain that there was going to be a revolution in the US, that was seven years ago. I assured him that as long as people have a roof over their head, food to eat and a little left over to play, revolution would not happen. Why would he feel that way? Anyhoo, with few exceptions the world keeps pressing on so my guess is that it will continue to do so for a while.

Now sometime I believe we have reached the limits of our current evolution but that is another story.

The OP's question. Lol, bet you thought that I would never get there. 😁
No. Not just no but NO! Hell no!
I have lived my life and some of it was pretty good, some pretty awful but it led to here. Forget when I had finally lost all hope and prayed that it would end, just end, no rebirth, no heaven, no hell just nothing, no pain forever. Forget that I didn't want a future. I got one anyway and I am so grateful that I did. Now, say 20 years from now they do have major breakthroughs in science, pretty good assumption right, who is to say the major breakthrough is in a direction you are thinking currently. What if the scientific advancement is to find the cause for this and cure it before birth? We would be the last and the world would put up with us until we faded into almost nonexistence like small pox. No one would care about improving transition then.

MAYBE tomorrow will be better. I will take what I have it's more than I ever thought would be possible. Millions of years of homosapiens and now we finally have a chance. Now. This time.

Now is my time.

[Julia1996]

I'd really like to see Classic Vinyl make a comeback!! Now all artists do is whine about "loss of royalties"!

"Going Up The Country"
Before the 60's (note how clean cut) . . . youtube.com/watch?v=nBhpiUFSYWI
After the Sixties (same song) . . . youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0Dm-OaTNk
( Anyone remember when "copy & paste" involved 'Silly Puddy"? )

"I'm gonna leave the city got to get away . . . we might even leave the U.S.A 'cause it's a brand new game and I don't wanna play" Sorry! On a roll

Tech is nice (have solar power) but it's not The Answer. Which city ya think gonna be NUKED first?

Why would anyone want those old records?? My grandma has vinyl records and when she plays one it doesn't sound very good. Music is perfect from an iPod. No static or anything like that. Plus you can store hundreds of songs on an iPod without having physical records to clutter things up.

[Deborah]

Why would anyone want those old records?? My grandma has vinyl records and when she plays one it doesn't sound very good. Music is perfect from an iPod. No static or anything like that. Plus you can store hundreds of songs on an iPod without having physical records to clutter things up.

I agree with you.  With my phone and music subscription I can listen to anything I want at anytime I please.  With a good set of headphones or a good speaker system the sound is excellent too.


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[Kylo]

Except now there's planned obsolescence. They used to make stuff to last. I know people with record players that still work from the 60s and 70s. Can't say the same for my computers, CD players or ipods.

I like being able to take the music anywhere easy though

[RoryL]

No, I'm grateful for having been born in the early 60s, before cable tv, the internet, mobile phones & social media. As much as I use & enjoy those things, having grown up in the world before them is something I treasure. Besides, if our tech were to suddenly come crashing down for some reason, even temporarily, there's no question in my mind that I'd be fine because I already remember life without it.

I have occasionally found myself wishing I'd awakened to being trans in my 20s, 30s, or 40s, instead of my 50s. The thing is, wondering about that would not only pointless it would also be a drain on my emotions & spirit. Instead, I'm happy to have awakened at all; the chance to live my life more fully in the here & now is so sweet!

There are some amazing people, places & things I've experienced & enjoyed in my pre-transition life. There have been hardships, griefs & disappointments that have shaped who I am. I graduated from high school the year that HIV/AIDS was first mentioned in the media; so many beautiful people I knew died but I would never have known them at all if I'd been born in a later decade. I can't imagine having missed any of those experiences.

Life often feels miraculous & precious to me these days; if I'd awakened as trans earlier, perhaps by now I would just be a forgotten memory. Who knows? No one, that's who.

If my former partner & I had worked things out in the early 2000s, I wouldn't have subsequently met & married my much loved husband. If my mother hadn't been an emotionally neglectful narcissist throughout my childhood, maybe I wouldn't struggle so much with self-worth; but maybe I also wouldn't have as much compassion for others' struggles. Speculating about what my life might have been if this or that had or hadn't happened, or if this or that medical option had been available earlier just takes time away from living right now.

[Gertrude]

Why would anyone want those old records?? My grandma has vinyl records and when she plays one it doesn't sound very good. Music is perfect from an iPod. No static or anything like that. Plus you can store hundreds of songs on an iPod without having physical records to clutter things up.

Look up audiophile. There are some albums that were recorded direct to vinyl and with the right equipment, sound pretty awesome and better than digitized music IMO. The music on CDs and digital files can be compressed a lot and lose the warmth, range and nuance of analog recording unless you go to the proprietary format Neil young invented. That said, there's a time for beer and a time for 18 year old Macallan. Depends on what you like to listen to and how often.some music won't see much of a benefit.


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[arice]

Sometimes, although not necessarily for technological advances (I'm almost 40 and FTM and I think we are further from cis-functioning organs). I attend groups with young trans guys and I envy the freedom of gender and sexuality that they have. When I was their age, I knew that I wasn't a straight woman and that I felt more like a gay man... I knew it but I couldn't live it. I didn't have knowledge of transitioning or healthy representations of transgender people. I lived in a world where homophobia was rampant and constant... being an openly gay man meant you would be harassed and probably physically assaulted... so I vowed to pretend to be a straight woman and use my relative privilege to advocate for gay rights. The young gay and trans guys now are out and proud and they know so much and accept themselves in a way that I could not. I envy that and I am so excited for them. I love that we are living in a time and place where kids can discover and live their truths.
On the other hand, if I had been born 20 years later than I was and transitioned as a teen, I wouldn't be me. Who I am is a product of my history and experiences. As painful as some of it is, I wouldn't change it. I am early In my transition so I can't say how I will feel about life before and after.

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[Julia1996]

Except now there's planned obsolescence. They used to make stuff to last. I know people with record players that still work from the 60s and 70s. Can't say the same for my computers, CD players or ipods.

I like being able to take the music anywhere easy though

You're right about that. My grandparents have stuff they got when they were first married that still work. That's fine for stuff that doesn't matter like waffle irons and vacuums but with electronics who would want them to last a long time? My grandparents have a TV from like the 70s in their basement. They don't use it but I think it still works. But even so who would want to watch anything on that outdated old thing? There is always a newer version that comes out. After a year I'm ready to get a new phone if my old one still works or not.

[Roll]

You're right about that. My grandparents have stuff they got when they were first married that still work. That's fine for stuff that doesn't matter like waffle irons and vacuums but with electronics who would want them to last a long time? My grandparents have a TV from like the 70s in their basement. They don't use it but I think it still works. But even so who would want to watch anything on that outdated old thing? There is always a newer version that comes out. After a year I'm ready to get a new phone if my old one still works or not.

Several things to consider there:
1) Rapid turnover of electronics are largely unnecessary, and the "new versions" are contrived to sell, not actually substantial upgrades the way they used to be. This particularly true in the case of phones, as because of market penetration of older versions most apps/games/etc. will be developed for the largest installed user base anyway, and not the recent models. If only 1% of people have a Galaxy 8 or iPhone X, there's no money in it for app developers. It is all pure hype designed to sell the phones by highlighting a few features that would work just as well on older processors, they just parcel them out over time to make things seem innovative.

2) Rapid obsolescence also exists in cases where there is no clear upgrade, or the upgrade is unattractive, such as PC power supplies or routers (at least upgrades as far as 99.9% of users are concerned), but still must be replaced because of purposefully shoddy construction. Somehow I doubt you are itching for the newest TP-Link model.

3) Such replaced devices are a massive, MASSIVE, environmental hazard. They waste precious resources, and often suffer from severe disposal issues.

4) Planned obsolescence can cause secondary effects beyond simply replacing hardware, such as important data loss. Not everything is sync'd to a remote server, and in fact by encouraging things to be we are creating yet more environmental damage (if anyone wants to drop your carbon footprint, delete those pointless extra photos of your brunch from 4 years ago off of any cloud storage and get your friends and family to do the same).

[Allison S]

No I just wish I was born female.

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[Janes Groove]

Yup! More and more complex isn't always better - oftentimes it's actually worse across many metrics.

Exactly. Thanks in no small part to all these bells and whistles most everyone is vying for. It all takes fossil fuels, and fossil fuels wreck nations, wreck biospheres, and, based on our current trajectory, will most assuredly wreck the entire human species.

I was talking to an engineering student today over at the Colorado School of Mines and he told me that he recently read an article about how scientists will soon be able to artificially create a black hole.  Call me a Luddite, but just because  we CAN do things doesn't' mean we should.  I put driver-less cars in that category of science/progress run amok.

[BT04]

I was talking to an engineering student today over at the Colorado School of Mines and he told me that he recently read an article about how scientists will soon be able to artificially create a black hole.  Call me a Luddite, but just because  we CAN do things doesn't' mean we should.  I put driver-less cars in that category of science/progress run amok.

I would put most scientific "breakthroughs" of the past few decades in that category. Modern science either runs on corporate money or the cool factor - stuff we do just because it's effing cool without a care in the world about whether it ought to be done or not. Eff yeah, let's make corn that glows in the dark. Why? Well eff you for even asking why! Eff yeah science! -guitar riff-

Modern scientism seems awfully allergic to discussions about philosophy and ethics though, strangely enough. Because let's face it, newer and shinier and sexier is what sells. Forget that nobody genuinely believes, in their heart of hearts, that the iphone X is better than the iphone 7 or whatever came last. They'll put that $800 bill on their credit card, chuck it in the garbage in a couple years, and conveniently ignore the depression/anxiety/opiate addiction/suicide epidemic happening in spite of all this "progress" and "technology" making our lives "better".

[Roll]

I was talking to an engineering student today over at the Colorado School of Mines and he told me that he recently read an article about how scientists will soon be able to artificially create a black hole.  Call me a Luddite, but just because  we CAN do things doesn't' mean we should.  I put driver-less cars in that category of science/progress run amok.

I'd say that self driving cars are actually one of the few things that would be a massive, practical benefit to the world. Fully automated transportation would be far more efficient in every way: speed (traffic issues could largely be eliminated), fuel (optimized everything else means optimized fuel usage), time (think what you could accomplish in the time you spend driving each day), and most importantly, safety (fatal collisions would drop to a fraction of what they are now, if not become virtually non existent). Perhaps most importantly though, it would open up access to the larger world to people who previously did not have it. People who are handicapped or suffer from other issues that prevent them from driving, and I speak from experience on this (I didn't have my license until 2 months ago because of severe anxiety and phobias surrounding driving). Of course, it is pretty much an all or nothing scenario, and none of the benefits can be fully recognized without complete conversion to the driver-less model. (Also, it doesn't mean there can't be separate areas that are driver-less with additional areas that allow for human control for those who actually enjoy driving. But think about the daily city commute, does anyone really "enjoy" that? That is the area where they are needed.)

[Lady Sarah]

If I could have been raised by a family that loved and supported me, Yes! At least I could have avoided male puberty altogether.