Poll of the Day > Isn't technology amazing? let's talk about things we take for granted

(+) Yeah! (+)

-phones now a days have built in cameras that are good enough to take quality pictures that you would normally need an actual camera to do
-credit cards can be tapped to pay for things instead of entering a pin
-audio programs like Audacity can be used to record audio from programs directly if you can't find a downloadable source
-modern cars don't need a key to start the engine
---

The second and fourth things are completely pointless
---

BADoglick posted...

The second and fourth things are completely pointless

Well aren't you a negative Nancy.
---

aHappySacka posted...

credit cards can be tapped to pay for things instead of entering a pin

Not here in America!
We have awful RFID cards that take longer than swiping.

We all have all the world's information and history literally at our fingertips.

Everything else is just a gimmick.
---

light bulbs. They are basically magic.
---

Magnets
---

I wanna say the internet as a whole. It's so ingrained into our everyday lives now that I'd imagine most folks would go nuts without it and multiple businesses would fail or slow down.
---

I love the toaster and coffeemaker.

Coffee is pretty much a magic bean that boosts productivity- in liquid form.

Toast is just amazing.
---

Wheels! Our lives would come to a halt without them.
---

Tapping Creditcards is stupid.. steal a CC with tap and there is no protection. Yes you have CC protection but still someone is out money. Also criminals most love CC's morw than ever now.

Push start is also dumb unless you can also use a key to start the car. What if the button fails? Dumb

And iunno about others but I have the worst luck with smartphones.. they always seem to last a year or 2 max before something happens and it doesn't work anymore. Last phone I had LGG4 lasted less than a year.. got the bootloop issue after I updated it.

Technology is great but also very flawed.

xjayguyx posted...

Tapping Creditcards is stupid.. steal a CC with tap and there is no protection. Yes you have CC protection but still someone is out money. Also criminals most love CC's morw than ever now.

As apposed to before where if someone stole a CC it wouldn't be used ever?

xjayguyx posted...

Push start is also dumb unless you can also use a key to start the car. What if the button fails? Dumb

It does also work with keys.

The handles also have breakaway plastic to get to the key hole.

shadowsword87 posted...

xjayguyx posted...

Tapping Creditcards is stupid.. steal a CC with tap and there is no protection. Yes you have CC protection but still someone is out money. Also criminals most love CC's morw than ever now.

As apposed to before where if someone stole a CC it wouldn't be used ever?

xjayguyx posted...

Push start is also dumb unless you can also use a key to start the car. What if the button fails? Dumb

It does also work with keys.

The handles also have breakaway plastic to get to the key hole.

Tap still makes it easier for criminals.. and someone I work with has a honda civic si 9th gen with puch button but no key/turn key ignition.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/9c/6d/45/9c6d45c2df16f407364cd5c250c11d06.jpg

piracy and lax copyright. how else we gonna watch those over-the-top Asian dramas and variety shows with subs.
---

Harnessing electricity.
---

KJ StErOiDs posted...

Harnessing electricity.

Thinking about it, I'd say this and before it, harnessing the power of water is something most take for granted.
---

we grew up in a time when cell phones looked like this



and couldn't even text and being able to store up to 30 contacts was an advertising point

and now they're literal super computers that're thinner than a pencil



floppy disks that could only store a little over a megabyte, to microsd cards that have more memory than the entirety of the 90's

xjayguyx posted...

and someone I work with has a honda civic si 9th gen with puch button but no key/turn key ignition.

nope.

to start the car if the FOB's battery is weak or dead, you have to press the button with the FOB.

The printing machine spread the knowledge to everyone. Even the peasant can learn science
---

you dont need a key, but you need the thing to be near enough to start the car. also, not that modern since it's been around for over 10 years
---

SpaceBear_ posted...

We all have all the world's information and history literally at our fingertips.

Everything else is just a gimmick.

Not quite all of it (as any historical researcher can tell you), but certainly a huge percentage, and more than enough for most people.
---

Flush toilets. Actually, indoor plumbing is pretty amazing. My grandparents didn't have it until the 1960s.

When I was a kid, we had a coal-fired furnace with an automatic stoker, so you didn't actually have to shovel coal. Now I have gas heat with a thermostat, amazing.

Cars required oil change and chassis lube every 1000 miles. Now I can go for a year between oil changes, sealed bearings mean never needing a chassis lube. Amazing. Cars had a useful life of 100k miles, I'm at 250k with no problems, amazing.

Party line telephones, had to wait to make a call if a neighbor was already on the line. Now I have a pocket phone, private. Amazing.

Had to drive downtown or to the university and find a metered parking place to visit a library to do research. Now I have the internet on my phone.
---

Online banking

This has saved me so many trips to my local branch. Also the lines seem shorter than before at the teller and the ATM machine.

im usually a skeptic. but the rate that technology is moving makes me suspicious. i think its moving at a rate that humans are incapable of - as if something else was behind it.
---

xjayguyx posted...

Tap still makes it easier for criminals..

Not true. Mine won't start unless the key is in the car with you. I will say you should definitely keep a spare battery for the key fob in the car with you though for when it craps out

HANGtheDJ_86 posted...

Online banking

This has saved me so many trips to my local branch. Also the lines seem shorter than before at the teller and the ATM machine.

So much this. Direct deposit as well even though that's been around longer. But yeah lines are shorter unless you bank at bank of America. Fuck that bank

Third_Eye posted...

im usually a skeptic. but the rate that technology is moving makes me suspicious. i think its moving at a rate that humans are incapable of - as if something else was behind it.

we're actually slowing down now due to silicone's limits being pretty much reached at this point.

One thing Im constantly grateful for is how often I can do things without leaving the house.

When I was a kid my parents had to run errands all the damn time. I remember being so bored while they drove around town paying bills and whatever else.

Nowadays I can pay all my bills from home, I can shop, have food delivered. Just about everything.
---

You can order a pizza online and track the cooking process right from the pocket sized touch screen computer you carry with you

You can pay a nominal fee to have your DNA sequenced and a bit more to have your own genome mapped

You can search for information on anything you're wondering about and read countless sources of information on it, in seconds, without leaving your home

You could download more books than you could read in several lifetimes and store them all on something smaller than a fingernail

You can wear a smart health monitor that allows you to track stats day by day and alerts you about possible dangers

Life is way different now from when I was growing up
---

I can turn on a faucet and have unlimited clean drinking water.
---

aHappySacka posted...

-phones now a days have built in cameras that are good enough to take quality pictures that you would normally need an actual camera to do
-credit cards can be tapped to pay for things instead of entering a pin
-audio programs like Audacity can be used to record audio from programs directly if you can't find a downloadable source
-modern cars don't need a key to start the engine

To all of those:

Do not want.
---

I actually hate OP's #4. It leads to paranoia that I left the engine on. I'd prefer a separate unlocker and ignition key.
---

Doctor Foxx posted...

Life is way different now from when I was growing up

these were the computers we had growing up



now we have shit like this



if you showed me a picture of that back then, i'd say that looks like alien technology.

likehelly posted...

Doctor Foxx posted...

Life is way different now from when I was growing up

these were the computers we had growing up



now we have shit like this



if you showed me a picture of that back then, i'd say that looks like alien technology.

This was what I got introduced to in school


---

oh, in school?

my school had machintosh se's



even in the 9th grade, some of the high school teachers still had a few in their classroom, worked and everything.

i remember typing up an essay on one, the bell ringing, and i was late to the next class because the floppy disk i brought to save it to had to be formatted to work on the comptuer and it took forever

There's countless shit we take for granted, including the ability to run a search from a mobile device to give us answers that would require a trip to a library.

aHappySacka posted...

-credit cards can be tapped to pay for things instead of entering a pin

Eh, nowadays you have to insert your credit card into a reader then sign instead of just swiping.

likehelly posted...

floppy disks that could only store a little over a megabyte, to microsd cards that have more memory than the entirety of the 90's

Granted, file sizes are also growing so the added space is needed.
---

Zeus posted...

There's countless shit we take for granted, including the ability to run a search from a mobile device to give us answers that would require a trip to a library.

I think about this one a lot

Back as a kid you would wonder about something and youd have to wait until you could find a book or encyclopedia, or find someone smart to ask.

Sometimes you would just wonder about something for years.
---

Mead posted...

Zeus posted...

There's countless shit we take for granted, including the ability to run a search from a mobile device to give us answers that would require a trip to a library.

I think about this one a lot

Back as a kid you would wonder about something and youd have to wait until you could find a book or encyclopedia, or find someone smart to ask.

Sometimes you would just wonder about something for years.

And even if you found an encyclopedia it was more than likely at least several years old, so you were out of luck if you were looking for something recent.

Third_Eye posted...

im usually a skeptic. but the rate that technology is moving makes me suspicious. i think its moving at a rate that humans are incapable of - as if something else was behind it.

It makes very much sense. The circumstances weren't just right up until now, at which point it snowballed as the population grew at an accelerated rate.

We live in extremely unstable times and it could pass in the blink of an eye.
---

Things are gonna advance at a faster and faster rate as we approach the tech singularity, after which theres no telling what will happen

Whatever it is theres no stopping it
---