[weisk]

> The internet and computing is certainly a big shift, but from a visible changes to the world perspective I think 2022 is more alike 1922 than 1922 was alike 1822.

Lolwat? Handheld devices that have the power to process millions of calculations a sec, to record Ultra HD videos, to establish a video conference instantaniously with anyone in the whole world.

Thousands of satellites that orbit the earth constantly. Space missions that are already flying past the limits of our galaxy.

Bio-mechanical organs, giving the crippled back the ability to walk, the blind the ability to see, the deaf to hear.

Welp, I do think that technological progress has been growing at a logarithmic rate, and it's probably keep growing at that pace...

I think the one point in which the author was super correct is, when he says that the progress will be made on technology, rather than the "emotion that arises between a man and a maid" - as I understand it, emotional intelligence - , which will remain stagnant.

[jazzyjackson]

They had radio and video cameras in 1922, I don't think facetime would be all that shocking. 1822 had neither telephone nor electric light. Steam trains were just getting started; by 1922 they were running regular service at over 100 mph.

Evidently its debatable which century saw more change, from sailboats to Titanic, or gunpowder rockets to Apollo... certainly there have always been cynics and dreamers...

edit: GPS would be pretty shocking to either, I expect

[Macha]

> Lolwat? Handheld devices that have the power to process millions of calculations a sec, to record Ultra HD videos, to establish a video conference instantaniously with anyone in the whole world.

These are a different in quality more so than a different in kind. In 1922 you could already talk to someone 100s of miles away via the telephone. In 1822 you couldn't. And getting there was going to take weeks. So you basically couldn't talk to people long distance unless you were rich or important.

> Thousands of satellites that orbit the earth constantly. Space missions that are already flying past the limits of our galaxy.

Means rather than an end here. Google Maps is neat and convenient, but again, you _could_ use paper maps for much of what people use google maps for. And large paper mapping schemes (e.g. ordnance survey maps in countries of the british empire) were carried out in the 19th century and WW1. Communications could also be done, albeit more expensively. Space missions are still currently in the scientific curiosity stage, rather than impacting people's lives, but who knows maybe commercial near earth space missions end up being the one people get to to talk about for 2022-2122.

> Bio-mechanical organs, giving the crippled back the ability to walk, the blind the ability to see, the deaf to hear.

These are technically more accomplished achievements for sure, but I'm not sure they have the same sort of societal impacts as initiatives against cholera and tubercolosis of the late 19th century. Vaccination is probably the 20th century achievement to call out here.

[webmaven]

> These are a different in quality more so than a different in kind.

Sometimes the difference in quality is smaller. Communication by mail could have a cadence reminiscent of email, for example:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24089/victorian-mail-del...

[ben_w]

The keyword here is “visible”; for most of these things, though the change is real, it is also easily missed, with the exception of, as you say, thousands of satellites that orbit the earth constantly (space missions are not however already flying past the limits of our galaxy, they’re just about reaching the heliopause; even just leaving the plane of the Galaxy is 200,000 times further than that, while leaving the rim of the Galaxy is about 12 million times further).

Video conferencing worldwide? If you draw attention to it, I suspect it would’ve surprised 1922 people that anyone richer than a literal subsistence farmer would also have a device of their own for the other end of the call, but the existence of the technology itself would not be surprising.

For visible changes between 1922 and 2022? New materials, new lighting, new fashion, drones, the public acceptability of same-sex relationships, race relations (in particular attitudes to those of pre-Colombian, African, and Chinese descent), and possibly also visible might be the absence of disfiguring illnesses that we have now vaccinated against.

But those are likely less than the changes from 1822 to 1922.

(The Blue Marble, or the photos of astronauts walking on the moon… I don’t know if those would’ve been shocking or not. Jules Verne died in 1905).