|
It is as old as history itself. What you're witnessing is a result of what I call the problem of knowledge. Realize that, everything that is learned, any knowledge gained, and new technology invented, will eventually be lost and forgotten - as the people who gained said knowledge or invented said technology will eventually die, and the next generation is born ignorant. Yes, we as a species try to pass our knowledge to the next generation, via teaching, books, or what have you, but it's a never ending problem that can't ever be resolved. Think about it, If I were to invent - say a new programming language tomorrow, the entire world would be ignorant of its existence, let alone know how it even works. Now I could go on to teach others that my new programming language exists and how it works, but this takes time, and people don't have infinite time to learn things. So as time goes on, and we learn and invent more and more things as a species, the next generation has a greater amount to learn than previous generations. Eventually there comes a point where there's too much knowledge to learn, that even if you spent your entire lifetime trying to learn what your ancestors had recorded, you would die before having learned everything. So knowledge inevitably does get lost between generations, and thus, history tends to repeat itself, and the next generation seems decadent for not knowing what you came to know. Computer technology is just a perfect microcosm demonstrating this problem, as new things get created all the damn time (often to be just reinventions of old things). Heck, even most old programmers I know say they struggle to keep up to date on things. And it is as old as history itself, as this is what Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 is essentially talking about. Heck, look at most ancient civilizations, and how little we can comprehend what we still have of their writings. |