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Comment by JonnieCache | Hacker News Reader

>We're part of the greatest time in the history of the world IMO

That's quite a claim. Technology must be advancing fast if you already have Muad'Dib's ability to perceive all of human history simultaneously as one infinite structure extending in both directions. How did I miss Steve Jobs getting the Arrakis fiefdom?

Or could it be that Now is always the greatest part of history because it's by definition the only part that you can ever inhabit? Like how your headaches will always be so much worse than everyone else's because they're happening in your head.

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Sure, that's a reasonable objection, but look at what our society has accomplished over the past 32 years of my lifetime:

1. The Internet, computers, and everything that comes with 2. DNA Mapping 3. Treatments and cures for hundreds of diseases and other maladies. 4. Private space travel 5. Sending a robot to Mars 6. Taming the elements to provide real natural energy

These are just a few things that get me excited, but the list could go on and on. I just can't think of another time in history when so much happened so fast.

Many of those things only affect a tiny minority of, relatively speaking, incredibly rich people though. They will have knock on effects for the rest of the world, especially in the long term, but I submit that there are other events in human history that affected everyone on the planet at once, or at least very quickly.

An example would be plastic water piping for sanitation, as mentioned in my other comment.

I would also count the start of the Nuclear Age with the bombing of Hiroshima as something that affected almost everyone on earth by completely rebalancing the international political structure.

I'm not incredibly rich and many of those things have had a huge impact on my life. My brother surviving stage IV cancer, for example. Being able to build a business with nothing more than a domain name and a programming book, etc.

If things keep moving as fast as they are, then my guess is that the trickle down effects will...well...trickle faster.

In global terms, you are incredibly rich. If you have ever owned a domain name or a programming book you are incredibly rich.

Around half the world lives on less than $2.50 a day[1]. If you have one dollar a day that you can afford to waste on something you don't need to live, you're in something like the top ten or twenty percent of the world's richest. Sorry, I don't have a source for that last one, although the figure could likely be derived from the stats here:

[1] http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-sta...

Right, but we're talking about innovation, not sociological issues, and I'm not ashamed to be given the opportunity to be on the forefront of that.

The best way for me, as an entrepreneur, to help those less fortunate is to make more money so I can build greater things, and that's at the core of the innovation we're seeing here.

There's a simple argument to be made that the events that are unfolding in the course of our lifetimes have resulted in an unprecedented degree of societal and technological progress than ever before in the history of the world.

You're offering a reasonable critique, but no alternative. I'd love to hear an argument for another period in history that might be a contender for being as or more "great".

The taming of fire may have been relatively more significant

The laying of the first transatlantic telegraph, to pluck an idea out of the air.

Or, the rise of Freud's ideas in society in the latter half of the 20th century.

Or, the change from hunter-gatherer societies to agrarianism.

Or, The Terror in france and the various other european uprisings of that time.

Or, lest we forget, WORLD WAR FUCKING TWO.

EDIT: I'm defining 'great' here as 'greatest change' because 'greatest progress' is ill-defined to the point of meaninglessness.

EDIT2: Here's another one: the invention of the 2" ABS plastic pipe and it's employment in sanitation and irrigation.

Although it obviously depends on how old you are as to whether or not that falls within "our lifetimes."

Establishing the groundwork for this discussion:

What do you mean by "societal progress"? Do you mean things like reduction of poverty, or production of arts, or decrease in the frequency of mass murder, or some combination of all of the above and more? Or do you mean something else entirely?

What constitutes "technological progress"? Does the progression from a dozen websites to ten million constitute meaningful technological progress - is pushing ten thousand cars off an assembly line twice as progressive as a mere five thousand? Or do you mean actual innovation? In the case of the latter, how would you measure the rate of innovation today with that of earlier periods? (In principle, the number of patents granted per year should give you a rough idea of this, but (1) patents have only been around for a fairly short period of time, and (2) their actual value in measuring innovation is highly disputed).

Finally, you seem to imply in your last paragraph that the "greatness" of an era is a function of its social and technological progress, and no other factors. Is this reading correct? Or is the door open to other measures as well?

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