Will current technology lead to future enlightenment?

Considering that until the late 19th century, communication was either oral (all classes), written (books and scrolls - the wealthy and the Church), or communicated through art (including stone writing, go way back), it’s a wonder we know as much as we do about our ancestors. Books, newspapers, BBS’s, and finally the Internet allowed the transfer of facts and ideas to travel across state, country and ocean.

The amount of data we have today, about our world, the people in it, and our history, is both wonderful, but can also be overwhelming.

With technology growing faster then a den of amorous rabbits, it’s possible to believe that our own history, now, will be documented in ways none of our past has ever been able to accomplish.

Will this change the way we are remembered in a thousand years? Two thousand years? Will the future people of earth be able to better understand the time we live in now, because of what we will leave behind?

And perhaps most importantly, what kind of information should we really focus on, in order to help humanity in the future?

Please notice I left out any and all references to the alien angle, as well as the fact we might not be here. I’m trying to be positive tonight, and I hope the responses to this post are equally biased

-VW

well whether or not our technology was attained through ahem certain extra terrestrial means is irrelevent. more so the fact that our technology is expanding so rapidly that i think it has caught the majority of the human race off guard. growing up the computers i used had green blinky moniters with sqaure pixels, and now computers retain more information the human brain can even begin to comprehend. we are advancing exponetially. the limit to our achievments will adhere to our own determinaiton and desire.

[edit on 16-3-2005 by sturod84]

ney, it the contrary will occur.

A few may become the technological elite, but many will just be distracted by their ipods, their xboxes, and they alienwares.

tottally agreed, technologie developes are strengths but at the same time exploits our weakness. be wary, understand your cause.

In my original post I was asking if our planet would know more about our CURRENT time, because of the internet and other kinds of technology, in a thousand years or so. More so then what we know today, of our past history.:


"Will this change the way we are remembered in a thousand years? Two thousand years? Will the future people of earth be able to better understand the time we live in now, because of what we will leave behind?

With technology growing faster then a den of amorous rabbits, it’s possible to believe that our own history, now, will be documented in ways none of our past has ever been able to accomplish."

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about that to start with.

-VW

Given the massive amounts of books, newspapers, and computers that we have, people in a thousand years should have a very good idea of what our present time is like. That is assuming that we don't do something stupid, like WWIII, to wreck it all. Basically, providing our infrastructure remains intact, I think we will have a good picture of our time in a thousand years.

WHat i fear about what technology will do is how secluded it is. Very few people know in detail how things work. Many of us have the concepts behind like the television. R bg beams and electromagnets and stuff. But we don't know exactly how it works enough to recreate it.

It's some kind of conspiracy waiting to happen. A few people control technology. They could easily do something with it.

Originally posted by Qraz A.K.A. MIlfort
WHat i fear about what technology will do is how secluded it is. Very few people know in detail how things work. Many of us have the concepts behind like the television. R bg beams and electromagnets and stuff. But we don't know exactly how it works enough to recreate it.

It's some kind of conspiracy waiting to happen. A few people control technology. They could easily do something with it.

Doh! And here I was trying to be positive. However, you have a point. I can certainly theorize that now, unlike 1-2 thousand years ago, we are more censored then ever before. In my original post I stated this question:

"And perhaps most importantly, what kind of information should we really focus on, in order to help humanity in the future?"

Alas, we probably don't have any say in what information will be retained. Our government is so keen to cover up aliens, their own mistakes, and just about everything else. They certainly are not going to want people in 4005 to know what the world is up to, now.

-VW

Indeed, its often lamented by historians and archaeologists that they have no data direct from the lower classes. The illiterates who made up much of the worlds various societies have left very little of what they thought. Now, practically everyone is leaving vast volumes of their thoughts and lives all over the place. This means that the ability to the understand society and history of this century is going to be greatly increased for future archaeologists and historians.

Originally posted by Nygdan
Indeed, its often lamented by historians and archaeologists that they have no data direct from the lower classes. The illiterates who made up much of the worlds various societies have left very little of what they thought. Now, practically everyone is leaving vast volumes of their thoughts and lives all over the place. This means that the ability to the understand society and history of this century is going to be greatly increased for future archaeologists and historians.

Assuming that more of our global lives are documented, and such data is obtainable to those in our future, can we assume future historians will understand what they are viewing?

I ask this because we have so much historical data, but the older it is, the less we can sometimes understand it.

I would agree lower class people who might have had data to add were not part of this equation. But what if they were? Would these illiterate people have been able to document facts in ways that would be helpful now?

Millions around the world contribute to the vast system known as the Internet. Books continue to be written, on every topic possible. Scientific data continues to be recorded.

As many ATS regulars know, the content on the Internet isn’t always factual, well written, or researched.

This brings to mind something that I’ve been mulling over recently. A database containing everything we, as humans, know. An impossible task? The Internet could be viewed in this light, but I’m not sure that’s for the best.

The only way I can see future historians being able to understand our current time fully, would be if they were able to access all printed and electronic media that we have today (that’s including all the databases the museums keep, etc.), and somehow “throw” it all into a tech system that would cross reference to the ‘nth degree.

That’s just my two cent’s.

-VW

the problem is redundancy. the problem of the middle/dark ages was the lack of books describing the dark arts of mathmatics and science. with nothing to refer too, the age's scientists needed to relearn everything from scratch.

to prevent this, We need a permanent global library of information. Books, digitial items and all the power sources to run them. Should a disaster occur, we need a way to quickly relearn.

Of course, people tend not to plan for the worst case sceneario when they can spend money on more pressing issues, which is perfectly reasonable, but still.


Who's with me?

Originally posted by ZetaGundam007
the problem is redundancy. the problem of the middle/dark ages was the lack of books describing the dark arts of mathmatics and science. with nothing to refer too, the age's scientists needed to relearn everything from scratch.

I'm wondering if you meant "relearn" because they used to know, or for some other reason? Can you explain?

to prevent this, We need a permanent global library of information. Books, digitial items and all the power sources to run them. Should a disaster occur, we need a way to quickly relearn.

I agree. Not only with your statement that this appears an impossible task because we are too "busy", but that it's the only way. Alas, we are not sure if our CD's will work in 100 years, and so on.

I'm not even sure we have a sure way of documenting everything we should, in any way that would be "still work" in even 1,000 years, let alone 3,000. And, should something happen to us, what can we possible save?

If this wasn't such an impossible task, it would have already been done. (I belive we have been in this situation before.) Oral history can only go so far, and isn't much for proving anything. I don't mind if we "highjack" this thread, as I'd love to discuss how we could save what we know, in a way it would last for thousands of years to come.

Any takers?

by "relearn" i mean to learn what mankind had once thouroughly studied. mankind as a whole needed to go back and do all the research by hand, at least the Europeans did. As far as i know muslim societies did not experiance a "dark age" because they had access to many of the original greek texts refering to topics of geometry, cartography, and philosophy