An Ever Changing World

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 I was listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and thought to myself how much things have changed since his day. He was born in 1840 and died in 1893.  Back then people would dress up to go to the opera house and listen to music performed by a full orchestra.  It was the only way they could hear it.  There were no recordings of any kind.  And there I was listening to it on YouTube.  I could say the world has changed a lot since then. 

Alexander Graham Bell co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company known as AT&T in 1885. The Internet was invented on January 1, 1983 almost 100 years later.  It wouldn't exist without the Telephone.  Bell made everything we have in a Smartphone possible. The Simon Personal Communicator was invented in  1992 and the first iPhone came out in 2007.  

I was born the year my father brought home the family's first television.  I grew up with television.  Now I mention all this because Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, which could only be heard having been performed for a live audience back then, caused me to think about our ever changing world.  And now I can listen to it on my phone.  I'm listening to it again on my phone as I write this blog this morning.

I now enjoy watching old films made in 1955 or earlier depicting what they thought life would be like today back then.  Old sci-fi movies had space stations in 1985.  We had colonies on the moon by the 1980's.  Cars were flying in the future back then.  And back then GM had a display at the 1964 World's Fair with automated cars that were controlled by controllers in towers along the highway and all cars needed no drivers.  I'm fascinated by what futuristic thinkers were seeing back then.  

And now the future are about robotics and AI.   The full 24 satellite GPS system became operational in 1993.  There were systems as early as 1964 but GPS as we know it today was a fully functional system for civilian use in 1993.  Can AI reach the point where it can repair itself without humans?  Will it be able to reproduce on its own?  Can it exist and maintain itself without the aid of humans?  These are the questions futuristic are asking today.  

AI can't exist without electricity.  In fact none of it is possible without energy.  Electricity is needed for everything we have today.  Futuristic thinkers have a hard time today, because of this question.  The world runs from power grids.  There are questions about the security of power grids.  Back in the 50's everything in the future was nuclear.  We now know just how unsafe nuclear energy is.  

I'm thinking more about Divine Interventiin these days and without it, I see a very bleak and dark world for the future.  But our parents and grandparents said the same thg.  Futurists are always optimistic,even about robots and AI.  This is in part why I smoke a pipe.  It hasnt changed much in thousands of years.  And it keeps me being optimistic.  I don't fall into being pessimistic about most anything.  My optimism is in my pipe.  My pipe this morning is my Savinelli Favola Churchwarden pipe with some Old Professor pipe tobacco and my coffee this morning is Stumptown Homestead Holler Mountain coffee.  And I'll remain an optimist believing that both Love and Peace are forever.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave

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