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quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
In my opinion it’s the computer

Are you talking about the personal computer?

If so, then I wholeheartedly agree with this:
quote:

They were supposed to make work easier, do the mundane tasks. Instead workloads have increased.


I'm going to disagree with the PC being the best and worst invention of the 20th Century though.

That honor goes to the internet.

By itself, the PC is a glorified calculator, word processor, and rolodex in a box.
 
Posts: 11773 | Location: SWFL | Registered: October 10, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Most above probably beat me but I often say the worst, at least in my line of work, are Ventless Gas Logs.... 2nd to that is the the wood stove insert or at least how they were all installed back in the late 70's and early 80's.


My Native American Name:
"Runs with Scissors"
 
Posts: 4441 | Location: Greenville, SC | Registered: January 30, 2017Reply With QuoteReport This Post
goodheart
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Just a note for all those who think the iPhone was the best AND worst invention of the 20th century: it came out in 2007. All the 1984 stuff that happened since--social media, trans craziness--happened after that. You can see the charts for different countries in reports of "gender dysphoria" reports-they started in 2007 and increased every year after that.


_________________________
“ What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”— Lord Melbourne
 
Posts: 18479 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Best: gasoline engine
Worst: the automatic choke (If you didn't live with those things in the 70's, you can't appreciate how much better a manual choke was - and what a dream fuel injectors are.)


__________________________
"Sooner or later, wherever people go, there's the law. And sooner or later, they find out that God's already been there." -- John Wayne as Chisum
 
Posts: 638 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: September 20, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get Off My Lawn
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By far, the smartphone. Completely changed society as a whole, and not for the good.



"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
 
Posts: 17289 | Location: Texas | Registered: May 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ignored facts
still exist
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The transistor is the best invention.

Not sure about the worst.


----------------------
Let's Go Brandon!
 
Posts: 11134 | Location: 45 miles from the Pacific Ocean | Registered: February 28, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Cap'n Crunch
 
Posts: 3621 | Registered: May 30, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
My other Sig
is a Steyr.
Picture of .38supersig
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Best: Binary / hexadecimal coding.

Worst: Fiat currency.




 
Posts: 9439 | Location: Somewhere looking for ammo that nobody has at a place I haven't been to for a pistol I couldn't live without... | Registered: December 02, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Best
Interstate Highway System


Worst
Sociology degrees Smile

Silent
 
Posts: 1056 | Registered: February 02, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of aileron
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BEST: Spandex

WORST: Social Media
 
Posts: 1496 | Location: Montana - bear country | Registered: March 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Best - Radio. All modern electronics stem from radio.

Worst - digital currency.


-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Ayn Rand


"He gains votes ever and anew by taking money from everybody and giving it to a few, while explaining that every penny was extracted from the few to be giving to the many."

Ogden Nash from his poem - The Politician
 
Posts: 1690 | Registered: July 14, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three on, one off
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quote:
Originally posted by Ripley:

worst - the pill (a double edged sword)


You might be right! Have you listened to Jordan Peterson opine about the negative effects of the birth control pill? One reason we evolved so dramatically from our closest primate ancestors (chimps and bonobos) was the highly selective mating habits of human females. They were selective for most of man's existence because of the dire consequences women historically faced when choosing reproductive partners poorly. With the pill reducing the female's risk of sex to a degree approaching that of the male, while there are many benefits, the negative effects are playing out like a real life Idiocracy.
 
Posts: 4462 | Location: Michigan | Registered: November 03, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
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Social Media

Pro - It makes it easier to stay connected and share information

Con - Goes without saying.... it can be a REAL problem.




Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.
 
Posts: 38345 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I'm gonna say cameras or whatever is to blame for the birth of hollywood and celebrities.




"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy
"A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book
 
Posts: 13142 | Location: In the gilded cage | Registered: December 09, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Political Cynic
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I would tend to agree regarding the 'smart phone'. I reluctantly gave up a Motorola StarTac flip phone to get an iPhone 5.

Worst thing I ever did, but from a job perspective the iPhone made it very convenient to do my work and not lug a gear bag of Nikon equipment around with me. Thats the only redeeming feature of the iPhone I can come up with

These things have made everyone so 'connected' that you literally cannot get away anywhere without being 'in touch'. I seldom use the internet browser, I never use the maps, I don't get company emails on my phone.

I'd love to go back to just a StarTac. I could live the rest of my life and not miss any of the other 'features'
 
Posts: 53917 | Location: Tucson Arizona | Registered: January 16, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His Royal Hiney
Picture of Rey HRH
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
In my opinion it’s the computer

I believe that the promises made haven’t materialized for most people

They were supposed to make work easier, do the mundane tasks. Instead workloads have increased.

Computers allow us to communicate more easily than writing letters and cards. But now we have been blessed with spam emails, identity theft, government snooping and surveillance. Scammers, crooks, miscellaneous thieves, censorship and polarization of society are all the benefits we have reaped from computers.

A simpler life was a better life.


Computers made work easier but, now, they pile all that work on fewer people.



"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
 
Posts: 20150 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Frangas non Flectes
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The internet, far and away.

quote:
“Because it means the end of innovation,” Malcolm said. “This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on an ocean island and they’ll evolve very fast. You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down. Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behavior. We innovate new behavior to adapt. And everybody on earth knows that innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee and they may get something done. Ten people, and it gets harder. Thirty people, and nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible. That’s the effect of mass media—it keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there’s a McDonald’s on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there’s less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity—our most necessary resource? That’s disappearing faster than trees. But we haven’t figured that out, so now we’re planning to put five billion people together in cyberspace. And it’ll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time. Global uniformity."

- Michael Crichton's The Lost World, c. 1996.


______________________________________________
Carthago delenda est
 
Posts: 17761 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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