# Food for thought. What do you think? **URL:** \ **Category:** Science and Technology\ **Created:** [February 2, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105 "2015-02-02T01:07:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![loisl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/loisl/32/18_2.png) [@loisl](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/loisl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/1 "2015-02-02T01:07:45Z")
Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind. Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come. 1. The Post Office Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills. 2. The Check Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 3. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business. 4. The Newspaper The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services. 5. The Book You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book. 6. The Land Line Telephone Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes. 7. Music This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is “catalogue items,” meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.” 8. Television Revenues To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It’s time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix. 9. The “Things” That You Own Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.” That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?” Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert. 10. Handwriting (Cursive Writing) Already gone in some schools who no longer teach handwriting or penmanship because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type. 10. Privacy If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway… There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits… “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again and again. This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > **[Avast | Download Free Antivirus & VPN | 100% Free & Easy](https://www.avast.com/en-us/index)** > > Join 435 million others and get award-winning free antivirus for PC, Mac & Android. Surf safely & privately with our VPN. Download Avast today! ---
**Author:** ![cuthbertj](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/cuthbertj/32/18_2.png) [@cuthbertj](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/cuthbertj)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/2 "2015-02-02T18:16:17Z")
As for the Post Office, that’s by design. The Republicans passed some law during the Bush years that required it to keep something like 75 years of funds available in its Pension fund. Most companies are only required to have something like 5 years. And this extra burden is what’s driving the Post Office out of business. And as I said, this was by design in an effort to privatize mail delivery. ---
**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/3 "2015-02-02T20:01:49Z")
I’ve seen paper books on Star Trek, so that means they will survive. Music? That one seems weird. Music can’t go away. I think we have been lucky to be around for an extremely innovative time for music, so a reduction in that looks like a loss, but really it’s just going back to normal. The mixing of cultures brought together different styles and created whole new genres, plus mass communication brought something that used to be isolated to rituals where sexes and age groups were divided. Now that’s been spread across all cultures and groups and there have been consequences of that. We need some time to absorb those changes, then we can get back to innovation. ---
**Author:** ![aemilius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9a28c/32.png) [@aemilius](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/aemilius)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/4 "2015-02-02T20:17:19Z")
> Food for thought. What do you think? Interesting.... I think it belongs in General Discussion, but it's good to know your email is checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com ---
**Author:** ![yosemitesam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7feea3/32.png) [@yosemitesam](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/yosemitesam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/5 "2015-02-03T03:57:52Z")
What about the slow bifurcation of society between those trapped within their faith-based ego-centric thinking and their increasingly disconnected relationship with real world/biosphere out there - And the rationalists who see the physical world as it is and who appreciate that what science is learning is as true as it gets, even if the details are not as absolutely perfect as the “faithful” think it needs to be. Then with passing of the next few decades, as the tempo of global warming and politically driven disasters increases. . . oh lordie lordie we’re gonna hit a point where the poop hits the fan and all hell is going to break loose. Different times different places. Hell it’s already happening in some places, disasters and tribal conflict over coming human’s ability to deal with it. It’s happened before in human history, but in the past people have always found escape valves, and new landscapes to run to and start over. That chapter has come to a close. Out planet is full. From watching the Super Bowl and movie trailers it seems that most people are left with running their Hollywood reality, like that’s helping anyone learn anything or prepare. So sad to be happy to be turning 60 rather than 16 - my personal poignant reminder of the tragic state of the world. ---
**Author:** ![yosemitesam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7feea3/32.png) [@yosemitesam](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/yosemitesam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/6 "2015-02-03T04:07:24Z")
Since we are under Science and Technology heading let me follow up my musings with some serious science based reports concerning our future: > Turn Down the Heat http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/publication/turn-down-the-heat http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/11/18/new-report-examines-risks-of-degree-hotter-world-by-end-of-century Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2013: http://media.swissre.com/documents/sigma1\_2014\_en.pdf and the beat goes on . . . . . . . > _Oh and then there's this IPCC'S Reality Check, a short video. **http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2014/12/ipcc-climate-change-2013-highlights.html** _ ---
**Author:** ![loisl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/loisl/32/18_2.png) [@loisl](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/loisl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 6:30am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/7 "2015-02-03T06:30:30Z")
> Food for thought. What do you think? Interesting.... I think it belongs in General Discussion, but it's good to know your email is checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com I had nothing to do with it. It came with the original. Sorry to have upset you. Lois ---
**Author:** ![loisl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/loisl/32/18_2.png) [@loisl](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/loisl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/8 "2015-02-03T06:35:06Z")
> I've seen paper books on Star Trek, so that means they will survive. Music? That one seems weird. Music can't go away. I think we have been lucky to be around for an extremely innovative time for music, so a reduction in that looks like a loss, but really it's just going back to normal. The mixing of cultures brought together different styles and created whole new genres, plus mass communication brought something that used to be isolated to rituals where sexes and age groups were divided. Now that's been spread across all cultures and groups and there have been consequences of that. We need some time to absorb those changes, then we can get back to innovation. Physical books will be around for a long time. There are some books that don't lend themselves to digitization. You're right. There will always be music in one form or another. Lois ---
**Author:** ![loisl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/loisl/32/18_2.png) [@loisl](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/loisl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 6:47am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/9 "2015-02-03T06:47:55Z")
> What about the slow bifurcation of society between those trapped within their faith-based ego-centric thinking and their increasingly disconnected relationship with real world/biosphere out there - And the rationalists who see the physical world as it is and who appreciate that what science is learning is as true as it gets, even if the details are not as absolutely perfect as the "faithful" think it needs to be. Then with passing of the next few decades, as the tempo of global warming and politically driven disasters increases. . . oh lordie lordie we're gonna hit a point where the poop hits the fan and all hell is going to break loose. Different times different places. Hell it's already happening in some places, disasters and tribal conflict over coming human's ability to deal with it. It's happened before in human history, but in the past people have always found escape valves, and new landscapes to run to and start over. That chapter has come to a close. Out planet is full. From watching the Super Bowl and movie trailers it seems that most people are left with running their Hollywood reality, like that's helping anyone learn anything or prepare. So sad to be happy to be turning 60 rather than 16 - my personal poignant reminder of the tragic state of the world. I agree with a lot of what you say but if you were 16 today you would have grown up in a completely different world than you actually grew up in and your ideas and opinions would be more like those of other young people today. They will create a new world based on their experiences and environment, just as you did, and are still doing, based on yours. We can't live in a world that is gone and no longer works on the present generation's experience and environment, no matter how much the old world seems to have been better. It's out of our hands (or will be soon, depending on your age) and it will be out of the present young generation's hands, too, soon enough. You can't stop evolution. Que sera, sera. Lois ---
**Author:** ![hazelnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bbce88/32.png) [@hazelnut](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/hazelnut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/10 "2015-02-03T15:53:12Z")
The music industry has been replaced by online “industry”. It will only seem strange to those who spent most of their lives in the pre- Internet music world. It’s true that innovation in popular music has been dying out, but it’s not because of digital music. Privacy will mostly disappear for lot of people, not everyone. Some books will probably exist because of book fetishists. Everything else, they’re probably right. ---
**Author:** ![yosemitesam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7feea3/32.png) [@yosemitesam](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/yosemitesam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/11 "2015-02-03T17:21:02Z")
> They will create a new world based on their experiences and environment, just as you did, and are still doing, based on yours. We can't live in a world that is gone and no longer works on the present generation's experience and environment, no matter how much the old world seems to have been better. It's out of our hands (or will be soon, depending on your age) and it will be out of the present young generation's hands, too, soon enough. You can't stop evolution. Que sera, sera. Lois With every oblivious apathetic day that passes the "future" does get increasingly "out of our hands" No argument with your description of the march of time and fresh generations. The tragedy of their (younger generations) time is that this "environment" that folks are more and more disconnected with is our life support system and we are consuming and destroying it at breakneck speed. And no matter how much folks are in love with our amazing modern marvels and gadgets, those too depend on a healthy biosphere. It's the thing the faith-obsessed and Hollyworld greed-brainwashed majority of people can't seem to comprehend. And their options will get increasingly limited, to say nothing of increasingly ugly. :down: ---
**Author:** ![yosemitesam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7feea3/32.png) [@yosemitesam](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/yosemitesam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/food-for-thought-what-do-you-think/4105/12 "2015-02-03T17:26:19Z")
> but if you were 16 today... And had any of the free spirit and wanderlust and need for personal freedom and discovery I had back then, I'd probably be consigned to a life in jail, or just rubbed out. :down: