Re: Pearls Before Swine: Talking Technical with Young People

On Thu, 26 Dec 2024 08:40:06 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:

Is anybody else here old enough to have had grandparents born in
the 19th century? Theirs arguably was the generation to have
witnessed the greatest technological change. Neither of my two
grandmothers, from the Midwest, ever learned to drive a car.

Grandparents?  My father was born in the nineteenth century.  My older
sisters witnessed the change from horse-drawn plows to tractors.

When I was born, there was no electricity or running water in our
house, and this was perfectly normal.

A few years ago I went on a tour of the duplex home the Beyer brothers
built for themselves, and the tour guide remarked that everything in
the house was electric, even the fireplaces.  I started to remark on
how up-to-date that was -- and realized that *nothing* in the present
day can be as modern as that all-electric house had been, even if the
description includes things that are currently impossible.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/