Amos,

"100 years ago your life expectancy would have been around 60 instead of around 80. Your ability to communicate readily with others of your kind would have numbered in the tens, with a lag of hours or days; today you speak to hundreds in milliseconds. "


100 years ago- 1905

The telephone and movie had both been around for a generation or so.

A standard high school education would have included Latin, Greek, and a lot more of the social sciences than today.

I am not at all sure that anyone is listening to anyone else today, no matter how many you can "speak" to.

There are a number of people who feel that the perion 1905 to 1914 was the high point of Western culture. Think about what we have been through since then, and ask yourself if we are any better off.

Yes, we have a higher level of technology- but I seem to recall a lot of noise from the 60's on about how this is NOT such a good thing. Can you offset the environmental damage and lower quality of life by just a longer "average" lifespan, much of which is just due to a lower rate of infant mortality, and not a longer life?