I Think I Understand Our Times

[ThomWV]

I have an odd habit. As I travel around I try to look at things wondering what future Archaeologist will think when these things that interest me will be found artifacts? What will the future make of us and our times?

From the Stone age to the Iron age, from revolutions in agriculture to the revolution of industry the telltale signs are there for well trained minds to come to understand the times from the artifacts they examine. So, I ask, what will they think of us. In what age do we live?

The Stone age gave way to the age of Agriculture and the Bronze age followed. The Bronze age bowed to the iron age. The age of reason came and within a few centuries the Industrial Revolution brought us to the world we have today. So where are we?

Short sighted people might call this the Computer age, and I've been thinking that way myself for quite a while. Its not of course. Computers , omnipresent as they may seem to be, are just an extension of the Industrial age, just another application of technology to existing problems. They are simply devices to aid in accomplishing tasks, no more worthy of the name of an age than a Sear's Craftsman 900-piece mechanics tool set. No, I've thought about it and come to the conclusion that this is not the Computer age. What we are living in is the age of waste.

[Az]

1. I see it as the new age of Feudalism

The CEO's remain disconnected from the people as Feudal Lords and keep us in the dark about what is going on. Computers may provide ample means of communicating but if there isn't any real knowledge to communicate or what knowledge there is is countered by subterfuge then all the communication in the world is not going to make a difference.

[Phredicles]

2. My guess is we're seeing the Plastic And Styrofoam Age;

that's what will be around the longest for archaeologists to find.

[Taverner]

3. Read Marx. It's all there.

Not so much his recipe for the ultimate utopia. We all know that was way off.

But his thoughts on the evolution of the state.

Right now we are seeing the Capitalist Phase go full force.

[Odin2005]

6. Marx's historical analysis is simplistic, Euro-centric BS.

Social systems arise as a result of adaptations wroght by creative personalities to pressures from technological change and pressures from the natural and human environments. Not the result of the deterministic, mechanistic notions Marx had.

We are reaching the stage where Capitalism is running out of creative steam and a new adaptation is necessary to adapt society to the Information Age and a globalized world

[Taverner]

7. Yes and that's where Marx was too vague

He points to the desired result (Dictatorship of the Proletariat) but gives no clues on how to get there.

One step was definitely programs such as the New Deal and the English Welfare system. Health Care for the masses is definitely another step. Armed Revolution, BTW, was never an option for Marx.

I do agree that Capitalism itself is running out of creative steam - and there will need to be a swing to a more socialist system. However, I think this is occurring naturally right now. We're just too close to the ground to see it. And I say this despite the "Reagan Revolution" and globalization.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Waste of time ...

has been around for awhile. There's just more ways to do it now.

[canetoad]

5. So glad you posted this

A few days ago I settled down to watch 'Time Team', a Brit TV show about archaeology in which they visit various sites ranging from neolithic, iron/bronze age, through to roman, medieval and more modern to complete a short dig while cameras roll.

This week's episode was on Blaenavon in Wales, which had a large iron ore deposit at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Their task was to uncover a viaduct built between two hills, on which ponies pulled steel wheeled carts of ore from the mines. The viaduct was 40 metres long and 10 high. It was built in 1790, yet only 25 years later it had completely vanished, already obsolete.

The viaduct was never demolished, instead it was buried under tons of industrial waste and rubble, discarded because of the speed at which new transport and industrial methods were being discovered.

And here we are, a few years into the digital revolution and already we have a mountain of discarded 'new technology' beneath our feet. I couldn't help but draw a parallel between the wastefulness of the Blaenavon viaduct and the speed at which we discard working technology for something else, just because it is newer.

If anyone is interested, there is a drawing of the viaduct on page 4 of this pdf. http://www.rcahmw.gov.uk/pubs/Cofnod-Newsletters/Cofnod-4-Newsletter.pdf

Interestingly, Blaenavon is now listed as a World Heritage industrial landscape site, in the way that Redmond or Silicon Valley may be in the future.

Edited to include this link: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/archive/2001ba.html