The Boeing 707 flew lower and at a higher Mach number than modern jets, both of which increased its absolute speed. That we lived through the S-curve of aviation technology and still made silly predictions based on extending Moore's Law many decades into the future is on us
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I gave a whole talk on this once (https://idlewords.com/talks/web_design_first_100_years.htm …). If you'd like me to give more talks, buy me a ticket (on a fast plane) and I'll go talk again. I enjoy writing these things
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In 1960 you had a strong basis to believe we were heading for routine space travel, the eradication of disease, and either world government or nuclear war. How none of these came to pass and we got Pepe memes instead is a testament to the power of the future to remain surprising
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People's imagination is completely shackled by what they saw in living memory. I will be comparing stuff to the Brezhnev era and Usenet far past the time when I am an upload on somebody's Zune II
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Similarly, everyone's boldest fantasies of the future right now are based on bad sci-fi they read as young people, most of that written by aging men with their own imagination stunted by experience. Whatever optimism I have about the future is rooted in that dearth of imagination
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Cars are also slower because speed limits
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Fuel efficiency. Drag is quadratic at high speed.
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is it still mansplaining when you’re explaining it to another man who understands the issue better than you do?
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Instead we got the internet, where transatlantic travel is measured in milliseconds.
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Come now, transatlantic travel on the internet is at least a decisecond
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