That kinda got me thinking. I hear/see a lot of stuff on facebook and the news complaining about this or that. I feel like its a time for a reality check. So grab one of those amazing beers from your equally amazing refrigerator, sit back, and get comfy. Let's start with the basics.
Fire
It wasn't that long ago that we were making fire like this:
Then we got matches. Now, if you're driving your car on the highway, you are creating and extinguishing fire 3,000 times per minute. Fire does so much for us. It cooks our food, which allows our stomachs to be smaller, expands our available diet, keeps us not sick, and sterilizes things. The benefits of us being able to reliably create fire can not be understated. Fire also builds pressure. Pressure that does everything from this:
To this:
To this (propels us IN SPACE!):
To this:
Which brings me to my next chapter:
Electricity
This amazing thing. Seriously. Take a look around you. How much stuff is run with electricity? TVs, lights, the computer I'm typing this on, all the communication devices we use, the accessories in our car. Us modern Americans would be lost without it. One of the main consumers of electricity? Why that happens to be another amazing technology:
Refridgeration and air conditioning
Can you imagine how much is must have sucked to work outside (or even inside) all damn day, with no break from any of that summer heat and humidity? Sure, some of you work outside right now during the crappy summer months. But you get to go to lunch in AC, or grab one of those cold beverages I mentioned at the beginning of this story. This frees up our minds to concentrate on things other than "holy s***, I'm f*** hot. This sucks, I need to find a lake or something to rid myself of this swamp a**". And when that happens, we're often coming up with new ways to make life better. This (along with many of the other marvels in this story) snowball, and accelerates our progress as humans.
Water
Remember that swamp a** from the last paragraph? The ability to bathe reliably is huge. How nasty do you feel after skipping just 1 shower? That's just 1 aspect of this amazingness that is water, plumbed directly into our homes. We flip a lever or twist a knob, and we get clean, drinkable water instantly. No more walking down to the damn river or town pump (and who knows who's pissed in those options), filling up a damn bucket, and walking back to your house. No more out houses every time you want to hang a leak. Now that I've mentioned a few of our amazing accomplishments, lets throw out a scenario. Imagine you get food poisoning (which barely ever happens now, because we have refrigeration and reliable fire), and you hunker down for one of those all-day puke and crapathons. Does it suck now? Of course it does, but it doesn't hold a candle to the amount of suck it must have been just a hundred years ago. You're puking and crapping your brains out in a hot, stinky outhouse. You can't even turn the faucet on to wash your face, or take solace in the fact that the AC offers a little reprieve from your fever. Now that I've painted that picture, let's move on to the root cause of that scenario:
Food
Back in the day, your diet would have consisted of bland f*** rice, some bread, maybe some butter, and warm, s***, unpasteurized milk (depending on where you lived of course). Maybe you'd have some chicken, eggs, or some pork every now and then. Not only that, but you're rolling the dice on that aforementioned food poising every time you eat.
In contrast, now we can get cuisine from basically anywhere in the world, anytime we want (more or less). Not only that, but you can have sweet things with ZERO calories! There are reduced fat versions of things that maybe aren't 100% as good as the real thing, but its a decent compromise. They have turkey bacon that actually doesn't suck now. They even have entire pre-made meals that are frozen (utilizing some of that amazing refrigeration) that you just throw in your also-amazing-oven. I'm also going to group drinks into this category. You were a stone cold badass if you had the means to have orange juice with your breakfast back in the day. Now you can have it whenever you please, and it stays fresher, longer. We also have this other amazing thing called BOOZE! You can add some booze to that orange juice and make a delightful screwdriver, or a mimosa! We can boil water with some grains and some flowers, add some yeast, and have beer. This has been around for a long time, but its good enough to mention again. We really do have an amazing variety of drinks that are made portable by an amazing process known as bottling. Anyway, let's move on.
Medical Advances/The Human Body
Look, it wasn't that long ago that a failing appendix could kill you. For that matter, a LOT of things could kill you, and there was NOTHING you could do about it. Got a little infection from stubbing your toe? Sorry buddy, we're gonna have to amputate that leg in order to save your life. The advent of antibiotics is HUGE. Hell, the advent of Tums and ibuprofin is huge! Now let's consider this, they can actually cut you open, REMOVE YOUR HEART, and put in a new one. That's freakin progress right there. Not only do we have most of that figured out, but there's also people out there figuring out that hey, if you need to lose weight, you can just stop eating carbs. Your body will need to get them somehow, so it'll break down your fat deposits and take it from there. Have some kind of chemical imbalance or a thyroid issue? They've got stuff for you. No big deal.
Entertainment industry, and SPORTS!
We've got everything so figured out, we actually have free time (and a s*** of money) to blow on creating and watching shows, movies, and sports. This isn't that Gladiator s*** where someone has to die in front of us either. Say what you will about those s*** crazy people out in California, but they pump out some killer movies, shows, and music. I wouldn't trade 'em.
Communication
It really wasn't too long ago that in order to communicate with someone on the other side of the world, we'd have to write a letter, bring it to our post office, and mail it. They would in turn put it on a boat, and many moons later, it MIGHT find your intended target, at which point the aged information in the letter might not even be relevant anymore. If he wanted to say something back, repeat that whole process. Now, we can video skype someone instantly. We have a device that can be held in the palm of our hand that we can use to call someone, send a text message to, email someone, send a picture or video with, or even post on a forum with... instantly. We have access to information for what is essentially the entirety of everything we have ever learned as a species, and it fits in our pocket. We have televisions so sharp and realistic, we can see blades of grass in the football stadium, or strands of hair on the actors and actresses we are watching. We have sound systems that sound better than the greatest hi-fi systems from 60 years ago, and they are cheap.
Our ability to make things/machines
There aren't many things right now that you couldn't buy/have, so long as you're willing to pay for it. Yeah, we might b**** about the lack of an affordable RWD sports car from Nissan, but we can always buy an old one. If you're rich enough, you can have a shop build you a modern car with an old body (or something completely unique). You could commission a shop to build you a freaking space ship and you could go to Mars if you wanted to.
We can build anything we want, to accomplish anything we want. We are only limited by our budget, or our own morality. Manufactured goods has enabled us to bring luxury items to the everyday man for an affordable price.
I'm probably forgetting about some things. Feel free to add them. We've come a long way from rubbing 2 sticks together to make fire. I say cheers to the progress of humankind.
