Today’s XKCD centers on the human tendency to reflect on the past through an idyllic lens (or look toward the future through a foreboding, misanthropic one). It’s fantastic.
Every day brings with it a new batch of innovation that helps us read faster, communicate quicker, assimilate information more efficiently, and travel more speedily than ever. All of these have their advantages, and all of them come under criticism of some form or another. How many of these criticisms are founded? To what extent are the sacrifices and tradeoffs of an ever-accelerating lifestyle really sacrifices at all? And to what extent are they merely symptomatic of our inclination to compare modern life to what came before and find it lacking in some vital quality? [XKCD via Ben Lillie]
