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The 2010s

Falhófnir

Falhófnir

macrumors 603
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Aug 19, 2017
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Now we're just over a month away from the end of this decade, what do you think it will be remembered for in 50-100 years time when future students of history look back at it?

You can focus on pretty much anything you want to talk about here*. There's lots of things to think about and lots ways to look at this, a few examples:
  • Apple centric perspective: got off to a flying start with some of the best hardware Apple has ever put out, but they also quickly lost their founder and a big driving force for the company. The middle fo the decade saw some questionable choices and upward pricing pressure on a lot of the product range. They seem to have recovered a bit at the last and have had a string of more solid releases.
  • General tech advancement: The rise of 4G, smartphones going fully mainstream, people being always connected and on-grid, social media, 4K content and high refresh rates, stagnation of microprocessors and the end to Moore's law. Streaming services starting to eat into traditional broadcast television; possibly the last big cultural phenomenon on TV with Game of Thrones?
  • Environmental awareness: Blue Planet 2 and the impact of decades of plastic use, electric vehicles rising to pose a realistic alternative to petroleum powered vehicles (for better or worse), more awareness about the impact of excessive meat consumption, deforestation, ocean acidification, mass extinctions, the impacts of chemical insecticides, recognising light and noise as significant pollutants.
  • Political instability: Has anywhere been untouched by this over the course of the decade? Is this exceptional or a reversion to the norm after a dull previous decade?
  • New space exploration milestones: First image of a black hole, first visit to Pluto, the voyager spacecraft reaching interstellar space, more extensive exploration of the Jovian and Saturnian moon systems, confirmation of water on Mars and discovery of methane from an as yet unknown source. The vast majority of the 4,100 known extrasolar planets were discovered in this decade.
  • Scientific advancements: Confirmation of dark matter's existence and of gravitational waves, first creation of synthetic life form, first moves towards eradicating Malaria. 3D printing becomes a mainstream manufacturing process.
For me, it's the first decade where I can definitely fully remember something about each of the years, probably the formative decade of my life.

*As this isn't in PRSI at present, if it gets too political might have to ask the mods to move it, will see how it goes for now.
 
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Very good thread,but you missed the big one.

Bigger than Steam; bigger than Electricity; equal only to Fire...Quantum Computing has just passed "Proof Of Concept".

Remember the opening scene in the movie 2001 ? As of last month this is where we are at this moment in time. A2
 
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a2jack said:
Very good thread,but you missed the big one.

Bigger than Steam; bigger than Electricity; equal only to Fire...Quantum Computing has just passed "Proof Of Concept".

Remember the opening scene in the movie 2001 ? As of last month this is where we are at this moment in time. A2
Click to expand...
That's a good one, the opening of the next big era in computing!
 
Within the section the OP has referred to as "political instability", I would draw attention to the rise of right wing populism, and how it has become more "mainstream" over the past decade.
 
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80s was the proliferation of electronics, ****** cars, crappy music, decent movies, and yuppies.

90s was internet, grunge, middle class getting rich, and the use of cgi in every blockbuster movie.

2000 was pretty much a war torn decade with 9/11, Iraq, and economic depression.

2010 will be remembered for smart phones, stupid memes, every idiot(like me) broadcasting their opinions on social media, and the downfall of mass media, although this will likely become more of a 2020 memory but it definitely started about 3 to 4 years ago.
 
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Tomorrow said:
Whether I'm counting to ten, or a hundred, or a thousand, or whatever - I always start with 1 and not with 0.
Click to expand...

While yet others start with zero.

Have you any thoughts on what you consider might have been of importance (politically, socially, technologically, culturally, economically, environmentally, etc.) over the past decade?
 
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Tomorrow said:
Whether I'm counting to ten, or a hundred, or a thousand, or whatever - I always start with 1 and not with 0.
Click to expand...
I know why that is probably technically correct for the date system we use, but it does mean each 10th year is part of the preceding decade (e.g. 1980 is part of the 70s , 1990 is part of the 80s, 2000 is part of the 90s and so on) which I don't think is a sensible classification, so I'm going to have to say pragmatically the pattern, which I do find acceptable for centuries and millennia, doesn't work well over spans of a decade.

If we used nomenclature similar to the naming of centuries and millennia I think I would find it easier (so we would be going into the 203rd decade, not the '(20)20s') but we have gotten into a pattern of naming decades after the final two digits starting from the multiple 10 year.
 
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Falhófnir said:
I know why that is probably technically correct for the date system we use, but it does mean each 10th year is part of the preceding decade (e.g. 1980 is part of the 70s , 1990 is part of the 80s, 2000 is part of the 90s and so on) which I don't think is a sensible classification, so I'm going to have to say pragmatically the pattern, which I do find acceptable for centuries and millennia, doesn't work well over spans of a decade.

If we used nomenclature similar to the naming of centuries and millennia I think I would find it easier (so we would be going into the 203rd decade, not the '(20)20s') but we have gotten into a pattern of naming decades after the final two digits starting from the multiple 10 year.
Click to expand...

And, psychologically, and mentally, it is easier to do so.

We tend to see the years ending in a "zero" both as the end (book-end) of the previous decade and the beginning of the next one.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
While yet others start with zero.
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They do? I wouldn't bet a week's pay on it, but if I put forth a plate of meatballs and ask people to count them, my guess is 20 out of 20 people would start with 1. Maybe I'm too optimistic.

Have you any thoughts on what you consider might have been of importance (politically, socially, technologically, culturally, economically, environmentally, etc.) over the past decade?
Click to expand...

I wish it were the other way around, but the majority of things that come to mind over the past ten years are simply worsening of trends that I already saw as negative. We've been politically divided for a very long time; over the last ten years, it's gotten worse. Same thing with the generational gap; in recent years, the term "millennial" has become more of either a rallying cry or a pejorative, depending on how old you are. Smartphones and tablets are taking even more of people's focus off of each other to the point where many prospective new hires I interview can't even hold a simple conversation in person anymore, and many people I've hired are too bashful to pick up the phone and talk to a co-worker.

Now, all that being said, I do think we've made some great strides as well. The economy today is virtually a 180° turnaround versus ten years ago. Unemployment is at a record low. Technology has made the world smaller than it's ever been; the number of ways for people to communicate has grown by leaps and bounds. Civilian space travel is starting to look like it could become a reality within our lifetimes; the ability to cross oceans in an hour or two is an exciting prospect. We've never had more avenues for entertainment, with streaming movies, TV, and music all available at the click of a button. With all of these forward steps, I think it's important for us to not lose sight of who we are, but time will tell how that plays out.
 
Decade of 2010. Youth, Middle age, and no formal trade folks suffered the biggest hits.

The future for the most outgoing personality's, those who can sell and push, push ,push will be OK... Just.

I fear for the common man. a2
 
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