What modern invention/innovation do you wish had *never* been developed?

[LizzieMaine]

"Double cupping." I've just had an entire weeks' supply of coffee cups exhausted in six hours by a crowd of people who insist on shoving their coffee or tea into a second empty cup so as not to burn or scald their delicate middle class flesh. No more. From here on an extra cup costs fifty cents, and cups will be kept behind the counter and issued out one at a time.

It's bad enough we have a generation of people who can't walk five yards without a cup of coffee to suck into their pasty self-important faces, they've got to chisel every cent of profit out of it along the way.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

I remember the days when you couldn't bring outside drinks or food into the theater, you had to buy your drinks and snacks once you got inside. And even then, your choices were limited to soda, candy, popcorn, and in the winter time, hot chocolate. Now, you can practically have a sit down meal what with nachos, pizza, fries, chicken strips, and fruit being available for purchase. It seems we can't go long without stuffing our faces with food either. Seriously, we are a nation of whining, complaining wimps who can't be inconvenienced or have to wait for anything. There's a reason those who lived during WWII were called the Greatest Generation - they knew the meaning of sacrifice and putting others before themselves. I shudder to think what would have happened if those people thought the world revolved around them and their wants and needs like many do now days...we'd all be Deutsch sprechen.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I confiscate outside food or drinks at the door, or ask the people to finish them outside. I've had people try to smuggle in entire Chinese takeout suppers, fish and chips, loaves of bread -- and even, in one case, somebody actually ordered a pizza and had it delivered while they were inside watching the show. I confiscated that, too.

 

[Stearmen]

I remember the days when you couldn't bring outside drinks or food into the theater, you had to buy your drinks and snacks once you got inside. And even then, your choices were limited to soda, candy, popcorn, and in the winter time, hot chocolate. Now, you can practically have a sit down meal what with nachos, pizza, fries, chicken strips, and fruit being available for purchase. It seems we can't go long without stuffing our faces with food either. Seriously, we are a nation of whining, complaining wimps who can't be inconvenienced or have to wait for anything. There's a reason those who lived during WWII were called the Greatest Generation - they knew the meaning of sacrifice and putting others before themselves. I shudder to think what would have happened if those people thought the world revolved around them and their wants and needs like many do now days...we'd all be Deutsch sprechen.

Actually, the reason the Japanese and Hitler declared war on us was, they thought all Americans were soft with no will to fight! All the Iraq and Afghanistan recipients of The Medal Of Honor are from the post Baby Boom generations. I would not call any of them lacking in the knowledge of sacrifice!

 

[HudsonHawk]

I remember the days when you couldn't bring outside drinks or food into the theater, you had to buy your drinks and snacks once you got inside.

I've never even heard of of theater where you *could* bring in outside food or drinks. They certainly don't exist around here today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'd like to see the end of machines that eliminate human interaction in everyday tasks.

Just visiting my local grocery store, I noticed they've installed yet another machine of this type -- a hulking thing with a garish sign promising FAST CASH FOR OLD PHONES! Apparently the deal is that when your shiny overpriced pocket toy loses its luster, you scan its ID number, drop it in the box, and receive a credit to your account or some such. Well, at least that's better than throwing them in the garbage, but now, when you walk into this store you see, in a long row along the wall alongside this newcomer, machines that will count your coins, rent you a DVD, dispense cash, sell you lottery tickets, redeem your empty bottles, sell you big jugs of drinking water, rent you a rug cleaner, and rent you a scooter to ride around the store on. This store doesn't yet have self-service checkout counters, but that's on the way.

All those tasks are things that used to require that you interact, at least in some small way, with another human being -- an interaction which reminded you that you were not a lone individual but a member of a society made up of other human beings, to whom you could feel both a kinship and a sense of social responsibility. Now, the trend is to separating you from that sense -- toward making it easier and easier to conduct the everyday business of your life in complete isolation from others.

Some may prefer it that way. But ask yourself -- in what way does this build a truly healthy society? I'm so very very glad that I won't live long enough to see where this trend will lead forty or fifty years from now.

 

[2jakes]

I'd like to see the end of machines that eliminate human interaction in everyday tasks.

Just visiting my local grocery store, I noticed they've installed yet another machine of this type -- a hulking thing with a garish sign promising FAST CASH FOR OLD PHONES! Apparently the deal is that when your shiny overpriced pocket toy loses its luster, you scan its ID number, drop it in the box, and receive a credit to your account or some such. Well, at least that's better than throwing them in the garbage, but now, when you walk into this store you see, in a long row along the wall alongside this newcomer, machines that will count your coins, rent you a DVD, dispense cash, sell you lottery tickets, redeem your empty bottles, sell you big jugs of drinking water, rent you a rug cleaner, and rent you a scooter to ride around the store on. This store doesn't yet have self-service checkout counters, but that's on the way.

All those tasks are things that used to require that you interact, at least in some small way, with another human being -- an interaction which reminded you that you were not a lone individual but a member of a society made up of other human beings, to whom you could feel both a kinship and a sense of social responsibility. Now, the trend is to separating you from that sense -- toward making it easier and easier to conduct the everyday business of your life in complete isolation from others.

Some may prefer it that way. But ask yourself -- in what way does this build a truly healthy society? I'm so very very glad that I won't live long enough to see where this trend will lead forty or fifty years from now.

I do believe...it's already here...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ah, but we are interacting here. Not face to face, but it's still interaction between human beings. When you go out and buy gas from an automated gas pump and then drive to a store where you buy your stuff at a self-service checkout counter with cash drawn from an ATM, and then rent a DVD from a Red Box kiosk which you then take home, watch in seclusion, and then return to the rental box, you're eliminating a whole raft of situations that used to require interaction with other people. That's only going to get worse.

 

[2jakes]

Ah, but we are interacting here. Not face to face, but it's still interaction between human beings. When you go out and buy gas from an automated gas pump and then drive to a store where you buy your stuff at a self-service checkout counter with cash drawn from an ATM, and then rent a DVD from a Red Box kiosk which you then take home, watch in seclusion, and then return to the rental box, you're eliminating a whole raft of situations that used to require interaction with other people. That's only going to get worse.

WARNING-WARNING-WARNING_WARNING

I have been programed by my owner who is still in bed with a hangover to agree with humans.
You are now interacting with Auto-Pilot Computer. I will report your replies to 2jakes when he awakens.
Thank You Ms LizzieMaine

btw: My visual ratio indicates 100 % positive >>avatar <<or in human terms
" I dig your smile & dress on your profile avatar"

 

[2jakes]

MY Apologies

I have disconnected my auto-pilot computer.

I need to reprogram Robby so that he will not make any comments or interact with
the ladies on this forum.

 

[Zombie_61]

I'd like to see the end of machines that eliminate human interaction in everyday tasks...

I concur. Recently I've seen television commercials for a smartphone app that allows you to order food from local restaurants (that will subsequently be delivered to your front door), and they're very proud of the fact that this app will enable the user to do so "without having to talk to a human being" (or whatever the tagline is). I'm sure there are people out there who wasted no time in downloading this app, but all I could think was, "Wow, that's pathetic."

Even more appalling are the "self check-out" kiosks at the local supermarkets and other retail stores. Setting the issue of human interaction aside for a moment, if/when these become the standard and shoppers will have to scan and bag their own goods, it will eliminate the need for the employees that currently do so and likely lead to their unemployment. "Steel collar" workers may or may not be as efficient in the workplace as human beings, but their ever-increasing presence begs the question: When every task is automated, how will people earn a living?

 

[LizzieMaine]

When every task is automated, how will people earn a living?

Our technocratic masters don't waste time with such petty considerations. Besides, doesn't everybody have a stock portfolio and a trust fund?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The one good thing about self checkout machines is that she doesn't hold up the line chit-chatting with her girlfriend who's ahead of you in line and has twenty-five items in a ten items only express line. That kind of human interaction I can do without.

 

[dh66]

Maybe folks will start to realize something is amiss when the infrastructure of their world begins to seriously crumble around them. Things are bad enough as they are, but I'm pretty sure all those machines are not contributing tax dollars toward the common cause at the level their displaced human counterparts were.
Give it some thought....how convenient is that video dispenser, that doesn't pay any income tax or sales taxes on the goods it consumes when it's not at work, when there's not enough state revenue to patch up the pothole that just took the front suspension out from under your car, or you're sitting in the dark because there's no money to pay for keeping up the power lines.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are people on the Lounge today who will live to see that happen.

 

[1mach1]

video games

Right? We just saw this story on CBS Sunday Morning about video gaming becoming a "sport". Unbelievable.

http://www.wtsp.com/story/entertainment/2014/12/14/cbs-sunday-morning-december-14/20392523/

 

[dh66]

There are people on the Lounge today who will live to see that happen.

Quite possibly you and me among them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's my greatest fear.

 

[1mach1]

Quite possibly you and me among them.

Sadly, our kids.......

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best thing anyone could do for their kids is teach them how to use simple hand tools and make fire.