My answer:
All this technology: Radios, Television, Pocket computers that you can just pull knowledge from that also perfroms the functions of various other gadgets which are also made possible by modern technology. And of course, THE INTERNET!
Standardization:
USB-C is awesome! :D
The world just uses AC power.
Metric system
Countries all around the world agreeing to a certain set of rules: Such as in Aviation, the world agreed to use Aviation English and standard phraseology, emergency frequency is 121.5, 3-Letter codes that is unique to every commercial airport in the world.
Treaties:
My favorite thing is the Kyoto Protocol [Edit: Montreal Protocol, mixed that one up]. We stopped the ozone from getting fucked. Now we need to do the same with climate change… 👀
Co-operation:
I was at a traffic light and it’s just amazing how (almost) everyone just follows the lights, and not just try to run red lights. Yay! (okay i know its just called “obeying the law” but still, I find this interesting)
International Space Station… (at least until a certain country withdrew… 👀)
Food.
I can make a plate of food that has 10 different elements from all over the world in about 15 minutes, costing about $10.
100 years ago people barely had reliable access to salt and pepper.
This may get you banned from Italy, but international fuckery with Lasagna is awesome: mix in some taco spices and serve with nacho chips.
Yeah. I watch some historic food shows and they make it a point to highlight that food was generally not as fresh or plentiful as today.
The information superhighway as we called this thing way back when. Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Gutenberg, free MOOCs, shadow libraries and what not are a godsend.
Modern medicine. I could live without my daily medication, but it would be life on hard mode.
Free public education and healthcare are awesome, too. It really shows how much we as a society have grown and left behind the dark ages where those were for the rich only.
i don’t understand any of the words you just said.
(I’m American btw)
Honestly its just how cheap computer hardware has gotten. It might seem crazy but the fact that I can basically do everything I could ever need to do on a computer on a cheap windows laptop is nothing short of amazing.
The world just uses AC power.
I mean…that’s not that standardized. Different frequencies, voltages, and plugs. Aside from Europe trying to find a least-common-denominator plug – which isn’t quite standardization – I’m not sure what major moves have happened recent by way of standardizing AC power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country
USB-C is a lot more globally-standardized than AC power is.
The Internet. Every single truth, creation and information that exists, has existed and will exist, all at my finger. It’s amazing.
Other than that? modern medicine. Pretty much everything was a death sentence in old medical practices.
Not dying of fever or diarrhea
You can die from diarrhea?!
Oh yes, you can basically lose so much water and salts you die of dehydration, that’s why people used to die from cholera. And drinking a lot of water won’t be sufficient, as you also need to replace the salts and sugars you eject. Today in the developed world our hospitals can just give saline solutions and let the patient “wait it out”, but it has not always been an option and probably still isn’t a lot of places in the world.
Diarrhea is one of the major symptoms of dysentery.
Such was the world my grandparents grew up in. Before ORS became commonplace. They are in their 80s.
Vaccines and antibiotics.
Fuck yeah. Even if we lost everything else back to the cotton gin, life expectancies, survival rates, and quality of life would still be dramatically better if we retained vaccines, antibiotics, and dental care (including the pain management part).
Modern medicine, as incomplete as it is, is a godsend we don’t appreciate often enough. And that includes opioids, despite the current hysteria.
Bitches will appreciate it a lot more when their kids start dying of measles n shit.
Or not. 2024 convinced me that a lot of people are irredeemably stupid.
Dental care.
I’m currently holding a rectangle of carefully organized sand and I can effortlessly argue with strangers just about anywhere in the world.
Silicone caulk, lithium batteries, sharkbite fittings, laminate flooring, etc. I remember watching my father struggling with diy house projects and a lot of that is clearly easier now because of various advances.
