I had this interesting discussion with my professor the other day. He was telling me about his grandfather. He lived from 1854-1958 mid 19th century to the mid 20th century (i forgot the exact dates :D). He was telling me the kind of stories his grandfather used to tell him when he was young. The thing that stayed on my mind is the amount of technical innovations his grandfather witnessed. During his lifespan radio, television, cars, planes, space exploration, men walking on the moon, and countless other were either born or achieved. His grandfather would tell him how he was amazed when seeing or hearing about this stuff for the first time, and the kind of shock it brought him.
This got me thinking. Our current generation has seen it all. Technology is developing so fast that we are not surprised nor amazed these days. We just don’t get the same kind of shock that my professor’s grandfather used to get. Maybe its because we keep wanting more, and we strive to always test the limits of our current technology. Is there something that will shock us? I tried coming up with stuff like colonies on other? planets, flying cars, and countless of other stuff. But those will not shock us, we have been hearing them for a while in some nature.
Will it be time travel? Power to become invisible? What will shock us??
I think there are two things which still might possibly stun humanity to it’s core in this day and age:
1. The discovery of (an) extra-terrestrial intelligent ( or even semi-intelligent) civilization(s) and first contact with them.
2. How closely evil may be intertwined with goodness, even within the hearts of the best of men and women, and how it may unexpectedly be brought out and justified by mundane circumstance. Well, this shocks me at least. It is not because we are innately either bad or good, but because good and bad cannot exist without one another and have a symbiotic relationship and purpose in our lives. Moral indifference is shocking to me ( not the thou shalt not wear bikini’s kind of morality - you know what I mean…)
Quite a pertinent and relevant post Yazeed.
MsB, who needs some strong coffee because she is rambling…
We have a guy working with us said the same thing. He says when he was growing up there was one radio was shared by the community. Now we have computers and everything else.
I think the major difference from the grandfather in your post and now is that we have better communication. You may not see a flying car, but will hear about it and someone will explain the technical aspects of it. Back then the level of education wasn’t as high as it is today. So when someone now mentions some new technology we are able to grasp it and understand it. We are amazed for its technical aspects, but won’t be shocked by it.
MsB,
we have got hundreds of movies and book about them. Having them attack us will definitely shock us 
extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations isnt particularly a new thing
evil and goodness should not be associated with the future or technological advances, unless u take a pill for it
nibaq,
well being educated may have nothing to do with it. Back then, say when cars were first invented, there was nothing like it. Thats why now people can explain and grasp new technological advances, but that might be the opposite when it come to a totally new technology. Something that we cant imagine, the same way the things i mentioned were to their respective time frame. some new technological advances can be explained, and some can be crazy and only explained by it developer.
You do have a point.. A few months ago I was talking with a friend about the exact same topic.. It is actually quite shocking that our generation is not shocked by technological discoveries any more.. I know that sounds ironic..
And by the way.. Man walking on the moon was in 1969 and your professor’s grandfather passed away in 1958..
oh my bad, i must have gotten the dates mixed up
but it was one of his main points
Yazeed,
Yes, but I chose to deviate from technology and take the concept of shock a step putside of your box. I chose to tell you what would shock me period.
And BTW, I disagree, I think extra-terrestrial civilizations would shock the pants off people because they will never be what we expect them to as a result of movies. It will be something far weirder.
Our grandparent’s generation has gone through many major technological discoveries however during our generation there has not been any major discoveries (except for the internet). It has mostly been further progress to a discovery that has already been made.
For example, our generation did not witness the invention of the phone, we witnessed the progress of the phone into a mobile phone. Same technology only more advanced. We did not witness the ‘invention’ of the mobile phone, we witnessed the advancement of the phone into a portable one, then one that sends messages, then takes pictures and video, and even allows people talk to each other via video, etc…
One technological invention that would shock the world today would be “teleporting”, the ability to disperse particles and send them via some electro-magnetic waves and then assemble them together in one peace at a completely different location, all within a matter of a few seconds. Imagine going to an airport Australia but instead of going into a plane, you just walk into a room.. Then suddenly you see a bright white light and within a few seconds you open your eyes to see yourself in what looks like the same room except for the fact that your in New York. No need for long-haul flights that last 20 hours.. No need to check your bags and fight with the people at the counter.. No need to pay extra for first class, everyone gets the same treatment.. No need to pay more for the extra weight of your luggage.. Stress free and instant travel..
Its true that nothing will shock our generation and I think this is because we are educated and are able to understand how a particular thing was made and how it works and so we are not shocked by it, just as Nibaq said. Our grandfathers generations were shocked because they simply didnt understand how certain things were made.
For example, We all know that some people throughout the world are isolated and still live life the old way. Now those type of people will be shocked about everything we have because they are not educated and simply have no idea how it came to be.
You also have a point with saying that we always want more and expext to have more.
Personally I think I wasnt shocked by anything new because nothing made till today is beyond our knowledge. It all makes perfect sense.