---
title: "The present is magical! To illustrate, Imagine that you traveled back…"
date: 2017-01-12
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships updated his status.
---

# The present is magical! To illustrate, Imagine that you traveled back…

*January 12, 2017 · Facebook*

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The present is magical!\
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To illustrate, Imagine that you traveled back in time 500 years to the year 1517, and tried to explain to someone back then what life was like now.\
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\* Fresh, inexpensive exotic fruits and vegetables from all over the globe are available in nearby markets daily.\
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\* Physicians have greatly reduced the pains of childbirth, surgery, and dentistry.\
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\* Clean, abundant hot and cold water are available at the press of a lever.\
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\* Clean water is so abundant in many places, streams of it run through every house, and it\'s commonly used to carry nightsoil away.\
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\* In many places, you can change the temperature of your house at the press of a button.\
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\* Many farmers now own giant clockwork beasts that can farm the same amount of land as 500 farmers in 1517.\
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\* Clockwork birds transport people around the world in few hours.\
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\* Giant Chinese rockets\--the size of cathedral spires\--have transported men to the moon and back.\
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\* Clockwork carriages carry people as fast as birds can fly to their destination.\
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\* Those clockwork carriages roll along a vast network of roads\--all as smooth as river stone\--that connect most of the world\'s cities.\
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\* Smallpox has been completed eradicated. Many other diseases are now rare in much of the world, including the black plague, measles, mumps, tuberculosis, typhus, leprosy, cholera, and dyptheria\
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\* Clockwork golems can best any human at a game of chess, go, and many other games.\
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\* Tiny golems that fit in the palm of your hand can translate from any language to any other language.\
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\* People carry magic mirrors, in which you can talk to almost anyone, anywhere in the world at any time for free or a few pennies.\
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\* People carry magic books, which allow them to read almost every book, newspaper, or pamphlet that has ever been written.\
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\* People carry tiny, magic orchestras that allow people to listen any song that has ever been written, whenever they want.\
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\* People carry tiny, magic theaters that allow them to watch any play that has ever been performed.\
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\* Clockwork painters can make a life-like painting of any scene in an instant.\
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\* These magic mirrors/books/orchestras/theaters/painters all fit into the same device, which is about the size and weight of a deck of cards.\
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\* The newest magical devices can make you feel as if you\'re in a waking dream.\
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\* We could, if we wanted, make a child that is an exact copy of you in appearance.\
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\* The organs of the dead are routinely transplanted into the living.\
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\* Many scientists think that aging and death can be greatly delayed, and wealthy are beginning to pour money into such research.\
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\* Wealthy men and women compete to build spaceships to lower the cost of taking humanity back to the moon and beyond.\
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Not everything is roses, however.\
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\* Despite these riches, many people are so unhappy they commit suicide.\
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\* Food is so abundant that most of the population is fat, and suffers from diseases as a result of being too fat.\
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\* We\'re about to create golems who can best humans at any endeavor. Many fear that these golems will drive humans to extinction.\
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\* Many people still believe that threatening other people with violence (beatings, imprisonment, death) is a good way to get what they want. Such people dominate the political discourse and government.\
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\* Despite widespread access to information, much of the public remains deeply ignorant and irrational about most issues. Government decisions reflect this.\
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\* We\'ve developed weapons that can vaporize a city the size of London or Rome in an instant. One of our knottiest problems is how to prevent crazy people from setting off one of these weapons.
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