Can the young kids even address a letter?

[cgarr]

Do kids even know how to write and address a letter today? Went through my Sons bag from boot camp and the letters he sent us just over a year ago and they are the only letters we have from him, everything else before and since is txt and emails. Just thinking about how sterile the world is now a days. Going through some boxes of pictures from 17 years ago and now everything is on my computer or disk.

Something is just not the same. I feel all history is being lost!

[legion]

Thousands of years from now, historians will date the collapse of our society decades (or centuries) early because the physical artifacts suddenly disappear.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by cgarr

Do kids even know how to write and address a letter today? Went through my Sons bag from boot camp and the letters he sent us just over a year ago and they are the only letters we have from him, everything else before and since is txt and emails. Just thinking about how sterile the world is now a days. Going through some boxes of pictures from 17 years ago and now everything is on my computer or disk.

Something is just not the same. I feel all history is being lost!

Don't forget reading a clock (you know, the kind with hands).

Yeah, I understand, but at the same time, anything and everything that's out there is also being saved more than ever before in digital format.

But yes, that's not exactly what you meant. I have pictures from various times when I was growing up. My mom scanned all of the photos and slides. It's great to be able to look at them any time like that. Heck, I think I have them on the thumb drive that I carry.

Still, it's something to think about all of the things and knowledge that are creeping away. I don't feel old (I'll be 41 this year), but the amount of stuff that's changed just in my life seems phenomenal. As I've gotten older, my interest in History has changed to 20th century history. Just reading about stuff from the 50s, 40s and 30s is a little mind boggling. There's an enormous wealth of knowledge that I think it seriously endangered and will probably be extinct soon. But, this has been happening for hundreds and thousands of years. At the same time, new things are being discovered and thought up to replace the old. Still, it makes me a bit sad to think about some of the amazing knowledge and art that's been lost.

Even more than the stuff that falls by the wayside, exiled by the steady march of technology is the loss of knowledge and art that has occured (and still does) when one group decides that they don't like something that another group did.

Mao Tse Tung's "Cultural Revolution" when Mao decided that the old ways needed to be wiped out

Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites, particularly those belonging to ethnic minority groups, were ransacked.

China's historical sites, artifacts and archives suffered devastating damage as they were thought to be at the root of "old ways of thinking". Many artifacts were seized from private homes and museums and often destroyed on the spot. There are no records of exactly how much was destroyed. Western observers suggest that much of China's thousands of years of history was in effect destroyed or, later, smuggled abroad for sale, during the short ten years of the Cultural Revolution. Such destruction and sale of historical artifacts is unmatched at any time or place in human history.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan (Persian: بت های باميان – but hay-e bamiyan) were two 6th century[1] monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan

They were intentionally dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar,[4] after the Taliban government declared that they were "idols"

As long as one group has been fighting with and conquering another group, the loss of art and knowledge has been occurring.

It just seems to be the way of the world and the people in it to forget much of the past or obliterate it.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I think saying the "destruction and sale of historical artifacts is unmatched at any time or place in human history" is overstating it. Likely the loss of the Library of Alexandria created far greater of a loss. Or possibly scientific works deemed heretical and banned or destroyed by the Vatican through the Dark Agrs and extending into the early-mid Renaissance period...

Not saying the Chinese cultural revolution didn't set the world back, but it wasn't the biggest historical loss of all time either probably.

An awful lot of ancient artifacts went missing during the final days of the Saddam Hussein regime too...

[mikester]

My 6 year old can.

[Rich76_911s]

I'm not going to argue that there is something to be said about having a tangible letter over a text or email. Nothing can beat a letter penned in someones own handwriting for a sentimental piece of history.

But you also can't disregard the great qualities of emails. They happen much more frequently, are store infinetly, are searchable, dated, and will not burn, decay, or get lost. Same goes with Photos (depending on your storage system and labeling).

Just think our great-grandkids will be able to sit down at a computer terminal long after we are gone and search pelican for Cgarr to find out what great-grandpa was thinking and doing. Maybe they will still have your 911, and restore it to just like you documented on these forums.

NOTE FOR MY GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN: Please don't put a nuclear fusion motor in the back of the 911, I don't care how clean it is

[sammyg2]

A guy at work asked me what time it is. He's prolly around 25 but doesn't wear a watch for some reason.
I looked at my watch and said it's a quarter to 10.

He said, "don't mess with me man, what time is it?"

I guess he's never heard the phrase "a quarter to".

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I think saying the "destruction and sale of historical artifacts is unmatched at any time or place in human history" is overstating it. Likely the loss of the Library of Alexandria created far greater of a loss. Or possibly scientific works deemed heretical and banned or destroyed by the Vatican through the Dark Agrs and extending into the early-mid Renaissance period...

Not saying the Chinese cultural revolution didn't set the world back, but it wasn't the biggest historical loss of all time either probably.

An awful lot of ancient artifacts went missing during the final days of the Saddam Hussein regime too...

Or Solomon's temple. It existed but not a trace can be found now.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by legion

Thousands of years from now, historians will date the collapse of our society decades (or centuries) early because the physical artifacts suddenly disappear.

That's what happened with the Mayans and the Aztecs; once they got the UFO technology, the ceased evolving and died out.