I know these are weird thoughts...but It is late at night. LOL
So Rick put up that post showing a picture of our beautiful Solar System, and he wondered what it was like to see that for the first time.
And that made think back to my Dad (born in 1903). My Dad did not even know there was a Galaxy! When he was finishing College, he knew of two: the Milky Way and Andromeda...all because of good old Hubble. The same guy the telescope was named after.
My Mom, born a year later than Dad was a "chemistry major" . So she showed me her book. Yes, her book. One. General Chemistry. She learned from Lectures and Notebooks. There weren't a lot of "specific subject" books. Meanwhile, I had eight books, dedicated to different chemical fields, and I was a Biology Major! Any of my individual Semester Course Books, would have held more knowledge than some of the great Scientists of the 1700's, 1800's, and even into the early 1900's knew. And we learned that stuff as Undergrads.
But we weren't challenged by just trying to figure out what "air" was made out of. And figuring out a way to both test for it, and experiment on it. Book learning is easy...especially when you already know the outcome.
Then you get me. I took one of the first courses ever taught in America about Viruses. Four years later, and so much had been learned, you could get a Major in Virology!
Backing up a bit- my Grandfather was born in 1878...and he was 25 when he saw his first car- and forty when he bought his first one. Shortly after he got his car, he saw his first airplane. And he lived long enough to see us land on the Moon.
Now, back to me. I knew about Galaxies, hundreds of them. Then the Hubble Telescope took a picture of "empty space", and well, we all remember how mind boggling it was to see deep space a realize it was full of Galaxies. Every image in that original picture is a Galaxy...not a star.
And the JWT has now done that to yet another generation of young star gazers.
Speaking of young.
My daughters were the last generation to not be taught on computers in HS. But they were there for the beginning of both Personal Computers and Fledgling Social Media sites like dial up America Online, and MySpace. And then gaming began.
Their children have never seen a telephone. Just smart phones. And computers are second nature to them. And they have seen Social Media, YouTube, and Podcasting make Legacy TV and Shows...almost seem archaic.
And they are comfortable with both the impending death of the internet, as we knew it with Search Engines and Clicks for advertising. AI has changed that metric. Now you get a summary of all that is known about something...instead of sponsored rankings.
And they have no fear of it.
And last but not least, my Grandmother had to endure unbelievable pain in her hips...and knees, as did all of the Arthritic folks up to 1968. The first year of implants, followed by Knee implants a bit later. And by the time I got mine done...it was an OUTPATIENT PROCEDURE! And you go home the same day, with a foot and half of titanium femur to stand on.
And that brings me to this month. I have a viral soup growing in my body, and have had over 100 breathing treatments in 27 days to keep the Asthma from joining in. When My Mom was my age, she would have died. And all 27 days would have been in a Hospital. But I have the machines, technology and medicines at home, and was trained to treat myself (Under Doctors Supervision) as a home patient.
So yeah, I have some pretty good feelings about being alive today.
Merry Christmas