Motley Moose – Archive

Yesterday, ThinkProgress posted “ThankProgress: 9 Things Progressives Can Be Thankful For“, a list of things that we made progress on over this past year.

Here is their list (click the link for details):

1. States are enacting protections for undocumented immigrants.

2. Same-sex couples have more access to marriage benefits than ever before.

3. More workers are getting raises and taking sick leave.

4. Uninsured Americans are signing up for health insurance.

5. The U.S. is taking steps to address the consequences of climate change.

6. States are enacting prison reform.

7. College activists across the country are fighting back against rape culture.

8. Solar power is on the rise and prices keep dropping.

9. Number of homeless Americans on the decline.

When you look at that list, you could just as easily say “but … but … we didn’t get it all!!!”. And you would be right … we didn’t get it all … but we did make progress.

I’m sitting on the back porch of my house in Sarasota, Florida for among the last nights before we move to Raleigh, North Carolina.  It’s a good move, the kids are looking forward to it and I’ve been flying there a couple times a month for the most of the two years we’ve lived here so I’m looking forward to driving to work

, it’s a  Still it’s a melancholy  Raleigh a great area with wonderful weather and forests and lakes

It is now 2009.  We have come so far in the past eight years that – even if you pay really close attention – the speed with which we have grown as a species in knowledge and capability is so ferociously fast as to be virtually invisible.

In 2009 you can buy a 1 Terabyte disk drive for your computer for $95 (this much storage would have cost you $4,000 in 2001).

Between 2001 and 2009 – following the old saw about “Human Knowledge doubling ever year” – we as a species had acquired 256 times as much knowledge about the world around us than we did between the dawn of humanity and 2001 (when we already thought we were pretty bright, and we were).