Elon Musk *spawn*

People are the same as they have always been, in fact I'ld say leaders now are prolly better than they were a couple of centuries ago, mainly cause theres more media attention to keep them more honest, now they're like ~90% fuckers, back then they were ~100% cunts
Standard of living around the world now is better than its ever been

FWIW edison was worth $170 million in todays money when he died (but like I've said before these numbers are always bogusly under the true amount, i.e. add a zero or two)
FWIW it looks as if DC may 'win out' over AC

 

There is a concentration of wealth like we have never really seen. I'll support orangpelupas argument . Someone like Elon would not be able to have amassed this wealth without the modern world. He would have ripped off some nobility promising that he would convert lead into gold in the next two years and then moved on.

 

Depends how you define it and what periods you are comparing.

Well yeah, as we "progress" the rich concentrate more wealth than what they could amass back in his time.

I dont know about the present, but back then AC was the future.

 

The average person in the world, i.e. not comparing marie anionette (up to her moment she lose her head) to someone in a dhaka slum, in whatever metric you want, life expectancy, chance of being murdered, chance of starving etc

Wasnt the richest person ever an african king?

, true, but now batteries are becoming more important and I think/hope theres gonna be a lot more locally sourced power in the future, smarter power (AC is best at delivering power over long distances, though of course it still loses something along the way)

 

HVDC and UHVDC would beg to differ...

Though, of course, we're only seeing this stuff really developed in recent years. One of the main technologies that has allowed the green pipe dream of vast solar farms in North Africa shipping power across to Europe to keep the lights on.

 

Interesting, looks like I was wrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current#Advantages

 

Ever heard of the Roman Empire?

 

And the kings of Indonesia (before it was called indonesia)

 

Yeah but that is because modern electronics make the conversion easier. You lose the skin effect active resistance so dc wind for long distance transmission but that wasn't Edison's argument. He was electrocuting elephants and stuff. Though it was supposed to be ahumane way to euthanize then it was also supposed to show how dangerous AC was. Back then AC was clearly superior. They did not have modern electronics so needed transformers and they were not transmitting long distance. Look at pictures of the wires back then. It was madness.

 

Who and what exactly are you comparing it with?
Are you talking about the emperors?

 

Yes.

 

Well the emperors were like Gods and unreachable.
Imagine a Roman Empire where they were teaching in universities that people can and should become like them and all their crazy, sociopathic behavior like vanity, gluttony etc are the highest virtues and philosophy and culture take the back seat because they are unproductive and useless.

 

I had a fucking right wing nationalist british citing the movie as an argument about the great things the British have brought to those they colonized.
If only he was the one who felt the iron fist of oppression

 

I thought we were trying to get rid of the Marmite? Of the many things we Brits should be contrite about, surely that's top of the list.

 

That doesn't mean it should be eaten! It should be discarded on some far away planet to kill Natasha Yar in a few hundred years time.