Things That Will Soon Disappear?
The other day I read an article on msn.com about 10 things they believe will soon disappear forever.
One of them was power outages. They said that our electrical grid will become increasingly intelligent and resilient, and that blackouts for homes and businesses will become a thing of the past.
After nearly falling off my chair in shock, I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry.
I hate to break it to MSN, but the electrical grid is not going to become more resilient. It gets weaker every day. And blackouts are not only occurring more often these days, they are lasting longer than ever before.
As if the grid weakening was not a huge problem in and of itself. But now we can add an increasing number of threats to this situation.
The vulnerable grid is being hammered every day by cyber attacks. Occasionally it gets hit with physical attacks. And the increasingly extreme weather we experience all across the country is doing a slow but steady number on the grid.
No, power outages will definitely NOT disappear in the near future. They will get worse and only those who have prepared for this scenario will be able to survive it.
So, what else did the writer of the article say would disappear? Well, some of their predictions were a little more realistic that their misguided power outage suggestion.
For example…
- Fast food workers. They will be largely replaced by machines, especially as fast food restaurant owners try to deal with the rising minimum wage.
- Manual transmissions. They seem to be on the way out. Very few young people these days are leaning how to drive a stick shift vehicle, (which may be the ultimate theft deterrent.)
- Physical books. More and more people – especially younger people – are showing a preference for reading digital text on their phones, electronic readers or laptops rather than carrying books around.
- Who writes letters anymore? Seems like almost all non-face-to-face communications these days are via email, texting or phone.
- Incandescent light bulbs. This is a no-brainer. It’s illegal to even manufacture most of them anymore.
- Don’t get me started on this. Unfortunately, it’s already gone for most of us.
And 4 on the floor. At least the shift pattern was usually embossed on the knob, but the coordination involved in making it go, heh, totally lost.
I love my books and even though I have an e-reader I prefer to hold the book in my hand. I dread the day if books disappear. That will be really bad. If libraries fall on the wayside that will be awful also. I bet most of the kids today have never even stepped foot in a library. And if you have a power failure you can’t charge your e-reader. I wish I could still buy a set of encyclopedia’s. Granted I do use Wikipedia, but as a kid we always used the set of encyclopedia’s that my mom purchased. As to driving, I learned to drive with the gear shift on the steering column; I am sure my uncle got more gray hairs but I can do it. My first car was a 1962 VW with stick shift and roll up and down windows, no air conditioning, plus those little wind wing windows on the front windows. I feel if you can drive a stick shift, then you could drive almost any vehicle.
When they do away with the books, the alteration of history that has already begun will no longer have a check in place. They’ll be able to change things with a keystroke and say they never said differently. Big brother and the NWO will control all! Beware of giving up things in the name of “progress” – especially our freedoms under the US Constitution.
About 2 years ago in Houston a convenience store was robbed, Immediately after the theives left, the clerk called the police. There was a police car only a couple of blocks away, and when they arrived, they fpound that the bad guys had ran out to their vehicle (which turned out to be stolen) and it wpould not start, so they stopped an elderly lady driving slowly across the parking lot, jerked her from her car and thre her on the ground, jumped into her car, and could not drive away, because neither of them knew how to drive “three on the tree”, and the police then arrived and gave them a life.
…and I love books, turning the pages, glancing back ato recheck something because I know it is near the top of the page, then going back to my place of reading.
When the physical books are gone then the fact-checkers and censors will go to work to clean up and improve all works, thus committing the final stage of the dumbing down of the populace. Let’s see, all our records, all literature, all our money — exists only in virtual reality and can be invalidated.
Ha! I almost forgot that phrase….I learned to drive on a column shift!
I totally agree with all you said. I will miss books, writing letters, driving a stick shift, rolling car windows up and down, and electricity. Make it stop!
I agree! I learned to drive on a stick shift and recently had to give my sports car away because my left knee is so arthritic that I can’t shift it any more. I am in morning now. I still buy books at discount warehouse book dealers until they are no longer available. I wonder, what will everyone do when the blackout hits and the grid goes down? I will be reading my books by candlelight, playing cards with actual decks of cards, and playing old fashioned board games with my family for fun. Sure, I have a DVD player to play my movies, it’s in a Faraday cage with a solar generator to recharge it’s battery after the grid fails, but I am not counting on it too much. What will the new generation be doing while they wait for their batteries to recharge by solar panel on a rainy day? Also, don’t forget, when the grid goes down the Internet will go with it. Whatever will they do?
One reason for the decline in manual transmissions is the overcrowded roads. It is a literal pain to deal with stop and go traffic on a freeway for hours daily- my left leg gets sore from constantly depressing (pun intended! ) the clutch pedal because idiots don’t know how to just drive at a slower speed and maintain momentum like old school truckers do, instead of constantly speeding up,slowing down, and making stupid lane changes. Hopefully most of them will get self driving cars or call Uber so that those of us who know how to drive can have an easier and safer time on the road!
For myself, I’m not bothered by the fact that many (young & old, male & female) people don’t know how to operate a standard transmission vehicle – even the die hard trucking industry is gradually replacing the manual transmissions for automatics – anyway, back to my main thought. A potential car thief will not steal a car with a manual transmission if they don’t know how to operate it. Put plainly, if your vehicle has a manual transmission, consider that an anti-theft device for most if not all of the “joy riders”.
There already was a story where the car thieves got into and started a high end sports car and then the punks could figure out the manual transmission operated. The car theft was blotched and they left.
Welcome to the 21st Century. There are changes happening everywhere for various reasons, some good some bad. That is progress.
I went to a store to look for a Bic pen. They are cheap, dependable, long lasting. But, they are hard to find, and if you do find them, they are no longer cheap. LET GO OF MY WALLET!!!
The art of conversation has changed. No one wants to listen to you because they already know what you are going to say before it leaves your lips. Most young people prefer for you to text them. This way they can go about their business without having a conversation about a specific topic. As an old fart, I rather say what I want to communicate than to text what I meant to say. I have a hard time seeing the screen and spelling words when the cell phone tries to interpret I what I really wanted to say.
My kids and their kids all have cell phones. I still have my good old telephone attached to the wall. (Also known as a landline). Their phones take pictures and a 5 – 10 second video movie. I use my old 35mm camera. Now it costs me as much to have the film developed as it does to purchase new film. Yet, I get beautiful pictures that I can put in a photo album. With a cell phone, it can be lost, stolen, of damaged before you can down load your photographs to your computer.
With my photograph album I get to share the stories behind the picture. The grand kids love that.
So with a leg stuck in the 20th Century and the other in the 21st, I can see how the changes will be good as well as missed.
NO SHIT!
I think it’s sad that many young people don’t know what a “stick shift” is. I’ll bet less than 10% know what “3 on the tree” means.