Name the Most Important Happening(s) of the Past 50 Years

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 10:16 AM) [snapback]283793[/snapback]</div>

Uncontrolled human propagation

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ Jul 10 2006, 07:26 AM) [snapback]283799[/snapback]</div>

Overpopulation, exceeding carrying capacity and broad, in-depth modification of the atmosphere, ground and ocean outstrips every major human accomplishment. We are creative, but lack constraint and fail to operate on sustainable levels.

 

Okay, for me it was the symbolic fall of the Berlin wall and Soviet Communism. Having been born in 1949, I lived my entire life, including my entire military career, in the shadow of the 'Cold War' mentality.

In view of our current 'Global War on Terror' (slated to last beyond my remaining lifetime), I am almost teary-eyed nostalgic....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 11:59 AM) [snapback]283848[/snapback]</div>

Sorry we didn't give you the answers you wanted!

I'm interested, it's just that I gave you what I believe to be the most important event in the last 50 years. To me everything else is inconsequential.

Also, you give up to quickly. Hang in there you'll get lots of answers.

See, you got one while I was responding with this one.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wstander @ Jul 10 2006, 12:23 PM) [snapback]283865[/snapback]</div>

And your grandchildrens children.

 

Okay, here is another:

The near Constitutional crisis that was the 2000 Presidential Election.

I say this not because of its outcome (though telling), but for the lost 'educational opportunities' that the media and our so-called educators missed.

<battle shields up>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 10:16 AM) [snapback]283793[/snapback]</div>

I'll second your internet, but I think grasshopper has a real point with the population explosion. I had a high school biology teacher with a program called WECSKAOP - What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet. The population is growing very large, and still increasing exponentially. It was never feasible for the planet to indefinately sustain our use of resources, and it becomes less feasible with each passing day. This isn't a really recent development, but it's one of the most important things to have our attention called to recently.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wstander @ Jul 10 2006, 12:30 PM) [snapback]283869[/snapback]</div>

wstander, stop replying while I'm replying. I can't keep up! :angry:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ Jul 10 2006, 09:35 AM) [snapback]283872[/snapback]</div>

Ha!

Methinks the question was but a ruse to get us to 'talk amongst ourselves' B) B)

 

I agree overpopulation is number 1 and the related global warming.

Number 2 is the gene mapping and ability to splice them to manipulate life, cure diseases, etc.

Number 3 is our first trip to the moon.

Number 4 is the accelerated redistribution of wealth from the poor and the middle class to a small wealthy elite.

Number 5 is the total stagnation in our political institutions and their inability to handle the above or any other serious problems that need to be solved.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 09:16 AM) [snapback]283793[/snapback]</div>

I'd have to rate the transister pretty darn high. Without the transister we wouldn't have computers, the internet, e-mail, my job (embedded software), a couple of my hobbies, cell-phones, video-games, PDAs, guided missiles, UAVs, face-recognition cameras on city streets and increasingly accurate modeling of planetary climate systems. The Prius wouldn't be as smart either.

Population growth is also a big affector of our life, from pollution and overfishing, immigration issues, the growth of our economy (more consumers, along with more thinkers and tinkerers). Of course, that came from people like Pasteur and Salk who revolutionized medicine. My grandmother was one of 14 kids, but only 7 lived past the age of 3. That doesn't happen in the western world anymore. Stephen Hawking wouldn't have made his contributions had he lived before WWII.

This isn't the last 50 years, but personally I like the invention (and widespread use) of toilet paper. I can't imagine life in the 19th century!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 10:16 AM) [snapback]283793[/snapback]</div>

I guess I'll have to be the first one: May 14, 1959 - Michael Paul is born...

 

i'll cite the revolution in molecular medicine as a very important happening of the last 50 years.

 

Sorry to post such a downer but AIDS and 9/11 have to go on the list.

 

Womens' rights are another one. Other than the short-lived "Rosie the Riveter", women didn't have many career choices in the 1950's. They did get the right to vote right after WWI, but property and legal rights, climbing the career ladder, playing sports, and just recognition of intelligence wasn't happening. Add to that birth control and safe abortions (for good or bad). That adds up to a pretty major societal change when you put it all together over the decades. Quite noticeable when you compare it to countries, such as those with an Islamic form of government, that didn't go through that shift.

 

How can one calculate the return on investment of an issue for which the consequences have not yet been recognized, nor even agreed upon? Was the ROI calculated on the nay sayers perception of consequences relating to global warming or the supporters of the theory of global warming?