My grandparents used to talk about how you could buy bread for a nickel and milk for a dime. Today, when we visit them at the nursing home, they talk about how in their lifetime we went from horse and carriages to jets

And owning an automobile was a luxury. They remember the first telephones, the first cars (they talk about how they thought the cars would never replace the horse and carriage). The first airplanes, the first televisions, the first computers, the first cell phones, the first smartphones. <br><br>They remember World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq. They remember the first atom bomb and the first hydrogen bomb. They remember when the largest threat to society was a government and how today it’s private companies and the AI they create. <br><br>They remember when cars didn’t have radios, then a single speaker radio, now audio systems with 20 speakers and screens larger than the first televisions they saw in a store window. <br><br>They remember the first telephones which were attached to the wall, the first cordless and cell phones and how today, we have a computer and television in our pocket. <br><br>They remember when we all had to use the same television and when televisions only had 3 channels. Now we all have our own TVs and cell phones and there are hundreds of channels. <br><br>They remember when you had to get up off the couch and walk to the television to change the channel. There were no remotes. They remember the first VCRs, and the first DVDs. Today, we have cut the cord and stream everything. They remember when you could buy a new VHS tape for $40 and how today, we can have access to every movie and show for $15/month and watch it on our TVs, our computers, our phones and our tablets. <br><br>They remember the first video games and how you had to go to an arcade to play them. Then came home systems like Atari, the first cell phones with snake and the first games on your computer. Today we have PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo and virtual reality games and game systems. And the graphics are realistic. <br><br>They remember when phones were used to make phone calls. Texts were unheard of, if you wanted to talk to someone you called them. Now phones are used to text, we use apps and do our banking on them. We have Google in our pocket. They remember when we had to use encyclopedias and dictionaries. Today, we have access to the cumulative knowledge of humanity in our pockets. <br><br>They remember how cars didn’t have air conditioning and if you wanted to listen to music, you listened to the radio, or maybe you had an 8 track. They remember cassette tapes and CDs. Today, we have streaming services and can listen to any song ever recorded. <br><br>They remember when things were built to last and today how things are disposable and meant to be thrown away. They remember when children and adults could go on a bus by themselves without fear. They remember when they didn’t lock their doors and today how we have security systems and motion detectors. <br><br>They remember when you could buy a new car for $500 and when you could go to McDonald’s and get a burger, fries and a coke for under $1. They remember when we had $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50 and $1.00 coins and $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. Today, we have all those and $2 bills and some are thinking about eliminating cash all together. They remember when credit cards were unheard of, today, there are so many we have to have wallets just to hold them all. <br><br>They remember when we used to have to actually go into a bank and talk to a real person to do our banking. Today, we don’t need to ever go into one unless we want to. <br><br>They remember when we didn’t have microwaves. And the first microwaves took up an entire counter. Today they are as big as a shoe box. They remember when food to go didn’t exist. Today you can get fast food, take out and delivery from restaurants they have never even heard of. <br><br>They remember when medicine was primarily to keep you comfortable as you died. They remember the first heart transplants and the first artificial hearts. Today they have machines that can keep you alive for years if not indefinitely. They remember when cancer was a death sentence, today, it isn’t. They remember when hearing aids were the size of a brick and today how they are as small as your pinky. They remember the polio and how today we have a plethora of vaccines for diseases that used to kill people. <br><br>They remember when if your kidneys failed you had to be tied to a dialysis machine and today how you can have a portable dialysis machine in your car. They remember the first prosthetic limbs, how large and cumbersome they were and how clunky they worked. Today we have prosthetic arms and hands that obey your commands, prosthetic legs that are better than human. And if we are lucky, we will see a brain/computer interface and many of us will live forever.<br><br>They remember when we didn’t have washing machines or dryers, when we didn’t have dish washers, when we didn’t have sewing machines, when we didn’t have vacuum cleaners, when we didn’t have refrigerators. And how all of these things have become so much better. <br><br>They remember when we didn’t have electricity and how we used kerosene lamps. Today, we have light bulbs and if they’re lucky, smart light bulbs that they can turn on and off and change color with. They remember when we didn’t have central heating and air and how we used wood stoves, gas heaters and ceiling and floor fans. Today we have air conditioning and furnaces. They remember the first window unit air conditioners which were as large as a refrigerator. <br><br>They remember when we didn’t have flushable toilets and how we had to go to the outhouse. Today, we have bidets and heated toilets. They remember when we had to actually go to a store to buy something. Today we can buy anything we want from our phones. They remember when we had to actually go to a post office to mail something. Today, we can print the stamp at home. <br><br>They remember how the majority of people worked on farms, when we used animals and how the first tractors changed everything. Today we don’t need humans anymore in many cases. They remember when every man alive had to serve in the military. And the first machine guns, tanks, and planes. Today we have drones and AI. <br><br>In their lifetime we went from horse and carriages to commercial space flight. From the Wright brothers, to commercial jets. From Atom bombs to Hydrogen bombs. From the first telephones, to the first cell phones and the first smart phones. From the first televisions to the first VCRs, then DVDs and streaming. <br><br>What will we have in the next 100 years?<br><br>&#x200B;