Standing next to Burj Khalifa and looking up was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. It really felt like the top of the building reached into space. Literally breathtaking.
Something interesting about the HGP is that it was even easier than they expected. There was speculation that it would take decades or even a century and the work would have to be passed down to a new generation of scientists. I wouldn't call it hubris, but we certainly thought the human genome was more complicated than it is and we underestimated the scientific capabilities of the time. It's not necessarily the most important thing, but it's interesting to think about.
I agree. I wanted to talk about this a bit today too - how accelerating technology played a role, along with those network effects I mentioned - and how it went SO much faster than anyone expected, but then I had to run across the street for a meeting.
As always, food for thought. I had never connected the 7 wonders with being human created ... nor that 6 of the 7 were leveled by nature. Who even decided what the 7 wonders were? And, isn't itamazing what wonders we don't even consider wonders ... hydrogen, sunlight, rain, love... we are a narcissistic bunch, huh? Thanks for the inspiration.
oceans ... I just discovered that the Universe ... all billions and billions of galaxies and stars has only 5 oceans ... and they all happen to be right here on planet Earth.
Now I've got to go find my oceans source ... it is rather hard to believe ... how would they even know? When I read it though, I thought the source was reliable.
A project to discover whether there is life out there will certainly be one of the wonders of the modern world. Another could be a project to successfully reach mars.
I couldn't agree more about finding life out there! I think Mars is enormous, but it will be eclipsed (eventually) by other planets, but finding life is something you can only experience once.
Synthetic insulin has saved countless lives and is a modern wonder. I suspect the new GLP-1 class of drugs are following in its footsteps.
Great example from DNA manipulation from even before we had the genome mapped.
Standing next to Burj Khalifa and looking up was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. It really felt like the top of the building reached into space. Literally breathtaking.
I would love to be there for a minute. It sounds like the way Empire State was for me in the 80s. It was really other-worldly.
I mostly remember HGP as a buildable project in Alpha Centauri, which is a game by Sid Meier (the guy behind Civilization series).
Funny how the 1990s real world scientists just straight-up stole their idea from a future computer game, eh?
Classic science, always stealing ideas from the future like a modern day Prometheus!
Not a single original idea, those scientists.
Something interesting about the HGP is that it was even easier than they expected. There was speculation that it would take decades or even a century and the work would have to be passed down to a new generation of scientists. I wouldn't call it hubris, but we certainly thought the human genome was more complicated than it is and we underestimated the scientific capabilities of the time. It's not necessarily the most important thing, but it's interesting to think about.
I agree. I wanted to talk about this a bit today too - how accelerating technology played a role, along with those network effects I mentioned - and how it went SO much faster than anyone expected, but then I had to run across the street for a meeting.
As always, food for thought. I had never connected the 7 wonders with being human created ... nor that 6 of the 7 were leveled by nature. Who even decided what the 7 wonders were? And, isn't itamazing what wonders we don't even consider wonders ... hydrogen, sunlight, rain, love... we are a narcissistic bunch, huh? Thanks for the inspiration.
Hydrogen is pretty rad! How about the laws of physics themselves for a wonder?
absolutely! What sane person could've thunk them up.
If "laws of physics" are one wonder, what could be the other six?
oceans ... I just discovered that the Universe ... all billions and billions of galaxies and stars has only 5 oceans ... and they all happen to be right here on planet Earth.
I'm pretty sure there are lots and lots of other oceans out there. One thing we've never, ever seen anywhere else, though: life.
Now I've got to go find my oceans source ... it is rather hard to believe ... how would they even know? When I read it though, I thought the source was reliable.
A project to discover whether there is life out there will certainly be one of the wonders of the modern world. Another could be a project to successfully reach mars.
I couldn't agree more about finding life out there! I think Mars is enormous, but it will be eclipsed (eventually) by other planets, but finding life is something you can only experience once.
Or have much of an imagination! No offense to your acquaintance here.