Children's literature: 1918

Smoking:

Violence:

Murder!:

--From The Magic Pudding--

Civilization ended shortly after this book was published.

The information age: 1868

I found it as difficult as I dare say every one else did, to learn anything authentic about Hongkong before I left England. There was plenty of information to be obtained, but each new fact was so entirely at variance with the last, that the result was a state of unutterable confusion. There was plenty of information to be obtained, but each new fact was so entirely at variance with the last, that the result was a state of unutterable confusion. I may classify my informants and say that they were of three kinds—those who invented all they told me, those who exaggerated all they told me, and those who only told me half the truth.

--From The China Magazine--

Before the internet came along people had an easier time finding reliable information, because they could simply look it up in fact-checked books or read it in newspapers produced by professional journalists.

Full frontal: 1909

Proof of how vulgar modern times have become!

Modern medicine: 1350

In cases of diseases of the internal organs, where applied compounds will not work, he feeds the patient a narcotic potion to induce a deep sleep; then he cuts open the stomach and irrigates the affected areas with medicinal fluids. The patient feels not the slightest pain, and after the irrigation Hua Tuo sews up the wound with treated sutures and spreads salve over it.

--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

Hundreds of years ago, no one could have imagined the miracles of modern medicine.

Guns don't kill people... : circa 400BC

Those same things from which we get good can also be for us a source of hurt, or else we can avoid the hurt. For instance, deep water is useful for many purposes, and yet again harmful; for there is danger of being drowned. A technique has therefore been invented: instruction in swimming.

--From Maxims of Democritus--

Clearly, we should ban deep water.

Useless: 1761

Q. What is electricity?

A. It is that property certain bodies, heated by friction, have of attracting and repelling, alternatively, other thin and light bodies, such as straw, bits of paper, gold-leaf, etc.

--From The Universal Magazine--

Can you believe people spent time and money researching this? On "electricity", what a waste!

Aliens

Let's contact species which have spread all over the universe, because species which spread really quickly are great to have around.

Designer babies: 1661

How well coloured and fair Children may be begotten.

Great is the affection of the mind, or force of imagination, but greatest of all when it exceeds: what is it you may not do almost by it? Women when they are with Child, when they desire most eagerly, think of it vehemently, they change the spirits within, and in them are painted forms of the things they thought of; those move the blood, whereupon in the softest matter of the Child they imprint the form...

--From Eighteen books of the secrets of art and nature--

Changing the child in the womb so they appeal to the superficial whims of parents: an issue that society never dealt with before the advent genetic engineering!

Herbal remedies: 1661

To prevent sleep.

There is a Berry brought out of Egypt cald Coffee, which being dried and beaten to pouder, and boyled in fair water, is much used among the Turks to make them lively and prevent sleep, which of late is become of great use in England.

--From Eighteen books of the secrets of art and nature--

Herbal remedies, bah! They never work.

Hard drive crash: 1660

Primerose got an order from the king to put up all the public registers of Scotland...

...They were now put up in fifty hogsheads: and a ship was ready to carry them down...

...But so much time was lost, that the summer was spent: so they were sent down in winter: and by some easterly gusts the ship was cast away near Berwick. So we lost all our records.

--From History of his own Times--

Fortunately, with modern technology and the ease of copying electronic records, we NEVER have this problem anymore.

Epidemiology: 1773

This evening he disputed the truth of what is said, as to the people of St. Kilda catching cold whenever strangers come. 'How can there (said he) be a physical effect without a physical cause?' He added, laughing, 'the arrival of a ship full of strangers would kill them; for, if one stranger gives them one cold, two strangers must give them two colds; and so in proportion.' I wondered to hear him ridicule this, as he had praised M'Aulay for putting it in his book: saying, that it was manly in him to tell a fact, however strange, if he himself believed it'. He said, the evidence was not adequate to the improbability of the thing; that if a physician, rather disposed to be incredulous, should go to St. Kilda, and report the fact, then he would begin to look about him.

--From Boswell's Life of Johnson--

People who lived in an isolated community noticed they would catch colds when strangers came to visit. Johnson found the idea ridiculous, and later jokes that they must just not like the visitors they were getting.

It's easy to dismiss ideas when they go against a consensus. Fortunately, in science, people make decisions about truth based on falsifiable experiments and not consensus. That's why today we worry about germs instead of our humors.

Cats: 1893

The violent lyrics of today's music is without precedent. (I almost can't believe that song is from 1893.)

Text messaging: 1849

TALKING BY TELEGRAPH

Not content with the wonders the Electric Telegraph performs--not satisfied with its facility in announcing outbreaks--aye, and making them also, now and then--it has been proposed to apply its powers to the operations of every-day life, and to carry on ordinary conversations by means of the Electric Telegraph....

...We should be glad to see speakers in the House of Commons limited to the use of the machine, which would prevent the other Members from being overwhelmed by the drowsiness which the soporific qualities of tone and style will induce...

--From Punch, or The London Charivari--

Can you imagine people sending text messages for everyday conversations? Ridiculous!

Inglourious Basterds: 1620

The type of blood and gore you see in today's popular culture is without precedent.

Not :1823

BENDER. An ironical word used in conversation by flash people; as where one party affirms or professes any thing which the other believes to be false or insincere, the latter expresses his incredulity by exclaiming, Bender! or, if one asks another to do any act which the latter considers unreasonable or impracticable, he replies, O, yes, I'll do it— Bender ; meaning, by the addition of the last word, that, in fact, he will do no such thing.

--From Grose's classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue--

That's really clever, not (Bender?).