Unpopular opinions go here

[Tony Vargas]

I just meant the "Atom Age" - it was followed closely by the "Space Age"

 

[Thomas Shey]

I just meant the "Atom Age" - it was followed closely by the "Space Age"

I got that, I was just noting that barring the "caused by radiation" element, the shadow of "Them!" reaches all the way into the 80's and 90's at least; its just that usually its caused by chemical spills or GMO's later on rather than radiation.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It's a shifting baseline. You're never going to get people to appreciated the newness or novelty of something that was commonplace before they were born.

And shifting baselines exist in every form of human endeavor. What was once revolutionary becomes the required minimum for competence.

I frequently talk about that in the context of musicianship. I call it “competency creep”. There’s all kinds of electric guitar and electric bass techniques that originated in the 1950s-70s that modern players who can’t do them today are considered unemployable or rudimentary in their skill set.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Blair Witch Project came out in 1999, but just a few short year later I heard people complaining, "None of them had a cell phone?" In just a few short years, cell phones had become so common that it was hard for some people to remember a time when they weren't ubiquitous. Back in 1999 I was the same age at the protagonist in the movie, and I didn't know any college student my age who had a cell phone.

I’ll just say that, even WITH a cell phone, you might not get good enough reception to save your tuchus. (As I recall, that point was made explicitly in at least one episode of X-Files.)

And that’s true enough even today.

 

[MGibster]

I frequently talk about that in the context of musicianship. I call it “competency creep”. There’s all kinds of electric guitar and electric bass techniques that originated in the 1950s-70s that modern players who can’t do them today are considered unemployable or rudimentary in their skill set.

Think of what recordings have done in that regard as well. Before records became ubiquitous, you were pretty much limited to whatever musician happened to be in your area. And unless you were in a large city, you might hear one of the best musicians in the county but when were you going to hear someone who was playing Carnegie Hall? These days, if I go down to my local coffee shop and hear the local talent playing a cover of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," I've got a recording of the song I can compare this poor musician to. I'm used to hearing the best not someone playing at a local coffee shop.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its just that "large groups of relatively normal scale monsters" sort of monster movie is not as common as it was in that period, but when you see them, you can still see echoes of that film a lot of times.

Most of the ones I can think of involve swarms/schools of aquatic or amphibious creatures, like piranhas or snakeheads. X-Files had a few episodes with mutated misbehaving arthropods.

Could probably do a good one about large flightless birds, though.

…which would probably eventually result in one involving penguins on a rampage.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Think of what recordings have done in that regard as well. Before records became ubiquitous, you were pretty much limited to whatever musician happened to be in your area. And unless you were in a large city, you might hear one of the best musicians in the county but when were you going to hear someone who was playing Carnegie Hall? These days, if I go down to my local coffee shop and hear the local talent playing a cover of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," I've got a recording of the song I can compare this poor musician to. I'm used to hearing the best not someone playing at a local coffee shop.

And paradoxically, it’s even worse if you’re in a community where _________ is heavily supported and practiced. If you go to a karaoke bar in a music city like LA, Chicago, NYC, Austin, Nashville, St. Louis, Detroit or Minneapolis, odds are good you’re going to hear people as good as or better than the artists whose songs they’re singing.

Try cooking creole food in NOLA, or BBQ somewhere in Texas.

Try being an American surfer walking into a beach in California or Hawaii for the first time to sign up for a competition.

 

[MGibster]

As we learn more about head injuries, some professional sports will need to change their rules or parents will stop allowing their kids to play. We may see a future where players can't head the soccer ball and the NFL starts running low on talent as parents steer their kids towards other games.

 

[Reynard]

AI is not the enemy and is going to prove to be a great boon as a human partner, not replacement, in many, many endeavors.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Most of the ones I can think of involve swarms/schools of aquatic or amphibious creatures, like piranhas or snakeheads. X-Files had a few episodes with mutated misbehaving arthropods.

Could probably do a good one about large flightless birds, though.

…which would probably eventually result in one involving penguins on a rampage.

Ironically, the closest thing you normally see in the really modern period is probably zombie movies.

(Actually, you do see some things that approach it; though the make-no-sound gig is the important part, the alien predators in "A Quiet Place" kind of land in the same place. Largely because most of the other choices have long been done).