We had a lot of things pretty good. Since we don't have TV, I've spent the last year every weekend creating a 2.5 hour block of tailored programming to recreate the experience of Saturday morning cartoons for my kid, with selections from ~60 of the best (and some bad) cartoons from the last several decades, animated music videos, unearthed funny old clips, and modern indie animations, often with seasonal themes. Halloween is the most fun.
My toons are objectively better than the Saturday morning block ever was, and it takes hours every week to gather clips, edit, and manage where we're at with every show. I sometimes wish I could share it with a larger crowd but it's really not worth the expense, legal exposure, or effort - not to mention it's more special since it's just for my kiddo. I get to share the culture with him, with the crusts cut off. They don't have to put up with commercials, bad reception, or the constant ear-splitting blare of homophobia that was the nineties.
All that to say, that's the big picture too. Every generation we try to make things a little better for the young ones. Sometimes we're pretty envious of them, but we'd be failures if things were completely better when we were kids - and they'll have to work hard too, because in some ways we have been failing.
I regret that merely voting was never going to save Palestine. I occasionally regret fleeing the states with my wife and child because I couldn't come to terms with what it could cost my family if I died resisting fascism. I regret the loss of friends who fell victim to "culture war" and vile propaganda. I have many regrets.
Used to be rice with a fried egg. In my family we call it Ghibli rice. Nowadays I just bake my own wholemeal bread and that's the cheapest eats there is. So cheap you can afford the nice butter!
Same, it would be great to have a trove of podcasts saved on my media server but the medium is very geared towards passively receiving episodes, listening once at most, and deleting.
One site gave an estimate of £3k/yr in annual upkeep to keep one in basic grass livery. A horse costs about £3-4k as well. A lifetime of, let's say 25 years? That's a total lifetime spend of £78k.
Let's also remember that we're talking this seriously about an AI generated video of a concept vehicle. No robot horse exists and none will in the near future.
But, it's boring to just say "thing no happen", so in the interest of conversation, what do you speculate the robot horse would cost, if they eventually managed to make a production model? Do you think it'd last as long as a real horse?
All of this faff, expense, and heartache and you'd still have something less effective, less green, less yours, and more expensive than an actual horse.
It takes scarce vision to see that we are now striding through the pages of history, a time when nary a kind word will be written of those who said "not me", or "business as usual". In the quieter years of our twilight, children will hear of the troubles we faced and plaintively ask "why didn't anyone do anything?" And the only ones among that crowd of elders who can stand tall will be the few, indeed, who had gumption.
Yeah? What's your story