I feel like it's somehow wrong to feel excited for new tehnology

Earlier today I found a receipt for a computer I had in 2001. It was so weird reading that and seeing how bad those specs are giving that it was a decent computer back then. It had a Geforce 2, Pentium 3 1Ghz and 256 MB RAM.

And if we look back at computers in the 70s and 80s its almost hard to believe how little ram and HDD space they had. Especially for someone like me that didn't grow up with them.

This makes me realise how all we have now will just become useless at some point. And that is not just for computers, but pretty much everything tehnologically. Stuff that we are very impressed with today and that we spend so much money on getting will some day become outdated and no one will give a damn about, and everyone that doesn't have some memories of it will never truly understand how someone was impressed with it at some point.

Like for example show a PS1/N64 game to someone that never gamed in the 90s, they will think it's pretty bad. Even though I had a PS1 when I was a kid, I still find it hard to play and look at most games, and stuff like the old RE games would be laughed at today even though they were revolutionary back in the 90s. There are some games that stand the test of time like Doom 2, but they are few and far between, and even those will eventually become obsolete to newer generations as time passes by even more.

And this kinda bugs me because I feel it's in some way a false excitement for all of this. I know that for the time being this is what we have and it's normal to be impressed with new stuff, but decades in the future this stuff will be irelevant and I can't help but feel like it's wrong to be excited for stuff that will seem primitive some day.

Maybe a better way of looking at it is that because it's so fleeting, you should enjoy it and get excited about it now! Enjoy the future while it's here, because soon it will all be obsolete, but that doesn't take away your initial enjoyment of it.

Just ensure you never think about buying tech as an 'investment'--it'll never be that. Maybe think of it more as a consumable item--once it's used, its' gone.

When it comes to computers i don't really get excited anymore because i realized that i'm always back to the same point. I get a new computer to run current games at high settings or higher. Specs and games move forward but the end result is always the same, i'm running current games at high settings. Same as i was 10 years ago. This goes for pretty much any upgrade in tech. I upgrade when my general experience with the current stuff is getting worst than it was a year ago, not to actually make it better if that make sense.

I love it for those same reasons. In my lifetime, we've gone from

to

That's CRAZY. 27 years, man. That's nothing. Granted, I fudged the examples a bit for maximum effect, but still, that's exciting stuff. Yeah, from a financial standpoint it sucks to have your beautiful rig feel like molasses in two years, but that's tech for ya.

You can never win the tech game. Never. It's a game you'll always, always, lose. It's just the nature of that beast.

What you can do, however, is be excited about all the things that this new tech allows. I remember having my mind blown when I saw the Saturn, Panzer Dragoon specifically, for the first time. And watching beams slice through the darkness in Freespace 2. And seeing Star Wars space combat in the Gamecube's Rogue Squadron. And seeing all my units rendered in 3D when Total War made the leap from Shogun to Rome.

My friend's Saturn is in a box somewhere, and my Gamecube is in a closet. I don't even known where my old PC is. But in a way, it doesn't really matter. Seeing Panzer Dragoon still sends shivers down my spine.

And for the record, Sopwith is pretty awesome.

Tech always progresses, shocker.

That's like saying you feel wrong for getting excited for dinner or sex because it all ends so quickly. Just enjoy what you have in the moment.

Why would it feel wrong to be excited about a realm of human civilization that evolves so quickly? Doesn't that just give a person all the more reason to be excited for the next step forward?

I kinda agree, the tech world needs a little stability.

You live in the moment, not in some context with the future. Videogames are inconsequential enough for that to be good enough. Keep metaphysics out of it.

I feel like I can't get excited for any new technology or new version of an existing technology because history has shown that within a year something else will come along with miraculous changes to give the exact extra features that the original device needed. It feels as if they held back the first product so it's successor could come out and "wow" people just enough for them to spend an additional $_______ dollars.

The iPhone springs to mind. Actually most Apple products spring to mind here.

The same philosophy can be applied to life. In a few decades, you're going to be irrelevant.

Intentional defeatism.

Technology is the application of human knowledge. And it does not grow unless it is applied.

Yeah, this argument runs completely counter to the entire nature of technological advancement. The only time you ever get something that is years ahead of its time and extremely powerful, it's ridiculously expensive or nobody can afford the tech to power it. Remember Crysis, and how almost no one had a rig powerful enough to play it in all its majesty when it was released in 2007? Hell, that game still looks amazing today.

What you're experiencing is a philosophical quandary about the inexorable course of time's arrow, and the ephemeral nature of human existence. My solution? Don't worry about it, and enjoy what you've got today without worrying too much about yesterday or tomorrow. Learn from the past, enjoy the present, prepare for the future.

If we're going to be that way one could argue that everything we do in life will be obsolete at some point in the future anyway so we might as well not live.

The inescapable, crushing weight of time is a scary thing, I agree. Take the time to enjoy the technology you have now without thinking about how much of a relic it will be in ten years and you'll be fine.

Whenever I get new technology, one of my first thoughts is always "as good as this version is, they'll be an even better version next year." For me it is a happy thought, though I could see how plenty of people would want to be able to just get one version and stick with it until it physically breaks.

Live life for the moment. Accept that things will get old, but the memories will always last.