I think the GP's point is that, as more people live longer, more people with "antiquated", or even "Luddite" world-views will be around, creating friction for the technophiliacs and their notions of how things "should be."
Yes, my characterization is hyperbolic, and pretty blatantly so. I'm trying to stand out from the subtle ageism, couched as progress-ism, in the GP post and countless other poorly thought-out screeds like it.
Your point that progress occurs regardless of that friction is exactly the right counter-argument. In fact, I'd even suggest that the friction being decried is a necessary sanity check on our progress. With every advance we make, we should be asking ourselves how it improves the world, and if the improvement it brings is worth its cost, or its consequences. For private spaceflight, that's a pretty unqualified yes in most peoples' books (Armstrong notwithstanding), but consider all the pharmaceuticals given fast-track approval that turn out to have horrible side-effects, which even token further testing could have uncovered.
Yes, my characterization is hyperbolic, and pretty blatantly so. I'm trying to stand out from the subtle ageism, couched as progress-ism, in the GP post and countless other poorly thought-out screeds like it.
Your point that progress occurs regardless of that friction is exactly the right counter-argument. In fact, I'd even suggest that the friction being decried is a necessary sanity check on our progress. With every advance we make, we should be asking ourselves how it improves the world, and if the improvement it brings is worth its cost, or its consequences. For private spaceflight, that's a pretty unqualified yes in most peoples' books (Armstrong notwithstanding), but consider all the pharmaceuticals given fast-track approval that turn out to have horrible side-effects, which even token further testing could have uncovered.