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Comment by vundercind | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure everyone experiences this some, but do wonder if it's maybe worse for those for whom the year 2000 hit at the wrong point in their personal timeline. I don't think I ever quite got over guesstimating "X years ago" based on that marker. I've gotten a little better at it, but still get tripped up for a second by times-ago longer than 20 years or so.

The other day I was reading something and was surprised that "50 years ago" was the mid '70s, not, like, the 50s. Then they hit me with Guardians of the Galaxy already being ten years old. Ouch, right in the mortality.

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See this fact, GTA Vice City was set in the year 1986 and was released in the year 2003. That game is now older (21 years) than the time period it was set in when it launched (17 years). So if they made that game today with the same time delta, it would be set in the year 2008 when we already had the second gen iPhone.

I think this perceived time warp is affecting many people in the 30+ age group since the world(at least the west) hasn't changed that much in the last 10-15 years or so, so compared to the past when 10-15 years delta made a huge difference, especially in the areas of technology and entertainment, so it kinda feels like time just went by us while the world stood still.

The further we get past the year 2000 the more clear it becomes that all the pre-2000 memes of 2000 being the future were right, and not much happened in the west in terms of quality of life or daily conveniences or productivity since 2000.

The Matrix was right!

You've put it much better than I could.

Basically, the 80s feel like they happened about 100 years ago. Which makes us depressingly old.

What really makes me feel old is realising Jurassic Park is as ancient to my son now as the early 1960's movies my parents would show me from their childhood when I was a kid.

The other day I made a reference to something from Jurassic Park at work to a fresh graduate, and got a blank stare. So I say "You know, from Jurassic Park". And was told "Oh, I've never seen it".

I have never felt older than in that moment.

How's this: if you're over 27 years old, you were born closer to the moon landing than the present day.

Yeah. Here's another: Space Invaders is now closer in time to the Gamecube than the Gamecube is to today.

Similarly, Windows 95 is now closer in time to the Intel 4004 microprocessor than to today.

I've heard this put as "we're farther in time from the PS2 than the PS2 was from the Atari 2600"

It makes you think though. Has the innovation run out of steam?

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