In 2000 years, will America be remembered as one of the greatest civilizations?

In 2000 years, will America be remembered as one of the greatest civilizations?

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    153
And, don't forget that the US effectively began space exploration. I don't care if the Russians technically beat the US at first, the US went to the moon, threw probes all over the place, and will be the first to privatize it also. Once can only assume humanity's future is in the stars, which will keep this fairly important.
 
EnlightenmentHK said:
Outside of television, airplanes, moon-landings, the internet, computers, mass media, electricity, mass production, the assembly line, modern democracy, human rights, national self determination, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, what have the Americans ever done for us?
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Pretty much every modern Civ4 tech. Oh, and vulcanized rubber and condoms. <- best invention ever.
We've at least got the Japanese beat whose major contributions to civilization include Nintendo, Pokemon, and bukkake.
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Don't forget hentai and... um.... they made Nintendo.
 
EnlightenmentHK said:
Outside of television, airplanes, moon-landings, the internet, computers, mass media, electricity, mass production, the assembly line, modern democracy, human rights, national self determination, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, what have the Americans ever done for us?

We've at least got the Japanese beat whose major contributions to civilization include Nintendo, Pokemon, and bukkake.
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Your sarcasim and mean spiritedness is refreshing.

Let's be fair though... Samurai, ninja, yakuza... Although they eventually became rice-burners, the history is nice to have.

How about philosophy? Why you picking on the japs? Surely the French have contributed the least of all nations.
 
DNK said:
And, don't forget that the US effectively began space exploration. I don't care if the Russians technically beat the US at first, the US went to the moon, threw probes all over the place, and will be the first to privatize it also. Once can only assume humanity's future is in the stars, which will keep this fairly important.
Click to expand...

Yea good point.

Sputnik crashed back to earth how soon after it was launched?

Our first satellite is still up there :D

Edit: Okay I checked, Sputnik 1 was up for a about 2 months, Explorer 1 for 12 years

But our second one is still up there :p
 
We should count Texas for mexico. It should be theirs, and most Americans would prefer they take it back.

So, I'm putting ZZ-Top for Tejas. Clowns with spinning guitars do not count as world contributions, but it was a nice try (and notable contribution) from the mexicans.
 
How about philosophy? Why you picking on the japs? Surely the French have contributed the least of all nations.
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A bit Ironic that you mention philosophy in the same paragraph negatively comparing the French to just about everything. The French have produced literally dozens of some of the most important and famous philosophers of all time. If Sartre, Foucult, Voltaire, Strauss, Rousseau, Montesquieu aren't enough, there's also Descartes who is pretty much credited for inventing modern philosophy. Actually, I'm not sure by you're statement if you're defending or attacking the French, but given past encounters, I'm going with the latter.

And of course there was the French Revolution that irrevocably changed the face and nature of Europe forever in countless ways and is typically considered one of history's major turning points.

They could also be potentially credited for Charlemagne who you no doubt like because he (very arguably) and his dad kept the 'unwashed Muslim hordes' from overrunning that shining beacon of freedom and tolerance, Christian Europe. Than there's the little thing called the Napoleonic Code which has been a model borrowed by about half the nations in the world and is one of the two systems upon which 95% of the world's legal systems are based off of. (credit to Justinian as well)



And I pick on the Japanese because I don't particularly like them. Their history is divided into periods of either militant isolationism or militant expansionism with nothing in between. Their 'cool' samurai were nothing more than aristocratic pricks who saw it as their divine right to cut down peasants whenever they felt like it. They make no apologies or even acknowledgment of their numerous WW2 atrocities. Half the country must be filled with closet pedophiles if their porn (tiny schoolgirls weeping like little children getting raped by always lecherous older men) and anime (12 year old bodies with DD breasts) is any indication. And I didn't even need to mention the bukkake or tentacle rape. They are some of the most transparently xenophobic and bigoted people you'll ever come across, and that's saying alot given the number of BNP style Europeans you'll encounter here. There is not a major tourist attraction anyplace in the world that will not be swamped by droves upon droves of them obnoxiously clicking away. Try to fight your way through a horde of Japanese to see Stonehenge. Just try.





And yeah, the last part will probably catch some flack since Americans are stereotyped as loud and obnoxious while abroad. But we tend to congregate in smaller groups rather than mass hordes, which makes us a bit easier to handle. We are loud, but we're also generally friendly and talkative with all locals (in most cases) and we tip well, which are amongst the reasons that saw us rated by most Europeans as the second best tourists around. (poll a few years back) We don't pretend that nothing and noone in that country actually exists except for the next ancient Castle/Cathedral and our other American buddies that we brought along. We mingle, unlike some others. (Canadians for example. And the Japanese as well. Even if they did speak the local language fluently their groups tend to be more like marauding armies than anything else, so mingling becomes near impossible)

And if you want to talk obnoxious, get 6 twenty-something Brits/Scots/Irishmen together on a bender in Amsterdam...or any other city for that matter. Not knocking them really, they're always the best fun to hang around. But they generally put anything American tourists can conceivably be accused of to shame.

Now we do have some genuinely bad tourists. Two types in particular annoy me. I categorize them as the 'Apologetic American' and the 'We don't do things this way at home' American. The second ones tend to be fanny pac wearing, balding, middle aged, overweight soccer moms and dads taking their first real vacation anywhere that wasn't Florida or Vegas with their little annoying kids in tow. They can't possibly fathom the idea that any country might do things differently than we do and are quick to whine about every perceived deficiency they can find. It gets so bad you wonder why they even bothered to pay 3-8 thousand dollars for the vacation in the first place.

The youth are a bit more adventurous, so the students and backpackers tend not to whine as much. But in that group of youth, there is the most annoying subset of American tourists, the apologists. They will go out of their way to apologize profusely for every real or perceived transgression America might have done to the present country as if that person sat on Harry Truman's war council when the H-bombs were dropped. They're typically ignorant and have only the vaguest understanding of what they're apologizing for. They'll act amazed at every difference between American and the host country's society and swear profusely that England/France/Germany/Netherlands does things so much better and that English/French/Germans/Dutch are so much smarter than all their American brethren. I can't imagine that any Europeans actually respect them for their naive, sniveling sycophancy and they're really quite embarrassing to be around. They'll inevitably come back to America and profess to all their friends who'll listen about how this experience has truly opened their eyes to the world around them and set them on a path of new understanding and enlightenment. To borrow a few British terms I've come to love, they're all tossers and wankers.
 
BasketCase said:
So we will certainly be remembered as barbarians, no matter what. And I don't just mean Americans. All humans everywhere. We will be remembered as primitive peoples wielding silly Industrial Age ideas, and when the people of 4008 AD say "Industrial Age" they will be saying it the same way we say "Stone Age".
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thats a fair point. although few today think of classical Greece as barbaric. but thats the exception, not the rule, and lets face it, the US isnt classical greece. no nation today is an equivalent.
 
DNK said:
And, don't forget that the US effectively began space exploration. I don't care if the Russians technically beat the US at first, the US went to the moon, threw probes all over the place, and will be the first to privatize it also. Once can only assume humanity's future is in the stars, which will keep this fairly important.
Click to expand...

OK, well you might not care, but this fact completely invalidates the rest of your post. the Us has been more successful, but they didnt effectively OR actually begin space exploration. The USSR did.
 
The Germans assisted in making it happen for the US. When Europeans and Americans co-operate, even the sky isn't the limit.
 
Will France and Britain be remebered in 2000 years? I doubt it.

The "western civilisation" will be remembered, and America as a part of it.
 
EnlightenmentHK said:
Outside of television, airplanes, moon-landings, the internet, computers, mass media, electricity, mass production, the assembly line, modern democracy, human rights, national self determination, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, what have the Americans ever done for us?

We've at least got the Japanese beat whose major contributions to civilization include Nintendo, Pokemon, and bukkake.
Click to expand...

television was invented by a scottish guy. canadaians, brits and others also worked on the manhattan project so nuclear weapons and power are sort of a joint effort
 
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