Which period witnessed most transformation

[bryceQ]

I saw this picture on Facebook depicting two women from 1885, the younger woman died in 1948. I was just thinking wow, how much must life have changed if she was born around 1870 to when she died.

I recently lost a grandparent who was born in 1929, everything she saw transformed in the 20th century.

I can imagine what the world will look like in another 50 years.

No real point to this.... Just rambles!

My gran was born in the 1880s and lived to be 93 she saw 5 kings and queens, people invented cars, electric, trains both steam and diesel, planes man on the moon, television, telephones, washing machines and a host of other innovations she died in 1976 so not computers or mobile phones but a lot of progress

Someone born fairly early in the 19th century who lived into the early 20th century would have seen, in their lifetime, the introduction of anaesthesia, antiseptic operating conditions in hospitals, steam trains, steam-powered ships taking over from sailing ships, the telegram, the telephone, photography, electric lighting, tinned food, the cinema, the motor car and the aeroplane. Not to mention huge advances in public health from improvements in the water and sewerage system, compulsory free state education, abolition of child labour, women allowed to go to university, the Married Women's Property Act and the modern police force (for all the failings of the modern forces, I doubt any of us would want to go back to the earlier approach).

Interesting thread.. My nan was born in 1925 and died in 2005. I'm her lifetime we had the inventions of Helicopters, Biros, Microwaves, Mobiles, The pill, MRI machines, computers, DNA fingerprinting and man landing on the moon.
She was such a sweet woman who lived a hard life, parents died young and she was put into an orphanage in Ireland and then a Magdalene laundry(nobody knows why because she was born in London) they where very cruel to her and I don't think it ever left her. She never learnt to write because she was beaten for being left handed. When she died my son was 2.. I hope she left feeling this world was a nicer place for her great grandson than the world she was born into.

My grandmother was born in 1903, the year of the first flight by the Wright brothers. She died in 2001.
I often thought of the incredible changes she'd seen in her life. Proliferation of motor transport, Air travel for the masses, space travel and moon landings, telecommunications, mobile communications, computers and Internet, progress in medicine and genetic understanding. Not to mention 2 world wars.
I don't we'll see such extensive and far reaching changes in the span of a lifetime in the foreseeable future.

I think we will, I was born in 1990 computers and mobiles weren't common place for a few years and not in the way we use them now. I think in my lifetime will will have complete integration of AI. It's already transformational in a short span. So many jobs will disappear completely changing the whole fabric of society

My great-grandmother was born in 1892 and died in 1998. she divorced her wastrel husband in the late 20s and then lived with her kids and then alone until she was 99 - worked, then travelled the world once her daughters were grown. The technological and social change she saw in her lifetime was beyond extraordinary.

When she was asked about what she thought the best change over her lifetime was, it wasn't any of the usual things people thought like space travel or TV. She always said it was sealed roads. She grew up in a very rural area and sealed roads were transformative not just for business and trade but just for not having your bones jolted to pieces every time you went to town.

The 1770s to 1870s saw huge change technologically, politically and socially.

American War of Independence, French Revolution, Japan opening borders, Suez canal, end of slavery, unification of Italy/Germany, male suffrage, railways, telephone, radio.

That photo is incredible. 1885 streets and architecture much more beautiful imo. Much progress made but not necessarily on that front.

I often think of this. People who were born in the late 19th/early 20th century saw so much incredible change. Every decade looked entirely different from the last.

Yet now we can watch TV shows or look back at photos from the early 2000s and not much has changed at all - or not the same extent anyway.

I think we've witnessed significant societal changes. The Internet, Artificial Intelligence, hookup culture, the decreasing birth rates in "developed" nations, strides towards achieving equal rights for the LGBT community, ongoing endeavors to address racism, embryo screening, a considerable demographic shift as non-European populations migrate to Europe, the exploration of deep sea, augmented reality, mobile phones, CRISPR gene editing, online networks. &c

I still think Dime being renamed Daim was a terrible idea. It was one of those butterfly flaps its wings moments, where a gentle breeze carried grains of sand, shifting destinies unseen..!

My grandparents were born in 1900 & died in the late 70s/early 80s. They saw so much change. They flew to New Zealand in the early 70s to see a family member who they thought they had said goodbye to forever. They were so thrilled to be able to do it. My grandfather had flown in the first world war & couldn't believe the size of a jumbo jet.
My parents were born in the late 1920s & died in 2017/2018. Again, they saw so much change.

OH and I discuss this quite often. We do not have a TV and people are always astounded but it's quite a recent invention in the grand scheme of things so I don't know why people think we are odd.
My husband thinks we - Gen X - have seen the most changes. But I feel every generation goes through the changes I think like OP that their are still many in front of us.
I would love to go back to the period between 1901 and 1912 and see the difference in the countryside and the hedgerows - Private Peaceful's childhood.

I often think of this too, it’s my Roman Empire moment iykyk!
I read about a man who was the last known American civil war solider , he died in Mid 1950s! I just think it’s incredible, he lived through so many historical changes and events ; I just can’t imagine what it must have been like being born in the 1840s /1850s and living a lifestyle that didn’t change greatly in hundreds of years to having electricity at home, telephones , driving a car ,seeing planes <or lucky enough to travel on one at that period > , going to the cinema or listening to the radio , the beginning of television ? . If you think about it, so many changes in a short time.