Eternal MFK?

[esoxlucius]

In the overall scheme of things the computer age has been with us for a mere nano second. All the history of everything ever written on a computer is accessible, to a point I suppose. Although us modern humans can't access detailled computer information from the victorian times for example, for obvious reasons, I find it mind blowing that generations into the future, thousands of years maybe, who knows, our current conversations on MFK could well be in some long lost archive somewhere for future humans to access, hundreds if not thousands of years after we're all dead!

It's quite a thought, very deep and philosophical. Whatever would future generations of fish keepers think of our ways if they were to mull over our threads? They may not even recognise our out of date practises and laugh amongst themselves.

I wonder what the thread titles may look like in two or three thousand years time, what debates and discussions are hot. Whatever, i'm betting that somewhere, somebody will still be coming up with "can I keep my oscar in a 55 for life!"

Lol.

 

[duanes]

I started keeping fish in the late 1950s, and in the blink of an eye since then, the technology and outlook has changed radically.
One thing I recall, is that back then, water changes were thought to be bad.
Maybe because dechlorinators were not as readily available, and water test kits were practically unheard of (at least by me).

And the recognition of the separate species, (back then there was only one severum, and one festivum, one angel, among many others) and species were often classified simply by looks, and dentition alone.
'By comparison today, DNA testing trace takes back and separates lineage to the ancient migrations.as the continents and the world evolved.

 

[esoxlucius]

I think one of the biggest talking points in modern day fishkeeping is water changes. I mentioned that future fish keepers interested in how we go about our ways may laugh at our practises. I think that one day our modern day water change schedules are amongst some of the things they laugh about.

I see a day where water changes are a thing of the past, not in our lifetime necessarily but one day for sure. Instead there'll be products that add important nutrients, vitamins, minerals etc to the tank and various gizmos that take away the nasties. Weekly water changes may change to once or twice yearly. Who knows how science and technology will evolve.

As you said, "in the blink of an eye, technology and outlook as changed radically". It'll certainly continue in the same vein that's for sure.

 

[jjohnwm]

I started with fish in the late 60's, and my memories of water changes were quite the opposite; my first tank was a metal-framed 5 gallon perched on a tiny table in the corner of the living room, and under my father's watchful eye, it suffered through a complete 100% change every week. This included all the fish and plants being removed into a bucket, with all the gravel, decorations and the tank itself being thoroughly scrubbed with clean water, and then re-filled with fresh. The new water came from the tap, and was drawn the previous day and sat in buckets to allow the chlorine to gas off. Chloramines were unheard-of.

Maybe other folks avoided water changes, I dunno...but back then we didn't all have instant access to everyone else's most casual fleeting thought or idea as we do today. My methods weren't a result of the "common knowledge" of others; my Dad (who was not an aquarist himself, just a father supportive of his son's interests) assumed that this was the way to keep a tank clean and healthy, and it was a number of years before I began reading enough to learn differently. In fact, I'm not so sure I did learn it; I still tend to do a lot more and a lot bigger water changes than many folks, and there's no doubt that it stems at least partially from those days.

Aquariums in two or three thousand years? Personally, I think that's a pipe dream. Look at the changes in technology, society and the planet itself in the past couple of millenia, and observe how the speed of change has increased. If we still exist in three thousand years, we will be so different as to be a practically a separate species; probably just shapeless blobs of goo embedded with bits of micro-miniaturized hardware so that we can continue to be instantly and continuously connected to each other. Mustn't miss a chance to inform the world...with pictures...every time we eat a burger or buy a coffee.

Of course, by that time, we probably won't eat, because nutrients will be introduced by means of a Star-Trek-like transporter directly into our bloodstream...and we won't need to talk, since we will all be linked in to the Collective Internet Hive Mind...so we won't have mouths anymore. We won't need to use bathrooms, since the same technology will transport waste molecules out of our bloodstreams in a similar fashion...so there's another couple of orifices we won't have anymore. We'll just sit and vegetate while our minds wander in our virtual fantasylands.

And we will be so self-absorbed that we won't have time to worry about the fact that there probably won't be any other living species around to keep as pets, or in aquariums. Occasionally, a piece of automated construction machinery may unearth one of the last remaining earthworms or grubs...and we will ooh and aah and fearfully keep our distance until the killbots arrive to dispose of it.

Of course, there's a good chance that actual intelligent life may have discovered us before that time...in which case we may find ourselves in a quarantined world aquarium, kept safely isolated lest we become the interstellar equivalent of Zebra Mussels or Brown Rats...i.e. an invasive and destructive species that must be controlled to keep it from totalling screwing up any environment it manages to access. Or maybe they'll just decide we're too much trouble to keep around...

Yeah...I miss the 60's...

 

[fishhead0103666]

The day that I die, which I refuse to acknowledge, will be a lot different fish keeping wise than today. I imagine that with the way technology is going we will discover more things in our water that is important to our fishes health that we could not previously test for and we will finally have a concrete answer as to whether nitrates are bad or not. Perhaps we will have found a new material to make tanks out of, I have heard of glass wrapped in acrylic being used before but I’m talking about a whole new material. New species will have been discovered, some species will have been lost, some will remain unable to be bred, on that note I expect saltwater fish to be vastly more captive bred. I certainly expect that the us will still have snakeheads and Asian arowanas banned which annoys me.

There are more things but I’ll leave you with this list for now.

 

[esoxlucius]

I started with fish in the late 60's, and my memories of water changes were quite the opposite; my first tank was a metal-framed 5 gallon perched on a tiny table in the corner of the living room, and under my father's watchful eye, it suffered through a complete 100% change every week. This included all the fish and plants being removed into a bucket, with all the gravel, decorations and the tank itself being thoroughly scrubbed with clean water, and then re-filled with fresh. The new water came from the tap, and was drawn the previous day and sat in buckets to allow the chlorine to gas off. Chloramines were unheard-of.

Maybe other folks avoided water changes, I dunno...but back then we didn't all have instant access to everyone else's most casual fleeting thought or idea as we do today. My methods weren't a result of the "common knowledge" of others; my Dad (who was not an aquarist himself, just a father supportive of his son's interests) assumed that this was the way to keep a tank clean and healthy, and it was a number of years before I began reading enough to learn differently. In fact, I'm not so sure I did learn it; I still tend to do a lot more and a lot bigger water changes than many folks, and there's no doubt that it stems at least partially from those days.

Aquariums in two or three thousand years? Personally, I think that's a pipe dream. Look at the changes in technology, society and the planet itself in the past couple of millenia, and observe how the speed of change has increased. If we still exist in three thousand years, we will be so different as to be a practically a separate species; probably just shapeless blobs of goo embedded with bits of micro-miniaturized hardware so that we can continue to be instantly and continuously connected to each other. Mustn't miss a chance to inform the world...with pictures...every time we eat a burger or buy a coffee.

Of course, by that time, we probably won't eat, because nutrients will be introduced by means of a Star-Trek-like transporter directly into our bloodstream...and we won't need to talk, since we will all be linked in to the Collective Internet Hive Mind...so we won't have mouths anymore. We won't need to use bathrooms, since the same technology will transport waste molecules out of our bloodstreams in a similar fashion...so there's another couple of orifices we won't have anymore. We'll just sit and vegetate while our minds wander in our virtual fantasylands.

And we will be so self-absorbed that we won't have time to worry about the fact that there probably won't be any other living species around to keep as pets, or in aquariums. Occasionally, a piece of automated construction machinery may unearth one of the last remaining earthworms or grubs...and we will ooh and aah and fearfully keep our distance until the killbots arrive to dispose of it.

Of course, there's a good chance that actual intelligent life may have discovered us before that time...in which case we may find ourselves in a quarantined world aquarium, kept safely isolated lest we become the interstellar equivalent of Zebra Mussels or Brown Rats...i.e. an invasive and destructive species that must be controlled to keep it from totalling screwing up any environment it manages to access. Or maybe they'll just decide we're too much trouble to keep around...

Yeah...I miss the 60's...

Your dad's water change routine was exactly the same as my dad's, everything had to be virtually sterile, his thinking must have been the cleaner everything was the longer he could leave it until the next water change! But man, what's this "water was drawn and left to gas off in buckets" business!!! My dad never cottoned onto that gem. From tap to tank...cold! No wonder my three goldfish skulked about for days after.

And I think we're already the interstellar zebra mussel and brown rat. Out of any species that have ever lived on this planet there's no species come close to us for destruction. And eventually we'll self destruct, whether it's through wars or simply sapping the earth of every resource she has.

You're probably not far off the truth regarding future aquariums. We may struggle to find fish to put in them! Maybe we'll go full circle and all that's left to keep are mega hardy species. That way we can go back to doing water changes like our dad's. They'd be that hardy they could live through anything! Lol.

 

[jjohnwm]

This thread makes me think of the original Blade Runner, in which the android exotic dancer uses a synthetic python in her act. It looks, moves and acts just like a live snake, but is used because a real one would be prohibitively expensive!

Maybe that's the future of aquariums; robot fish, anyone? At least we could stop debating the merits of various diets. We'd just be discussing AC versus DC power for charging.

 

[esoxlucius]

I think it's quite clear that the hobby will evolve, that's a given. But at what speed and how far it evolves is obviously not as clear. Who knows what future day to day discussions will be going on at MFK in the far flung distance.

If a distant future hobbyist came across our site on line somewhere and was browsing through our daily chit chat it'd be nice if just one thought, well that esox knew what he was on about. Lol, it'd be more like, well that esox guy talked an absolute load of crap. Lol.

That'd be funny too, if a futuristic newbie came on the site and inadvertantly resurrected a thread that was hundreds of years old!!!

 

[fishhead0103666]

if a futuristic newbie came on the site and inadvertantly resurrected a thread that was hundreds of years old!!!

In order for that to happen the ownership of the site would have to be passed on from Neo to someone else and then so on and so forth. Who do you think would be the next site owner of the current mods?

From what I see it would likely be either Chicxulub or Hendre. If the ownership changed hands due to Neo dying of natural causes then it is likely that Chicxulub would be gone too since Chicxulub is older than him I believe and since Hendre is already being groomed for it as Chicxulub’s protégé then he would likely take over. Now if Neo were to just retire then I’m sure the ownership would pass to Chicxulub since oddball isn’t active anymore besides an occasional message.

It’s interesting how protégés are, they take the knowledge from everyone before them and then use it to become better than the mentor that took them under their wing. Every mod that is currently active will be able to bestow some of their knowledge of the site upon young Hendre and then once he takes over I see the cycle repeating itself as I see Hendre as the type of person that would find himself a protégé.

 

[esoxlucius]

In order for that to happen the ownership of the site would have to be passed on from Neo to someone else and then so on and so forth. Who do you think would be the next site owner of the current mods?

From what I see it would likely be either Chicxulub or Hendre. If the ownership changed hands due to Neo dying of natural causes then it is likely that Chicxulub would be gone too since Chicxulub is older than him I believe and since Hendre is already being groomed for it as Chicxulub’s protégé then he would likely take over. Now if Neo were to just retire then I’m sure the ownership would pass to Chicxulub since oddball isn’t active anymore besides an occasional message.

It’s interesting how protégés are, they take the knowledge from everyone before them and then use it to become better than the mentor that took them under their wing. Every mod that is currently active will be able to bestow some of their knowledge of the site upon young Hendre and then once he takes over I see the cycle repeating itself as I see Hendre as the type of person that would find himself a protégé.

I have no doubt that MFK will be going for many many years yet, maybe not as long as the timescales i'm talking about, but then again who knows?

Of course, for it to survive longer than the current people in charge, then there has to be a natural progression of members taking over the duties of deceased members, whenever that sad need arises. And I agree, I think the very young and outstandingly bright Hendre will one day head the forum.