'Millennium' is full of gratitude for the staggering advances of 1,000 years
Forget the millennium, just in my lifetime I have seen:<p>1.  Computers go from room-sized devices that only major institutions could afford to being disposable commodities.  Today I can buy a machine that can run Linux for less than the cost of one hour of labor at the minimum wage.  That in and of itself is staggering.<p>2.  The internet.  When I was a kid, to get information you had to go to the library, or have an encyclopedia in your house, or wait for the daily newspaper (which was actually made of paper) to be delivered.  Today I have direct real-time access to most significant world events (with video!) and Wikipedia wherever I have a cell connection.  And it&#x27;s all free!<p>3.  ATM machines.  When I was a kid, my parents had to go to the bank and wait in line to withdraw cash to get through the weekend.  When I was in college, if you wanted to travel abroad, you carried cash or traveller&#x27;s checks.  If you ran out, you were hosed.<p>4.  Genome sequencing, self-driving cars, and chess-playing computers that can beat human grand masters go from a pipe dream to a consumer product.<p>5.  GPS.  Well into my adulthood, if you wanted to figure out where you were, you had to cross-reference your surroundings to a paper map.  It was actually possible to get lost.  Today my cell phone tells me my location accurately enough that I can tell which room of my house I am in.<p>I could probably go on.<p>(Not all the changes have been good.  When I was a kid, my friends and I regularly walked to school and otherwise roamed the neighborhood without adult supervision.  Nowadays, parents get arrested for letting their kids do that.  :-(