What’s something you thought would be ‘figured out’ by now, that is very much still in progress?

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Bifanarama@reddit

I'm a Libra. We don't believe in all that stuff.

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cadburyshero@reddit

Hand dryers.

Why are so many of them still so rubbish or spray water everywhere?

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More than a few years ago, but we were promised in the early 70s that 'free' energy would replace oil (that was supposed to be running out by 2000) Electricity would be 'so cheap it won't be worth putting in a meter to measure or charge for it'

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InvestigatorSoft3606@reddit

Life expectancy. Seems to have stalled recently. I remember just a few years ago people would say things such as "the first person to live to 200 is probably already alive" - Is that still something that holds true?

They have increased the pension age to account for expected increases in life expectancy - The men in my family have tended to die in their 60s, If I can match the current family champion, I'll enjoy about 1 year of retirement.

Cheap global travel. - long haul travel was becoming more and more accessible for the masses. I feel like its gone backwards a touch lately. (this could be just my experience of now having to buy tickets for 4 people rather than just me)

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wardyms@reddit

Washing up bowls and ownership. Your sink is already one, you’re just making it smaller and harder to get rid of the water.

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perishingtardis@reddit

The dishes would scratch the sink.

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wardyms@reddit

They don’t.

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perishingtardis@reddit

My steel sink is scratched from dishes.

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turbospeedweasel@reddit

Bar Keepers friend sorts out scratches pretty easily. My Franke sink which is now almost twenty years old still looks like new as I polish it once a month.

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wardyms@reddit

You lobbing them in like Steve Backley or something?

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doctorgibson@reddit

My sink is metal and therefore highly conductive so it makes for colder washing up water, unlike my plastic washing up bowl. Also I can drain things down the side of the bowl instead of tipping it into the washing up water. Also I can rinse things down the side of the bowl, instead of dumping cold water into my hot washing up water.

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banwe11@reddit

A washing up bowl is handy if you want to have stuff soaking but still have ability to pour stuff down the sink

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OkTadpole2920@reddit

We can't keep a plug in the bloody thing! Absolutely infuriating.

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bishibashi@reddit

Space travel. Was convinced as a kid we’d work it out by now, but here we are celebrating a ship going 250k miles from earth when even mars is 140m miles away.

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OkTadpole2920@reddit

We can't look after our planet, I think we should do that first.

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bishibashi@reddit

I think one thing that should be clear to everyone is that we do not have the rate of technological progress to NOT do that. I think the view that we can advance beyond this type of concern has been somewhat detrimental among those who grew up in the space age.

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becooldocrime@reddit

Sending humans is what’s holding us back, it’s nothing more than a vanity project. Making space craft and vessels capable of supporting human life takes up insane amounts of resources, which could and should be used for sending many, many more instruments far further. That’s where the highest scientific value lies.

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daddywookie@reddit

Accelerando (interesting book) had an interesting take on this. Human consciences, placed into digital forms and then taken in a lightweight computer with a solar sail to explore other stars. The humans can experience time differently so the journey is reasonable, but also be present when exploration is required.

We don’t really need our bodies, they’re just the current container best suited to Earth.

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doctorgibson@reddit

The spacecraft going 250k miles is one of the steps to getting to Mars

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Bert1701@reddit

We just went past some place we've allegedly already been to but forgot the directions. Just like when I drove by Stoke on Trent; never actually stopped there but went by it. Fuel was slightly cheaper for me then but we'll see how the Hormuz straight closure affects that.

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

English: I’m born and raised in England, mid-40’s have family and kids, work in aerospace R&D on a higher than UK average salary but I can’t describe to you what is a noun, verb or adjective.

Not sure if it’s my fault or my public education, but I have no idea.

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thewearisomeMachine@reddit

You could just…learn the difference? At some point, you need to take responsibility instead of falling back on “well, I was never taught it in primary school, so I guess I’ll never know it”.

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

Maybe one day. It doesn’t stop me from reading or writing at all so I’ve never felt the need to learn it.

Focusing on my Masters degree at the moment so my primary education will have to wait.

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Unhappy_Judgment_816@reddit

lol I’m with you. Every once in a while, I’m like shit I need to learn that. Then completely forget again until next time it comes up.

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

Yep. It actually doesn’t have much impact. I know that I should know it, I just never learned it.

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ashyboi5000@reddit

My life

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OkTadpole2920@reddit

You beat me to it, still. My fucking life.

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SeoulGalmegi@reddit

Yeah! I too choose this guy's......

Oh. 'Life'......

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Fancy-Diesel@reddit

This!

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feckarse-drinkgirls@reddit

Star Citizen

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MountainMuffin1980@reddit

Widely used renewable energy leading to much cheaper energy bills.

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Expensive_Peace8153@reddit

25 years ago we told that technology had reached the point where we'd soon all be taking medications that were customized to match our own individual DNS profiles which would make them more effective, have less side effects and so on. From what I've heard that's still pretty unusual and is basically only done to treat certain cancers.

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precious_times_205@reddit

The governance of the USA.

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AskUK-ModTeam@reddit

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Skruffbagg@reddit

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lovelight@reddit

American politics.

[-]

AskUK-ModTeam@reddit

AskUK is a "catch-all" subreddit for questions about the UK life and culture, but this does not mean we accept any and all questions or answers. We are liable to remove posts or comments which are best discussed in more specialised subreddits, or are simply not desired here because of the problems they bring.

We explicitly do not allow questions or answers on or including:

politics (r/askukpolitics, r/unitedkingdom, r/ukpolitics)
technology (r/techsupport, r/technology)
relationships (r/ukrelationshipadvice, r/relationships)
DIY (r/diyuk)
university/education (r/sixthform, r/uniuk)
visas/citizenship (r/ukvisa)
medical advice (including mental health) (r/mentalhealthuk)
ranting/venting (r/britishproblems)
surveys (r/samplesize)
advertising/solicitation (including the mention of brands which could be perceived as marketing)
repetitive/seen-often (just search the sub)
"does anybody else" type vent posts (as yes, someone does, be more specific or use r/britishproblems).
questions based on protected characteristics, such as race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc. subject to moderator discretion.

...and we may remove others if we believe they are liable to introduce problems for the subreddit.

In some circumstances, a more appropriate subreddit may be available. Check the sidebar for other subreddits to have these discussions. Also see r/unitedkingdom's extensive list of subreddits; https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/wiki/british_subreddits

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mdmnl@reddit

The chronic incompatibility of supermarket sliced breads, toasters and toastie makers.

We cracked it with A4 and A3 paper and printers.

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

Oh my god! Pet hate right here!

The toaster should be able to accept a slice of bread without it being forced in lengthways or sticking out the top sideways!

Who designs toasters is such stupid proportions!

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banwe11@reddit

A universal system for reliably and easily connecting laptops to screens in meeting rooms.

Sometimes it's just HDMI, which should be straightforward until the screen randomly doesn't pick up the input, or then the user's computer's display is set up wrong and takes ages to fix.

Other times there is some third party wireless connection system that involves a QR code or IP address that never works for visitors.

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daddywookie@reddit

It used to be VGA, the chunky D shaped port. Every screen had an input, every laptop had an output. It was a pretty safe bet whenever you visited a customer site. Pack a VGA to DVI adapter in case they were fancy.

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CoffeeTableReads@reddit

Road surfacing, why has there been no advancement and we're still using a century old technique that just results in potholes over and over again.

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mysilvermachine@reddit

lol wettest winter on record plus cars being much heavier than before.

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powpow198@reddit

Self-healing roads to address pothole problem? | Global Highways https://share.google/1H13KPqTwQxTFrgVD

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MistressLolaDiamond@reddit (OP)

Preach. I swear it’s even worse now than ever

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mdmnl@reddit

Big Tarmac

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galgor_@reddit

Big Tarma*

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UnderstandingLow5979@reddit

Been thinking recently about why it's taking so long to figure out green energy. Why aren't solar panels more prevalent for example? I get that we don't get a lot of sunshine here but surely solar panels could be used a lot more than we're currently using them?

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damapplespider@reddit

Clean seas and waterways. And for a while in the 00s, it felt like we were getting good news about seagrass regrowth, fish in rivers etc

And now we’re paddling in cesspits and the rivers are brown and lifeless.

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