Is the past better than the present?

John Derbyshire essentially says, "not really, but in some ways it was pretty neat." Also, he quotes Heinlein, which makes any op-ed into something approaching divinely inspired writing.

You have to exercise some historical imagination. There is no possibility of you or I being transported back to 1660, nor even 1960. It can’t be done. The past belonged to the people who lived in it. We know about their lives but they did not know about ours; that asymmetry vexes the argument.

What he should ask though, is "is the past better than the future?"  Since there is no robopocalypse in the past, I would have to answer, "yes."