Why Has Human Progress Stalled?
 

I stumbled on this essay and found it very interesting. Despite the Internet, when compared to what is called 'The Golden Quarter' era from 1945-1971, progress in science and technology has slowed since then - honestly if not for the home computer/Internet the sad fact is that in my lifetime the 2 biggest inventions were the altogether crappy microwave oven and the VCR - hardly competes with nuclear energy/weapons, space exploration, vaccines, the birth control pill and many other huge advancements.

This science writer provides lots of reasons that contributed to why it's happened but concludes that we've become pussies, afraid to take risks. Our hearts are in the right place, life is better today for the vast majority than in 1971, but we've sacrificed the big leaps forward in science and technology the WWII generation made.

"And yes, we have seen some impressive technological advances. The modern internet is a wonder, more impressive in many ways than Apollo. We might have lost Concorde but you can fly across the Atlantic for a couple of days? wages ? remarkable. Sci-fi visions of the future often had improbable spacecraft and flying cars but, even in Blade Runner?s Los Angeles of 2019, Rick Deckard had to use a payphone to call Rachael.

But it could have been so much better. If the pace of change had continued, we could be living in a world where Alzheimer?s was treatable, where clean nuclear power had ended the threat of climate change, where the brilliance of genetics was used to bring the benefits of cheap and healthy food to the bottom billion, and where cancer really was on the back foot. Forget colonies on the Moon; if the Golden Quarter had become the Golden Century, the battery in your magic smartphone might even last more than a day."

https://aeon.co/essays/has-progress-...come-to-a-halt

Because all the inventions have already been invented.

:1orglaugh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Holland_Duell

And don't forget that the Internet and the computer in reality were invented in the 'The Golden Quarter, only improved and popularized to the average Joe in the 80s/90s/2000s

If that's what you took from the essay I really feel sorry for you. :Oh crap

generally yes, but not for that reason.

And of course you didn't even bother to read the Wikipedia entry about Duell, that quote was never said by him. He believed the total opposite.

"In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold"

The article is pure garbage.

The areas of invention simply shifted from trying to kill people and burn things up, to
shrinking and expanding the capabilities of the mechanisms of technology.


- Your smart phone would weight 2200 pounds with 10MB hard drive if this was 1980.

- Electric cars are now a reality

- Laser eye surgery

- Neurosurgery, organ transplants

- Chemical treatment of psychiatric disease

- Replacement of the Vacuum tube by solid state

- Human transport : Michigan, Alabama, Texas and more have invented ways to make 100k people appear in an instant in one structure.
Happens only on Saturday though.

:1orglaugh

This essay is an example of misplacing cause and effect.
With the effect being "stagnation".

The cause is that at some point all the easy stuff will have been done.

The harder stuff will simply take longer and that's not stagnation that's increased complexity.


:2 cents:

Oil masters and Gasoline lobby won't let inventions to be implemented.

it simply isn't accurate

the simple fact that you have a device in your pocket that can answer any question known to man is way more important than any space flight or nuclear bomb.



The fact that we use it to argue with strangers and post pictures of cats might be problematic, but...................

this pretty much explains it

I got my first computer twenty years ago, in 1995. The monitor was so freaking huge it took up the entire desk, and was very heavy. Today I have a small two pound slate of glass that does everything - news, Facebook, movies, books, skype.... And it runs two days without a single charge. My daughter has a cell phone that has more computing power than the computers that took us to the moon.

I have a car made in 1990. The differences in technology in cars since 1990 is staggering - Things we don't even notice. On my truck I still use keys to unlock the doors, but with my Jeep I never have to take my keys out of the my pocket. My truck has a cassette player in it; My Jeep has GPS and satellite radio and uses an Internet connection to download music. This morning during my run I came across a Chevy Volt. I couldn't hear it sitting at the light, and couldn't hear it as it drove past me. We have electric cars now that make no noise. Give it a few years and we'll have cars that drive themselves - they already have them on the road.

When I was a kid I used to use an encyclopedia to learn. Now I can look up any stat instantly no matter where I am.

Human progress hasn't stalled at all. It's moving forward in leaps and bounds.

I like the jokes in the video; but it's exactly the opposite.
People are much smarter today; but we have devices now that allow us to hear and see the most stupid people more often.

Yeah, but none of that is as intellectually significant as making explosive uranium explode.
That's the way the essay is portraying it at least.

:1orglaugh

Oh, forgot to add the biggest modern "bombshell" advance:

DNA


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the real reason is that most research today is on penis pills and growing back hair and nothing that will further humanity in any way...I crap rings and watches, vanity bullshit, crippled desktops (pads) ect...

This article is so silly that I'm ashamed of myself for clicking on the thread....








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I blame the jews :2 cents:

The technology curve is still exponential. Read "The Singularity is Near" if you want evidence of it.

I have several co-workers who carry smartphones at all times - and yet they constantly ask questions they could easily google themselves. I look at them and wonder why they're either too stupid or too fucking lazy to just google the answer.

As they say - knowledge is knowing where to find the answer - not just having the knowledge in your head. And yet some people can't seem to find their own ass even after you've planted a boot in it.

Yes...and what has she created with that cell phone?

I see people everywhere with tablets and cell phones - and call them audience members.

Science has become privatized by big businesses

Enough selfies to make millions for ex-gf site owners.

:1orglaugh

OMG that article is a giant load of fucking horseshit.

That's about right.

Religion...

She created infinitely more with that phone than she did with a math book or nuke.

:1orglaugh

uh - not many people in here with much in the way of reading comprehension skills, the author's argument isn't that we aren't making ANY progress, he acknowledges the Internet and other advances. And by the way the project that gave us the Internet began in the 60's and was funded by the US Department of Defense.

DNA? DNA was discovered in the 50's/60's.

As for the discoveries of nuclear physics, it's a clean affordable energy source, if not for human errors leading to a few accidents that got people scared we'd already be ahead of the game when it comes to decreasing CO2 emissions. Far more people have died from the effects of air pollution than from anything nuclear related.

The Manhattan Project, one of the most amazing technological feats in mankind's history, from theoretical papers to final product in 5 years! Today it takes a minimum of 10 years to get a new drug to market!

http://i.imgur.com/M8spddm.gif

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh