Technology & Progress Ruminations

[Tõnis]

Is anyone else amazed that this stuff we have even works at all? I can't get my mind around the fact that this hard drive is spinning its disk(s) one hundred times per second, never mind actually doing one thing and much less doing it right! This ThinkPad is waiting for my input and will act upon my command! And all this stuff, computers, communications, modern conveyances, etc. that we use have come about in less than 300 years. Well, I suppose it could be a culmination of a millennia of studying science, math, chemistry, physics that's now being applied to the physical world, but still, these practical uses have manifested themselves over the span of only four lifetimes. Other than waxing poetic, I haven't contributed much to any of it in my half-lifetime so far ...

[Summilux]

I've been thinking the same, not so long ago. Look at your smartphone; just 50 years ago it would have been sci-fi to make such a tiny device, packing a screen which definition and vibrant colours would have been better than anything else back then!

We are on an incredibly exponential innovation curve, each tool we make helps us fabricate new tools more rapidly and of a better quality. And that's only the beginning. The next frontier is that of the human body, namely the brain, of which we know nothing about - so to speak.

Sure, ethical questions are becoming more pressing by the day. Poverty, war and inequalties are far from being eradicated.
We should consider all of those seriously, but never let them halt the progress of science nonetheless.

[killer]

Poverty, war, and inequality have all been motivating factors for progress. Necessity is the mother of invention.