Think about it, In the 1960's we thought that there would be flying cars by the 1980's yet it is 2006 and we still are far from it. Does technology advance slower than we think it does, or are our dreams and goals too high?
I remember watching a tv program that said that we may be on other planets by 2050. There are always visions of what the future will be like, and it may be true but do we stray from our goals or are we expecting things to happen too soon?
In my opinion, Science does not go continuously at same speed. There are some advance at some time then RAPID progress (like electronic, computer, internet, etc...). At some point, the revolution in Science was in Physics and electronics and now it's going much slower, but it will go now fast in area like Genetic, Brain studies, nanotechnologies, etc...
So I would think that science progress is not linear but has some quick times of new discovery, then slower progress. People that were thinking of flying cars and so on were extrapolating progress that they saw in their own lifes to the same speed of scientific progress. 
Someone said (Newton I think) that "There is only one light of science and whenever someones brightens one part, the entire light brightens.". Or something like that, I just saw the quote today when I was playing Civ 4.
Science has appeared to slow down a lot recently but I think that's mostly because most of the development has been on pre-tech items(teleportation of atoms, ceramic fibres, etc) rather than consumer tech that affect our lives regulary(tv, planes, etc). Were still developing stuff, we're just not noticing it at a conusmer level.
Your right though, a lot of the stuff from the 1960's can be pretty entertaining. I guess they were judging from the progress of then and asuming it would continue at the same speed and development lines till now.
Consider the growth of the microprocessers (Intel & AMD), the power is growing exponentially. Consider the human genome project, where 100 million miles of DNA has been sequenced amonst other species (the length of one DNA strand in a human cell unwinded). Think of genetic cloning, the string theory, the no. of research publications now available every day and increasing exponentially. The field of scientific research and discovery is in it's prime, though very well established there is so much yet we have to learn.
What you mean is there's much less that strikes you as a quantum leap as in the early 20th Century with Einstein, Plank, the car engine, radio etc. What happened in the 1960's is nothing compared to now, but you don't learn most of that in the classroom, that's up to college and lectures for you to find out.
On second thoughts, the 1960's seen the moon landings, development of IBM's PC etc. I suppose a few things happened there too. Then again, there is always the first breakthrough, follewed by refinement and development.
The wheel is a classic breakthrough in anceint times, and it's potential was recognised immediately so that it became used worldwide and developed into chariots, later horses and carts used wheels, then the trains, then cars used wheels.
Consider fire, after discovering fire we were able to cook, then with refinement we learned to use fire to smelt metals from there ore like iron ore, and also form alloys like bronze. Fire became like a God to the Greeks, and even later times fire became important for steam engines, later combustion engines, later for NASA's rocket launches etc.
It takes a first breakthrough to lead to new inventions and concepts. With the knowledge we know have with physics, chemistry, microbiology and genetics we are now at a point of applying these technologies like ancient times towards the future.
Imagine spacecraft became a public means of transport around the globe, it just takes economy and technology. Even spacecraft to fly manned to Mars.
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad12nov97_1.htm
Imagine a new quantum-gravity principle was discovered replacing the string theory and allowing laser pulses to form black holes and teleport whole masses like human bodies through the wormhole.
There are so much dreams now about the future as the people in the 1960's had about their future. I mean, robots with human-like AI are still a dream that is near-possible. Flying cars are still possible, see the film "Minority Report" or "Batman Begins" showing the near future possibilities. hell yeah, science is going slow.. why haven't they invented the perfect martini yet??
actually, I think science still moves very rapidly.. exponentially, in fact.. but the focus tends to change, so it's hard to gauge how far we've gone
yeah, it's funny to look back at old Popular Science magazines and see all the wild predictions about flying cars, video phones, robot maids.. we should be living like the Jetsons by now.. but we actually do (or could) have video phones.. flying cars might be a possibility, except the safety factors and high cost of research and production have limited exploration of that field
on the other hand, we've made amazing advances in health and biogenetics.. now that the human DNA has (mostly) been mapped, medicine could become a niche market with custom-tailored drugs.. sure, it'll take a while, but it could happen within the next decade.. and that's something that was considered sci-fi fodder just 10 years ago
the thing is, as we reach higher, our goals keep getting raised, too.. the problem is that government intervention slows things down.. for example, Japan had HDTV nearly 20 years ago.. we're just getting it in the US within the last 2 or 3.. why? because the investors had to determine a standard before they would mass produce it, in order to keep their costs down, as well as to prevent a competition war similar to VHS and Betamax
hell yeah, science is going slow.. why haven't they invented the perfect martini yet??
actually, I think science still moves very rapidly.. exponentially, in fact.. but the focus tends to change, so it's hard to gauge how far we've gone
yeah, it's funny to look back at old Popular Science magazines and see all the wild predictions about flying cars, video phones, robot maids.. we should be living like the Jetsons by now.. but we actually do (or could) have video phones.. flying cars might be a possibility, except the safety factors and high cost of research and production have limited exploration of that field
on the other hand, we've made amazing advances in health and biogenetics.. now that the human DNA has (mostly) been mapped, medicine could become a niche market with custom-tailored drugs.. sure, it'll take a while, but it could happen within the next decade.. and that's something that was considered sci-fi fodder just 10 years ago
the thing is, as we reach higher, our goals keep getting raised, too.. the problem is that government intervention slows things down.. for example, Japan had HDTV nearly 20 years ago.. we're just getting it in the US within the last 2 or 3.. why? because the investors had to determine a standard before they would mass produce it, in order to keep their costs down, as well as to prevent a competition war similar to VHS and Betamax
it depends on what they are doing research. Some technics are very simple, but you have technologies that are very difficult. Like the engines for rockets.
Now they are still using fuel engines. They are researching the technic of Impuls engines.
How these are working, i don't have any idea. Only the technology would use lesser fuel then the tradional way.
Technology, I believe, IS slower than most people think. But the main reason for that is due to the fact that there's not much left to invent!
| Nitro15 wrote: |
| Technology, I believe, IS slower than most people think. But the main reason for that is due to the fact that there's not much left to invent! |
Not much left to invent? Do you think 100 years ago we knew about antimatter? No! We didn't even know what a proton was 100 years ago. Imagine how far we have come and how much more we have to discover. I think we will run out of things to invent when we know everything, and that won't be for a long time.Technology certainly doesn't advance in a linear ordered manner. The case of the ancient Greeks proves this - it took Europe about 2 millenia to get back to the level of Greek science circa 200BC.
Science and technology have, however, advanced at an apparently increasing rate (perhaps exponential) over this century and there seems little reason to suppose that this is going to change soon.
Regards
Chris
*sigh* sci-fi movies (back to the future, metroposis) make people with little knowlege of science expect things FAST, we are not really moving slower we just expect to much but yeah there are periods were certain sciences exel, I can't wait to see the fuel source of tommorow (hopefully not oil or coal) or what we will do with nano-tech (Note: This is most likley the longest post I've ever made!)
Comparing the last 50, 100 and 1000 years the rate technological advances is increasing exponentially.
It advances slower than we wish and faster than we expect.
Wow, that came out rather good. 
didn't Lennon just say that?
anyway I don't think science is slowing at all, we just focus on different areas once we think we know it all, and then after researching another area come back to it realizing theres much more to be done.
either that or scientists get 'bored' of a field and move to another.
but we still are advancing pretty fast 
sorry, 100 million miles of total human DNA unstretched. Not 100 million miles of DNA in a human cell.
Maybe what we need is people with an imagination and understanding like that of Einstein, Ford, or Bill Gates.
hey, there's nothing wrong with bill gates except he's a little out of date now.
Science is not out of date.
Science is moving as fast as it needs to.
Science does not move at the same rate in all fields. Some fields advance quickly while others dont. This probably depends a lot on money. Most big advancements happen because of military needs. Others happen because of a desire to make money by offering a new product that people will want. i dont think that much development is happening for developments sake. So i think that it depends on what the needs are, and is there money in it - then effort will be put in to advancing that area. So in conclusion i think that there are areas that have far exceeded anyones ideas of development and other areas that are dragging way behind. This is porbably because no-one cares or there is no money to be made in it.
Just read that we are not that far away from the cloaking device as depicted in Star Trek. Current testing is only on microwaves, but the geniuses of the world say that the same concept will work with visible light. Namely, bending light waves. Were those guys in the 60's right on target when they wrote the sci-fi scripts??
| Jazradem wrote: |
Someone said (Newton I think) that "There is only one light of science and whenever someones brightens one part, the entire light brightens.". Or something like that, I just saw the quote today when I was playing Civ 4.
|
I play Civ 4, too, and I remember the quote! 
"There is a single light of science, and to brigten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere" says the rough voice of Spock. And it is attributed to Isaac Asimov, not Isaac Newton. You got the first name right, at least
People predicted flying cars, but they didn't predict almighty computers. | dettorres wrote: |
| Just read that we are not that far away from the cloaking device as depicted in Star Trek. Current testing is only on microwaves, but the geniuses of the world say that the same concept will work with visible light. Namely, bending light waves. Were those guys in the 60's right on target when they wrote the sci-fi scripts?? |
yeah, i saw something like that on the news that a couple scientists in europe could cloak something that wouldn't be seen (easily) from straight on, and i think is was microwaves.
do you know more about it?Different parts of science moves at different speeds. Cars are almost perfect for what we need from them (except gas mileage) so that is why they have not really evolved. There is no real use for flying cars right now. But then think of the internet, which popped up in the last few decades. A complete new system that no one could have imagined. Then there are things that have no evolved for thousands of years that we still use today, like beer.
its go's slower then our dreams withs i think is very normal, you just cant predict the speed on wich we will advance because not just our own technology changes but we out selves do as well. (number of super smart people etc)
Science moves really slowly. We have the media bombarding us with big discourses about scientific progress, but the problem is that common people does not distinguish between fundamental science and technology. fundamental science moves in big steps, one every 100 to 200 years, these are imposible to predict and its technological consecuences are not easily to know. Techology needs propaganda, needs presence in media, so it goes apparently fast, but this is only an appareance, because it gos tied to the fundamental science, which for our "progress" standards goes slow.
If you want science/technology to speed up again, start a war.
Scientists are always lacking funds. ;)
We have flying cars, they just aren't practical. Flying cars were one thing societies just weren't meant to have as I see it. It's too bad that our childhood dreams may never come true.
In actuality, technology progresses faster than you think. I'm sure you don't know everything there is to know about quantum mechanics.
Also, it may be true that technological developments come faster in war than in peace, but I don't think in that mindset. I think the developments are researched by the government before war, over quite some time, and only put into action during war. So what reason is there for starting a war? You'd better have a damn good one.
| chrismen wrote: |
| Different parts of science moves at different speeds. Cars are almost perfect for what we need from them (except gas mileage) so that is why they have not really evolved. There is no real use for flying cars right now. But then think of the internet, which popped up in the last few decades. A complete new system that no one could have imagined. Then there are things that have no evolved for thousands of years that we still use today, like beer. |
what do you mean beer hasn't evolved??
(hands over head saying "lalalalalalalalalala")
sry, just had to do that, anyway beer is alot more pure and im sure you wont find things in it that were there in the say 13th century, right?I think science is advancing as fast or faster than expected, just in different ways and directions then previously thought. Who would have dreamed of a divice like a cell phone, satellite or computer?
It is quite hard to predict advances in science, because you just can't predict something to happen in a domain that hasn't been discorvered yet So everytime a new sector of science appears, the whole advancement of humanity makes a great step forward. And as people can't foretell the research domain of the future, they tend to think that the technologies around them will be enhanced to some incredible level, while there are sometimes no way to improve them before discorvering one of the new fields I talked of before. In short, it's all about predictions and being wrong
I guess that science encourages science. As some technologies are enhanced, it makes it possible to focus on more challenging sectors. Just take the microscope: it took time to create it, but when it was discorvered, a lot of other domains were able to progress a lot.
