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Technological progress mostly relies on discoveries made in physics. Things that will amaze a 1885 person in 1950 were mostly made possible with electricity and
by mojuba 11y ago
Technological progress mostly relies on discoveries made in physics. Things that will amaze a 1885 person in 1950 were mostly made possible with electricity and derivative technologies, plus nuclear physics, and a few other things. Even engines for our flying machines wouldn't have been possible without electricity.
So the reason the leap between 1950 and today is not as noticeable in terms of the author's time machine experiment, may be because there have been no more major, truly groundbreaking discoveries made in physics, as in, e.g. discovering a new force in nature not known before etc.
But the author is of course right in saying that the past 65 years were marked with a lot of hard work rather than earth shattering discoveries.
- OopsCriticality 11y ago> Technological progress mostly relies on discoveries made in physics. I couldn't disagree more. Take the Haber process as a counterexample from chemistry, or vaccinations as a counterexample from medicine.
- mojuba 11y agoMedicine is not technology. Materials are, but in the end chemistry is just a subsidiary of physics.
- OopsCriticality 11y agoBy that logic, physics is merely an ersatz subsidiary of mathematics, therefore technological progress mostly relies on discoveries made in mathematics. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/
- selimthegrim 11y agoReally? Such as when Mary-Beth Ruskai had to talk to the quantum chemists to solve inequalities foundational to quantum information today, or when Longuet-Higgins discovered the importance of geometric phase in quantum mechanics? Or when Alden Mead argued the Planck length[0] was on the atomic scale? [0] http://ctpweb.lns.mit.edu/physics_today/phystoday/Alden-Repsonse323.pdf http://ctpweb.lns.mit.edu/physics_today/phystoday/Alden-Reps...
- arbitrage 11y ago"Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives." (from Wikipedia) More things are technology than you seem to think. For instance, technology isn't only things.