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Over the past 30 years we haven't seen breakthru innovation in transportation, energy, medicine, and many other fields. This point has been made by Peter Theil

by andyl 15y ago

Over the past 30 years we haven't seen breakthru innovation in transportation, energy, medicine, and many other fields. This point has been made by Peter Theil and others. That may be true, but look at some recent developments. Self-driving cars, synthetic biology, thorium reactors, commercial space, 3d printing - not to mention the rapid evolution of internet and mobile technologies. Further afield, people are working on quantum computing, memristors, AI algorithms, and more. All of these developments could make a big impact. Seems to me that we've got plenty of advances ahead of us.

Silhouette 15y ago
Over the past 30 years we haven't seen breakthru innovation in transportation, energy, medicine, and many other fields. We haven't? What proportion of the electricity supplied in your country came from renewable sources 30 years ago? How much did we know about human genetics and, for example, the potential of stem cells, 30 years ago? If I wanted to go to Paris 30 years ago, it required a flight or a boat trip, not to mention the connections to and from the airport or ferry port on either end. Today I can walk to my local railway station in a few minutes, take a train down to London, walk to the station next door, take another train that goes under a tunnel all the way under the English Channel, and get off that train in Paris. I think some people claim innovation isn't happening just because it's happening too slowly for them to notice in their everyday lives.