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> I've been reading news lines over the past years about great advancements in many incurable and chronic diseases There is a lot of overhype in the news. When

> I've been reading news lines over the past years about great advancements in many incurable and chronic diseases There is a lot of overhype in the news. When they claim that a new 80% improvement in batteries we all know it's a joke a laugh. When there is a similar exaggeration in cancer cures we get sad. The saddest part is that the overhype shadows all the small/local improvements. They are better explained in sibling comments. Medicine is not my area so they give better examples than what I can choose. When I read a new about my area or something close enough, it's fun to try to guess what was the original new before it was badly rewrote by the press and how interesting it is. But when there are lives related to the new, it's not fun to read post with unrealistic promises.

DennisP 2y ago
The thing about batteries is that those big discoveries in the lab take a long time to reach the market. By the time they do reach the market, they're just an incremental improvement over all the other big discoveries that are already in production. So we never seem to get a dramatic breakthrough, but what we do get is steady improvement over the course of decades. And that's why we have electric cars now with ranges over 400 miles, while back in 1996 the EV1 had 70 to 100 miles. I think cancer treatments are pretty much the same.
NemoNobody 2y ago
Ok are you fr? The phone I'm typing this on is superior to the computer in highschool to play video games on and it's my old phone that can't hold a candle to my new phone. The batteries in both devices are both MORE THAN 80% superior to the battery in my first phone. F*ck. Progress does exist - life has got enormously better but people reuse to see it and focus their entire lives on living the same day over and over and wonder why they are unhappy.
- gus_massa 2y ago
  Mmm... I think we? The problem is that most of the 80% advance in your batteries are small 2-3% advances that never got a huge press cover. The 80% improvement press announcement are the unrealistic ones. PS: My favorite weird quantum anecdote that nobody know and everyone uses was Giant Magnetoresistance. Have you ever read about it? Do you have a device that uses it at your home? Is it weird to have two currents instead of one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_magnetoresistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_magnetoresistance But now the SSD ruined the anecdote :( .

DennisP 2y ago

The thing about batteries is that those big discoveries in the lab take a long time to reach the market. By the time they do reach the market, they're just an incremental improvement over all the other big discoveries that are already in production. So we never seem to get a dramatic breakthrough, but what we do get is steady improvement over the course of decades. And that's why we have electric cars now with ranges over 400 miles, while back in 1996 the EV1 had 70 to 100 miles. I think cancer treatments are pretty much the same.

NemoNobody 2y ago

Ok are you fr? The phone I'm typing this on is superior to the computer in highschool to play video games on and it's my old phone that can't hold a candle to my new phone. The batteries in both devices are both MORE THAN 80% superior to the battery in my first phone. F*ck. Progress does exist - life has got enormously better but people reuse to see it and focus their entire lives on living the same day over and over and wonder why they are unhappy.

gus_massa 2y ago
Mmm... I think we? The problem is that most of the 80% advance in your batteries are small 2-3% advances that never got a huge press cover. The 80% improvement press announcement are the unrealistic ones. PS: My favorite weird quantum anecdote that nobody know and everyone uses was Giant Magnetoresistance. Have you ever read about it? Do you have a device that uses it at your home? Is it weird to have two currents instead of one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_magnetoresistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_magnetoresistance But now the SSD ruined the anecdote :( .