3 ms·
That is the OP's main point, except turned around. He was measuring progress by results, not by effort expended, and saying that it takes exponential effort to
by andybalholm 12y ago
That is the OP's main point, except turned around. He was measuring progress by results, not by effort expended, and saying that it takes exponential effort to reach linear results.
- kawa 12y agoBut considering that the total amount of scientific knowledge is limited, linear progress will find "everything" in a manageable amount of time. Of course we don't know how big the percentage of our total knowledge is, but it's quite possible that we are already getting close to know "everything". The singularity doesn't promise certain invention (for example it's possible that there is no and will never be a way to go faster than the speed of light) it only promises exponential growth which will bring the "end of science" into the foreseeable future. So if we found maybe 80% of all physics in the last 200 years, with linear progress we would reach the end of physics in 40 years.