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From the RooshV Forum:
I constantly get the vibe from people that they think our technology is skyrocketing, that we're living in a new tech age, "where was all this ten years ago?!" etc.
But I disagree with this assessment of our technology. It has made steady improvements in one specific space: software and electronic hardware. That is all. On top of that, the improvements on the hardware have not even been ground breaking. GPS is a ground-breaking invention. Smaller screens are not: they are just an incremental improvement.
Smartphones are merely the result of incremental improvements in the size and quality of electronic components. The only breakthroughs involved are ages old. The invention of the transistor, the laser, etc. The existence of google, facebook, uber, and so on, are merely inevitable "new applications" stemming from these improvements. They are not breakthroughs, they are merely improvements and combinations upon the telephone, the directory, and the taxi.
In my opinion, technology as a whole is borderline stagnant.
A list of why technology is still shit:
The posting goes on to list examples of incremental, rather than breakthrough, changes in the areas of:
- Electronics & Machines
- Energy
- Medicine
- Clothes
- Food
- Finance
Have we really stagnated? Have we already found all of the "low-hanging fruit", so new breakthroughs are harder to find? Maybe there is greater emphasis on changes that are immediately able to be commercialized and less emphasis on basic research?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 29 2017, @12:07PM (3 children)
Really? It doesn't happen to me, it's still hard to get the info I think is relevant. Even a wee harder as the time passes. Which makes me search for alternative explanations.
Like, in the same time as big data, Facebook happened. And suddenly a new generation learnt to be happy with whatever crappy answers they get, be those answer only a little bit more unusual than the usual ads. And, boy, do they create a lot of crap nowadays or what? So, the old decrepit me have to sift this whole lot of garbage to find the info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 29 2017, @01:22PM (1 child)
Maybe - just maybe - I'm carefully NOT making an accusation here - the new generations are shallow minded? They ask a question, they get some superfluous answer, and they are satisfied. "Why is the sky blue, Mommy?" "Because it is, Baby, now eat your peas and carrots, and let Mommy watch the soaps." Then again, maybe our own generation had plenty of shallow minded bubble heads - two out of three of my sons accept simple answers. The third isn't satisfied with simple, and digs into stuff. Maybe the proportion has changed, but I have to admit there are plenty of vacuous baby-boomers, and whatever the hell came after them.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 29 2017, @05:56PM
This and the relation to Facebook (as the easy way to get instant gratification in the form of cheap/meaningless likes) is the hypothesis I tabled.
Yeah-yeah... like I care enough to NOT accuse them. Their bed, they are the ones to sleep in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:31AM
And now, there are fewer and fewer search engines--general, mercantile, professional, or otherwise--that allow the execution of "precise search strings" and those even those few routinely have stripped out some core search functionality (disabling wildcards, or ignoring capitalization for Boolean search, for example).
Providers also have generally made it more difficult to even seek out their search syntax rules, as precise, focused searches tend to bypass those results they want to force you to see or those they are being paid to serve up to you.