Just a thought on technological advancement

Think about this, we have made an incredible jump in technological ability in the last 100 years and have achieved things that would appear to be "majic" to people a few generations back. The way innovations and advancements "snowballed" into the rapidly growing scientific field we know (kindof) today, in such a short period of time relatively, is incredible.

Consider that we now think that mankind has been in its current anotomical form for at least 195,000 years, and we may well find that we are much, much older than this. There is evidence everywhere that we are.
Now to my point, according to mainstream science, in at least 195,000 years of full homo sapien capacity, we have not once managed to accomplish the wonders of technology that we have in the last 100 years..

Thats 1,950 100-year periods. The likelyhood of this last 100 year period being our only spark of technological and scientific greatness is low I'm sure..


seattlepi.nwsource.com...



[edit on 19-2-2005 by SilverStar]

Let me ask you this question...Do you seriously think that these last 100 years of technological advancement are disconnected from the rest of the time period?

I would say no. Take for example Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist who said that our actions are the result for fighting between ego and id. Initially he used hypnosis to come up with his controversial, but famous theory. He didn't develop hypnosis, but someone before him did. Because of that someone, Freud developed his theory and because of Freud we know have a better understanding of the brain, at least to some degree.

My point is that knowledge, like evolution, scientific growth isn't one big spark, but like gradual changes that add up over time. The last 100 years is our spark of technological and scientific greatness, but the 1,950 100 year periods lead up to that time. Those 100 year periods on the shoulders upon which our last 100 years of greatness stands.

Also the last 100 years have been great in terms of breeding grounds for scientific research. By late 1800s and 1990s, most people no longer believed in magic and began to look toward science to answer those questions. Gov't, democratic and others, began to see the power in Science and dedicated more and more time and manpower to its development. Back in the middle ages, the church was the supreme authority, things like that slowed down the process.

Hope that answered your question.

Surf

Originally posted by surfup
By late 1800s and 1990s, most people no longer believed in magic and began to look toward science to answer those questions.

Hope that answered your question.

Surf

LOL Ok, so the last 200 years then, thanks for your input.

Originally posted by surfup
Back in the middle ages, the church was the supreme authority, things like that slowed down the process.

Hope that answered your question.

Surf

lol! You need to consider 195000 years. . . wtf are you talking about middle ages? How the # can you compare the internal combustion engine, flight, space travel, nuclear power, genetics, microprocessors (ha), etc. etc. etc. no seriously... how can you compare those things to the utter suffocating ignorance of your middle ages/before present day times....

There must have been someone before our perception of history, (a long time ago for the slow folks), that was more advanced. You see, maybe it wasn't 100 years of advancement Ill admit, but in 195,000 years compared to the meager knowledge from the middle ages till present that our "present technology" is derived, you would think we could have done better.

There are a lot of things that have led to the technological explosion of the last few hundred years.

Probably the most significant is the mindset we currently have about how things should be done. It used to be that craftsmen's secrets were closely guarded, shared only with the few prize students. These techniques were kept "pure," certainly, but because of this innovation was slow. The current paradigm is exactly opposite of this: Instead of hoarding your technical abilities, we now share it. Instead of trying to maintain purity of technique, we now seek, constantly, to improve it. This idea of take-something-and-make-it-better is, in large part, what allowed the Industrial Revolution to happen.

Yes, I agree. My point is that we have all this time unaccounted for before these advancements that obviously, as you guys have stated, have led up to our current state.

The times of which you speak were a tiny fraction of the whole timeline currently accepted by science. How do we account for the huge amount of time that we didn't discover these fundamental items on which our current state of science is founded??

There is such a vast timespace between now and then that you cannot simply dismiss this as "well our technology today is based on years and years of scientific evolution.."

The medeval ignorance that slowly led to today... less than 1000 years.
We went from believing in magic, and that diseases could be cured by "bleeding" the patient! AAAHhhahHAhaha!

Thats where our present space faring, genetic engineering people came from in less than 1000 years. HOW DO YOU ACCOUNT FOR 194,000 YEARS OF SPEAR CHUCKING AND LIZARD WORSHIP? DURRRR....

Edit: Input Point.... What were we doing for all that time?? Consider this: If the human being right now, is exactly biologically as it was 200 thousand years ago, then how are we so intellectual now, so advanced.... yet we could barely get past concepts that we now consider elementary and idiotic up until a thousand years ago? It just doesn't make sense if you consider that man was in its current state for hundreds of eons! In your heart of hearts... does this really make sense?

[edit on 19-2-2005 by SilverStar]

Originally posted by SilverStar
What were we doing for all that time?? Consider this: If the human being right now, is exactly biologically as it was 200 thousand years ago, then how are we so intellectual now, so advanced.... yet we could barely get past concepts that we now consider elementary and idiotic up until a thousand years ago? It just doesn't make sense if you consider that man was in its current state for hundreds of eons! In your heart of hearts... does this really make sense?

Doing something else other than science. Science isn't a right of life, but a liberty. Survival is the main goal, and that is what we have been doing for thousands of years. Accounting all the time you were eating, trying to find food for you and your family, keeping your family in good shape, fighting for your nation, and trying to keep some other guy steal your children, how much time is left for Science and Invention and Creativity? Barely enough to create a teaspoon.

War has been a major part of the life of the ancients. They were always fighting, if not between themselves, between tribes, if not tribes, cities, if not between cities, nations. Science doesn't happen in a day or two, but takes time and importantly encourgement. Why in the hell would anyone want to creat a machine, if they were going to be procecuted for it or if no one cares?

Most inventions have occured during times of peace, although the threat of war can put a nation on crash cource toward technological leaps, such the one we have seen from after WW2 to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Originally Posted by Whiskey Jack This idea of take-something-and-make-it-better is, in large part, what allowed the Industrial Revolution to happen.

Exactly. Nowadays, we patent something, so that they acknowledge us as the creator of something. This not only allows inventions to come to public light, but also allows others to improve on it and work on it, without having to sneak in at night and steal the documents. Today they can do it during daynight, by paying royalty fees to the patent owner. Obviously this system was in existence during the middle ages or any time period except now. The amount of patents submitted direcly correlates with the rate at which the current society's technology is getting improved.

Surf

Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

Humorous if not tragic.

Until overseas empires were able to supplant the market most European nations went through periods of famine as the population grew too much.

This prevented any real development as people regualr famines prevented a build up of scientific knowledge.

And of course the age old point that evidence makes cases that little bit more convincing.

Originally posted by SilverStar
Think about this, we have made an incredible jump in technological ability in the last 100 years and have achieved things that would appear to be "majic" to people a few generations back. The way innovations and advancements "snowballed" into the rapidly growing scientific field we know (kindof) today, in such a short period of time relatively, is incredible.

...Thats 1,950 100-year periods. The likelyhood of this last 100 year period being our only spark of technological and scientific greatness is low I'm sure..

Well, you're kind of glossing over a few points that you might want to reconsider -- we've had other "golden ages" of knowledge like this before. The big difference between *now* and *then* is that we have more sophisticated technology and better communication.

Archimedes theorized a huge burning lens as a weapon of war... but they had no way back then to make optical glass in that size. They had no tools for measuring purity and no way of conveniently manufacturing diamond-based polishing tools. Without tools like microscopes, advances in many fields are limited, and you can't have microscopes until you have metal tube manufacturing and consistant optical glass and a lot of other things.

Yes, we've made some remarkable achievements but most of this has been due to increased communication (talking with others who have the same idea, no matter where they might live or what language they might speak) and because we have the technology to springboard upon.

...and books. Books were vital to learning and transmitting this.