ファブリス wrote:

Gingerninja wrote:

Things seem to have stopped advancing.. where is the flying car, the transport tubes?  I mean the biggest technological improvement we've had recently is what?  an updated ipod?   People aren't thinking big enough anymore imo.

I've had similar thoughts for a long time. Recently I saw a televised debate in which one scientist was asked if he really believed we would travel to other planets in the not too distant future.

What he said was uplifting. But pardon me in advance if I am really vague..

Basically he said something like: this point we are at right now, we are actually on the verge of making many breakthroughs in physics, methematics, biology, even in the research about the nature of reality and consciousness. Think about the latest experiements in quantum physics, genetics, new sources of energy... We would seem to be in fact in a "dip", or "quiet before the storm". As has been seen in the past, there is some kind of cycle, this scientist explained, where new breakthroughs can bring  monumental changes in society, and very rapidly, but then you have this long quiet where nothing seems to happen much.. until physics get rewritten and there is a "storm" of inventions again.

If you have never seen "Connections" (a ten-part TV series by James Burke), you'll want to.  A simply wonderful tour about how things change over time, and what kind of simple discoveries lead to much more complex wonders, once a few other bits are added.