/sci/ - Science & Math

PUT YOUR HELMET ON YOU STUPID FARMBOY! YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT!

The only advancement is in fields that are commercially viable.

So, fuck yea, sitting on a rock jerking off for the next hundred years, waiting for someone to unfuck everything.

Think about it Op, all discoveries and inventions that fostered huge LEAPS in human life and knowledge happened from 1800 to around 1910, ever since then its just been small steps building on things that came before.

Idiot.

no significant wars or dire events to boost our technology

>>2441733

This. There's no pressing need for advancement at the moment, so enjoy your awesome new smartphone upgrade every few months and be grateful if you don't live in a 3rd world shithole.

>>2441720
Hell no it isn't depressing! We are living in awesome times friends, awesome times!

We have machines that we can tell when to wake us up!
We can light up where we live with a flip of a switch!
We have access to clean water when ever we want!
WE HAVE ACCESS TO NEARLY EVERY BIT OF DATA MANKIND HAS ACCUMULATED AT ANY MOMENT!

And get this, it isn't getting worse, it isn't staying the same, EVERY YEAR IT GETS A LITTLE BETTER!

Awesome times friends, awesome times!

Lots of progress, just nothing too disruptive lately.

>>2441720

NOPE

50 years ago there were no microprocessors and no recombinant DNA.

>>2441732
>>2441768

I don't get it. YUMAD

Maybe you don't know what the great technological leaps of the last 50 years were, because you don't know enough about technology. I don't think that anyone in 1910 had any idea how significant cars were going to be.

20 years ago the internet hardly existed.
That alone is a world changing event that happened just a couple decades ago.
Moores law is going strong and won't slow down for decades, if at all.

Personally, by 2030 I'm expecting: elimination of disease, computers and internet integrated into everything, AI personal assistants, AI improving rapidly, self driving transportation, photovoltaic cells everywhere, fusion power.

Depending on how nanotech progresses; sensory augments and molecular assemblers.

I think we generally do a disservice to the community when we say things like, "Oh, Y is X years away! Get ready!" because progress is flexible and stagnation is never out of the realm of possibilities. We might not get what we promised, and we might not get anything significant at all. Then again, I blame the media (everyone does, deal with it) for the unnecessary hype.

>>2441775
The revolution in genetics is real, and microprocessor-controlled industrial machines and consumer electronics.

>>2441820

>we might not get anything significant at all

The only way this could happen is if we suffer a major catastrophe, like a worldwide nuclear war, impact event, supervolcano, incurable plague or a worldwide oppressive government.

As long as you have...

1) Curious people who want to innovate and learn
2) Places for those people to work
3) Collaboration

...progress will build upon itself.

you should watch TED talks, them guys blow my mind on a regular basis.

also, within my life i can remember not being able to call someone across country without it costing a freaking fortune. and you could barely understand them. now i do that so regularly i barely think about it. anywhere i please.

my first real computer 22 years ago, had a 40mb harddrive. i now have 8GB on my keychain.

>>2441833 The revolution in genetics is real
Don't want to be a debbie downer, but so are all the potential problems arising from the future copyrighting of genetic sequences by corporations.

>>2441762
This guy's attitude, I like it.

>>2441913

Dad? What are you doing on 4chan?

>mfw we are some of the last generations that will be living on a world as perfect for humans as Earth before Earth's environment degrades and before most humans live in cramped space colonies in the Oort cloud or barely habitable terraformed rocks circling relatively unstable stars.

>>2441917
IP laws are the real problem, but they'll eventually fall, things can't really keep on going like this forever.

>>2441959

Sagan would be disappoint with your attitude.

>>2441968

So in a way; internet pirates are the freedom fighters for the future.

>>2441917
Some countries (or entire continents) will realize that patenting gene sequences is just plain wrong and those areas will thrive since they outlaw gene patents, but not gene research.

Tinkerers and "wetware hackers" don't give a fuck about copyrights/patents anyway. Someone finds a cure for something and finds out it's already patented, they'll upload the instructions to PirateBay/equivalent.

Overly-optimistic? Yes. Will this scenario happen some day? Most certainly yes.

>>2441984

>Tinkerers and "wetware hackers" don't give a fuck about copyrights/patents anyway. Someone finds a cure for something and finds out it's already patented, they'll upload the instructions to PirateBay/equivalent.

>mfw people don't realise what a big deal the internets and cellphones are

Seriously, you guys. Seriously.

There is an argument to be made that after the huge changes in basic lifestyle between the turn of the century and the fifties, the next few decades were abnormally quiet. But there is no way to argue that the last two decades has been quiet. I blame big governments and corporations for keeping it from taking off as well as it could have, but even with that moderating effect, we've changed massively.

>>2441720
>Why the sudden halt in terms of technological advancement during the last 50 years? Have we reached a point where we no longer need to push the envelope and just strive to find more ways to be comfortable? It's kind of depressing.

liberals, black people, poor people. we fund retardation instead of advancement, i.e., dramatically more money is spent on special ed programs than advanced programs.

/thread

>>2442965
If you want to talk about money being wasted...

>>2443009
what kind of terrishit source did you get that from? talk about an arbitrary definition of "discretionary". national defense doesn't fall into discretionary spending any more than social security / medicare / medicaid.

and at the very least, we get a lot of scientific funding out of the military budget.

>>2443070
Technically, national defense is discretionary. Nondiscretionary spending is spending that by law has to be spent, and has to be increased every year. That's where all our money goes, not to anything on that chart.

>>2442965
>/thread

No.

>>2443009

That only includes one type of federal spending. It ignores other federal spending or state and local spending. If you want to look at all spending for all US government agencies, here's the chart.

>>2441720

Citation needed, OP. Citation needed. How did you get back from 2031?

How do you figure there has been a sudden halt in technological advancement in the last 50 years?

>mfw nano technology and stem cell research.

>also mfw OP is a troll

Sigh... scientific advancements don't occur just like that. Physics for example is a hard field where advancement comes slowly. On the other hand, biochemistry for example is one of the fastest developing field where new findings are published frequently.

>>2443088
>Nondiscretionary spending is spending that by law has to be spent,
i get that
>and has to be increased every year.
wat? no