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Has the Rate of Technical Progress Slowed?

Amiga Trombone writes "An article in the IEEE Spectrum argues that the rate of technological progress has slowed in the last 50 years. While there have been advances in areas such as computers, communications and medicine, etc., the author points out that these advances have largely been incremental rather than revolutionary. He contrasts the progress made within the life-span of his grandmother (1880-1960) with that in his own (1956-present). Having been born the year after the author, I've noticed this, too. While certainly we've produced some useful refinements, little of the technology available today would have surprised me much had I been able to encounter it in 1969. While some of it has been implemented in surprising ways, the technology itself had largely been anticipated."

1 of 712 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obviously it has... by xmousex · · Score: 0, Redundant

    wow you were modded 'insightful' for that??? you provided no counterpoints or arguments or anything worth reading, you just said nothing and moved on.

    slashdot mods understanding of basic modding is laughable. but we already knew that