PROGRESS?

any comments on teh following? --------------------------------------------------------------- In an article in Saturday Night magazine (Dec 1999), Jay Teitel reflected that his 10 year-old daughter's lifestyle was virtually indistinguishable from his own childhood experience(1959). The TV shows were different, but they ate the same breakfast cereals. Consider this after-school plaza with mother - and when back home, watch a news program on the dangerous spread of atomic weapons and the fight against cancer. That was 1959 - what has changed? In the first half of the 20th century, researchers working alone or in small groups, with little outside funding, discovered, invented, or perfected teh following: Internal combustion engine, Airplane travel, Rocketry, radio, Television, Radar, Talking mothion pictures, The 1st Computer, Nuclear fission, insulin&antibiotics, 2 polio vaccines (+ vaccines for tetanus and diptheria), automatic washing, machine, X-ray, Heart-lung machine, chemo and radiation therapy, Plastic, Electro-cardiogram In the 2nd half of the 20th century, Theiter remarks, thousands of scientists, with massive funding (and unprecedented technological tools) have discovered: an electric typewriter with memory (but which doesnt' know how to change the date from 1999 to 2000) According to Teitel, we are dazzled and obsessed by our breathtaking technological change and the plethora of new inventions which have changed our way of life. But this may be all illusion. Consider Jules Verne. Writing in teh late 1800s, he predicted the invention of the airplane, the submarine, television, guided missles, rockets, and space satellites. By 1950,these had all come to pass. In the mid-1950s, Popular Science magazine predicted that by the year 2000, we would have flying cars, food pellets )an entire meal in one pill), robot maids, anti-gravity boots, cities built in vertical layers, and mechanical pets. Consider also such "futuristic" works as George Orwell's 1984 and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1900, four of the deadliest diseaes were tuberculosis pneumonia, syphilis, and diabetes. By mid-century, all were eradicated or controlled. Who would have believed, in 1950, that fifty yers later the number of people dying annually of cancer would remain virtually identical, that the common cold would still be uncured, or that a lethal new veneral disease (AIDS) would appear, and then continue to baffle researchers for twenty years? (Also uncured:asthma and arthritis). Frederick Banting and his team discovered insulin in 1921 - eight months after they began research. Birthdates of inventions we use everyday (from the 1st half of the century) zipper 1913, SOS pads 1917, Tupperware 1948, Nylon 1940, Kleenex 1924, dishwasher 1914, Cellophane 1912, Aluminum foil 1947, Plexiglas 1930, Teflon 1938, microwave 1946, vacuum cleaner 1901, Pyrex dishes 1915, plastic 1900, Aspirin 1915, hair dryer 1920, Suntan lotion 1940, Papertowels 1907, Contac lenses 1877 From the 2nd half of the century Fax machines Personal computers Cruise control VCR Post-It notes Stand-up toothpaste tubes Hs our talent for invention been side-tracked? If so, why? 1-compartmentalization of knowledge - our scientists specialize in one fieldd -and fear to venture into areas "outside" their domain. Funding is rarely, if ever, available to non-specialists.(Where would Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci or Thomas Edison be today?) 2-the emphasis on money, technology and methodology, over simple thought. Exhaustive trail and error are favoured over the inspired hunch. Albert Einstein's wife, being shown an enormous new telescope, was told by the enthousiastic administrator: "with this telescope we can see the shape of the universe." "That's nice.", she supposedly replied, "my husband can do that with a pencil and a piece of paper." Amateur astronomer Robert Evans of Australia has discovered 37 supernovas -a record for a "visual" (as opposed to radio-telescope) observer 3- much of what we celebrate as "progress" today if often only a refinement, enlargement, miniaturization or recapitulation of old inventions (hand-held cameras, CDs, etc.) Popular science (Oct 1999) unveiled its predictions for the 21's century. Among the expected inventions:robot maids. --------------------------------------------------------------- i thought it was interesting to read but i dont think the matter discussed is as serious as it described. [edited by - tyro on January 19, 2004 3:30:55 PM]