Thursday, February 13, 2014

Why have discoveries seemingly stood still since the 70s

I was wondering the other day, why, that from the beginning of the industrial revolution until maybe 1970 there was a terrific amount of invention; trains, planes, atom bombs, lighting,  space travel, medical discoveries, radio, cars etc.   But since then, things seem to have slowed down on that front:  a railway station looks the same as in 1970, yet it looked very different in 1930,  compare an airport today, to 1970 and then to 1930.  Think about what New York city looked like in 1930 and then 1970 and today in 2014… See what I mean?


There could be lots of reasons;  things could be getting fine-tuned more: You can bet the aircraft will be a lot more efficient, and quiet etc.,  or maybe we reaching the peak of physical changes? 


I want to through an idea in the air -  one of the reasons could be that a lot of the “smart brains” are now not developing cars, or planes today.  But are working in computers:  look at the thousands of PhDs etc. that work for Google, Microsoft and Apple and companies like this.  Even the NSA apparently needs many brainiacs.


So the internet has only been around for 20years for most people, and is still in the process of destroying the High Street and Main Street stores with its lower prices.  There will come an equilibrium and “new stuff” on the internet and computers will slow down.  Will that mean more lucrative employment and demand be found with other fields, once again?


I hope so.