Technology

On technological advances over the last 175 years

From an interesting article in Scientific American:

When we look back on the past 175 years, the manipulation of matter and energy stands out as a central domain of both scientific and technical advances. Techno-scientific innovations have sometimes delivered on their promises and sometimes not. Of the biggest advances, three really did change our lives—probably for the better—whereas two were far less consequential than people thought they would be. And one of the overarching impacts we now recognize in hindsight was only weakly anticipated: that by moving matter and energy, we would end up moving information and ideas.

A big miss in the “technology” development cited in this article is the area of health including the development of a host of vaccines and treatments that have greatly increased the quantity and quality of life. That is a big miss for me, but otherwise the article is interesting.

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