Will technological advancement ever hit a wall?

[Here's the thing]

There are certain laws of physics that even the smartest people can agree on as being undebatably true. I'm wondering, is technological advancement ever going to hit a wall due to the fact that certain things can't be done? Or at least slow down? It seems like at the rate we're going, people will eventually be able to travel to places that are millions of miles away. Or maybe technology will fuse with human organisms so that instead of having cell phones, people will insert chips into into their bodies and that chip will act as the sender and receiver of information that can currently only be shared to the brain via looking at a phone's screen. Will the tech curve ever flatten out?

 

[rj144]

Eventually, everything slows down when that thing doesn't exist.

 

[HARRISON_3]

Let's keep it going!

 

[Philo-Publius]

There are certain laws of physics that even the smartest people can agree on as being undebatably true. I'm wondering, is technological advancement ever going to hit a wall due to the fact that certain things can't be done? Or at least slow down? It seems like at the rate we're going, people will eventually be able to travel to places that are millions of miles away. Or maybe technology will fuse with human organisms so that instead of having cell phones, people will insert chips into into their bodies and that chip will act as the sender and receiver of information that can currently only be shared to the brain via looking at a phone's screen. Will the tech curve ever flatten out?

No. Technology is the next phase of our evolution and will eventually replace us.

 

[loyalyolayal]

 

[Deleted member 484047]

Of course it will. Despite peoples deepest fantasies certain laws of science simply cannot be broken. Plus you have material limits to deal with.

Eventually humanity will hit a hard limit where we simply cant advance. It probably wont happen for quite some time, but it will happen.

 

[genecop]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11167116/

funny you should ask..

 

[General_Speckz]

Teach no logical

 

[TheOneAboveAll3]

It wasn’t a mistake, asshole.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shout down

shout down
phrasal verb
shouted down; shouting down; shouts down
Definition of shout down

: to shout so that (someone who is speaking) cannot be heard. I.e. The crowd shouted him down when he tried to give his speech.

If you try going to a university campus to give a talk on the correlation between race and IQ. You will get shouted down. This ACTUALLY happened to Charles Murray, author of the book “The bell curve”. Read about it here:

www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/opinion/charles-murray-michigan-speech.amp.html

If you are so “committed” to rationality, then why not let him speak?

I don't give that much of a fuck either way, but don't come on here telling everyone the "left" are the "champions of rationality", because they are fucking not.

You dont give a fuck but you just cant seem to let it go lol. Full of shit much?

 

[squeakymcgill]

No. I think a lot of our sci-fi ideas will turn out to be impossible or impractical, but we'll always find ways to advance.

 

[surrealworlds]

Technology frequently hits walls and then finds ways around them. That's kindof how science works.
Will we ever reach a point where we cannot advance any further? No.
We may destroy ourselves before then but as long as our species is in a position to progress we will. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster. At the moment it seems we are going extremely fast.

For the time being we have many paths in front of us without many technological advancements even being necessary.(though, more advancements make things move along of course)

1)Transportation- we are already seeing the beginnings of self driving tech. This will be put into use within our lifetimes and will advance from there. Remember the cars from I, Robot? Speeding along at 100+ mph with zero problems? That is quite feasible in our futures.
2)Energy- Battery tech is getting better and new ways and types of energy production and storage are being advanced everyday. I was fascinated by the new Nuclear plant that Bill Gates company developed that will use the old nuclear waste as fuel. Once this tech becomes smaller and more efficient it's only a matter of time before it propels us in all manner of directions, including space.
3)Space- if we wanted we could literally build a generational space ship right now and load it up with enough people to populate the stars. This would be a very crude way to explore space but it's an option. As tech advances we will get more efficient energy and ways to propel us, better ways to generate food and water, etc. Once we start exploring space it's only a matter of time before we start bringing back resources which eliminates alot of the competition on the planet.
This may seem fanciful but it's absolutely possible.
4)Health- The future will be some mix of cybernetics and biological advancement. We already have the model T versions of cyborgs in the forms of injury/amputees and disabled individuals. It only gets better from there.

5)Computational power- the mother load, the driving force behind all future and many current advancements. As tech increases we will see Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing and many other things we havent thought of.

Just what I've listed here will push us for another 100 years or more. As we develop new tech it will lead to even newer applications and newer tech.

If we will ever reach an impossible point it wont be for a long time.

 

[surrealworlds]

Related and a great read, I give you "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10089822

 

[squeakymcgill]

3)Space- if we wanted we could literally build a generational space ship right now and load it up with enough people to populate the stars.

Good post, but that's way too optimistic. All we could do right now is send a group off to their deaths. They're not gonna go out there and terraform, or even build a new generation ship, so it's just a matter of how long they could keep the ship and it's closed system ecology running.

 

[surrealworlds]

Touche'; I'll say its feasible with very few technological improvements. It's not the way to go but once you figure out sustainable water,food and fuel, generational space travel is certainly possible.

Good post, but that's way too optimistic. All we could do right now is send a group off to their deaths. They're not gonna go out there and terraform, or even build a new generation ship, so it's just a matter of how long they could keep the ship and it's closed system ecology running.

 

[badascan]

Real low quality derailment early...

No, technology will not hit a wall in a greater sense. It will change in such a way many times over as to appear as if the previous forms hit "walls"...

 

[strebitel86]

Only in America and their colonies, but not in other countries.

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

Moore's Law already hit a wall (for the first time since it existed) a few years ago and hasn't recovered, they aren't on track to either. This is a big deal, actually

 

[GSP_37]

If someone like Professor X gathers all the world's super smart child prodigies who finished masters degrees while their same aged peers are still in elementary school, maybe these advanced intellectual kids will push the limits of human knowledge.

 

[GSP_37]

Moore's Law already hit a wall (for the first time since it existed) a few years ago and hasn't recovered, they aren't on track to either. This is a big deal, actually

I thought Moore's Law was more like a quota goal rather than a law.

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

I thought Moore's Law was more like a quota goal rather than a law.

It's kinda both. It started out as a hypothesis and was tested and shown to be not only a decent guideline but an accurate indicator and became a benchmark of industry growth and we always would reach it or exceed it decade after decade after decade. It was statistically so accurate and reliable over time it became regarded as a law.

The materials we built our technology on all this time are finally reaching their molecular and practical limits (of always shrinking technology) and that's why we can't continue at that pace. We're going to have to find a new way (probably using new materials) which must also be cheap and plentiful, which is pretty difficult since we don't already have technology built on other materials and their attributes.

It's still possible we can later make up that lost progress, but that would require a huge spike (a revolutionary innovation) next.