The Golden Age of Technological Advancement
As we progress into the 21st century, the hype about advanced technology is slowly diminishing, while reports of progress is mostly just pure fantasy and guesswork of our view of the future. The true age of technological advancement ended almost half a century ago in 1971. From 1945 to that time, most of our inventions sprouted out of the hard soil into what would soon become a revolutionized world of technology. Inventions and discoveries such as the pill, electronics, computers, nuclear power, all had seeds planted, or saplings sprouted during that golden age.In retrospect, the exponential growth of the U.S. truly was magnificent. No one ever dared to object to its wishes. Unfortunately, this growth has dwindled.
Although technology has progressed this far, some sources argue whether or not it will reach the point of no more advancement. According to aeon.com, although our generation is said to live in the “golden age” of advancement, in America at least, that time period spanned from about 1945 to 1971. From what is stated, the “Golden Age” has already passed for nearly five decades! Our generation has been enjoying the fruits of the inventions created by our predeccessors.According to Vinge from wordpress.com, he states,” In the absence of physical disaster, I suspect that technological progress will continue for some time,” Vinge said,“So far, so good.” But then he went on: “After that, it might be impractical for us mere humans to assess the nature of future progress”. As we can observe, there are a handful of people beginning to predict the halt of the further development of technology.
Many people assume that the lack of innovation is due to the lack of areas for improvement. Are their assumptions correct? Or have we finished picking the low hanging fruit for the tree?
As the youngest generation is enjoying the fruits of the hard work of their predecessors, the Earth’s rotation slows. As our society becomes increasingly content with its state of being, our world slowly but surely, shows signs of declining efficiency in innovation. At its core, ambition necessitates discontent, which in turn, spurs innovation. In order to be ambitious, people have to be hungry for more than what’s already on their plate, and be willing to work for that additional food. If people are able to realize that there is more to the world than what the eye can see, perhaps ambition will be revived at last whilst it sprouts through the hard soil as it did decades ago.
Since the Golden Age of Advancement, the exponential rate of growth has now dwindled today to the reports of contrivance as we know it. According to Michel Hanlon from Aeon, he states, “ Since 1970, the US Federal Government has spent more than $100 billion in what President Richard Nixon dubbed the ‘War on Cancer’. Far more has been spent globally, with most wealthy nations boasting well-funded cancer‑research bodies. Despite these billions of investment, this war has been a spectacular failure. In the US, the death rates for all kinds of cancer dropped by only 5 per cent in the period 1950–2005, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.” As we can see,
Another theory as to why progress has slowed is because of the lack of conflict. During the Cold War, America was seen as the “supergiant” of the world, illuminating the world with its unique yet fundamental inventions of the current day. The conflict of the Cold War forced America to step up and try to be “better” than its contestant in every way to overpower them. Since, America continued to stand in the limelight, though it slowly grows dim as others’ begin to illuminate brighter in the dark.
True, America did shine brightly in the past but however, it is no longer the brightest crayon in the box. Like in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, when you think you are far enough away from others, thinking that you are in some way better than them and stay rooted to the spot, a day will come when someone finally surpasses you.
We are still back to the question: Will technological advancement come to a halt? I can safely assure you, that so long as this roof shuts out the sky, the youth will forever be content with their place in the universe, and so will our technological advancement. As long as there are still people working to improve the world with their inventions and theories, there will always be technological advancement. However, the rate of it, may be unpredictable.
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