I was watching Aliens the other day and I had a thought: will technical advances ever hit an asymptote?
Here's my thinking. Ripley was drifting in hypersleep (or whatever they call it) for 57 years. Did technology advance during those years? She started in a pretty high-tech society. Would there be a noticeable change after 57 years? Does technology eventually hit an asymptote and only advance at a snail's pace?
Fifty-seven years ago for us was 1967. There was no internet. Not even ARPANET (the precursor to the internet) existed yet. A big television was 27 inches and used a cathode ray tube. Now you can buy televisions that are over 80 inches and are flat and use LEDs. The computer you have in your pocket (smart phone) would probably take up a whole room in 1967. The thought of a "personal computer" was laughable. The thought you would have it in your pocket was inconceivable.
And the science we have learned since 1967 is amazing. I couldn't hope to list it all here.
What do you think? Could science and technology ever come to a crawl because there isn't anything else to discover or invent? Let me know in the comments below.
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