A challenging example is that there probably is some benefit from having invented nuclear power....I was thinking that one possible positive polar opposite of GM plant gene manipulation might be the knowledge of genetic problems in a natural plant being made clear without changing the plant,But instead NOT planting this particular species so as to avoid its genetic problems.But this doesn't appear to have the same weight in my eyes as Genetic manipulation,So ill have to carry on thinking about that one unless someone else can rescue me from this genetic quagmire.
Another massive invention? that will have enormous consequences for humankind in the near future is the consequences of the mapping of the human genome project.So far it appears to be revealing many of humanities genetic faults which result in people being born with body faults and diseases.As with GM i think the most obvious positive is again to be aware of the genetic problem,But the positive is imo again not to manipulate the genes but instead as an example,A couple that is aware that if through the avoidance of blending of their 2 gene pools that they therefore avoided having children with genetic problems.I personally dont think manipulating the genes in either person in any way is a positive.There is also the insurance company problem that comes with this knowledge.It is most likely that an insurance company having knowledge of our faulty genes would abuse this information and make the person pay a much higher insurance premium.
Despite all these types of problems with knowledge of genes i still believe that with each advancement in our knowledge we will find that every invention has a positive and negative of equal value,Its just not easy to see and is also very dependent on the level of self knowledge of humanity being able to use this info in a positive way.Unfortunately with the present low level of self knowledge of humanity many of these inventions usually develop through the most negative channels first as in the military developing the invention initially before the technology falls into the public's hands.As another example i suspect that drone technology could be very positively beneficial for such things as search and rescue which would mean that no other peoples lives would be endangered in rescue operations.
Anyway i think i will stop there before i put my foot in my mouth if i haven't already,lol as so many of these subjects border onto eugenics....
Hi ptolomy - apparently the current problem with electric bikes and cars is that manufacture of the battery/batteries creates pollution....Hi JUPITERASC
This one certainly will take off,In fact it already has as Electric batteries have now reached a stage where they can power an electric bike for a considerable time.I think an average charge will easily do 40 to 50 miles per charge averaging 30mph,which makes electric bicycles easily suitable for commuting to work and other average journeys http://www.stealthelectricbikes.com.au/.I think once electric bike prices become more reasonable then they will become very popular.Round my way you don't see them at all yet,Albeit the model i have just linked is a bit expensive.
The brief list of list of inventions appears to stop at 1990. If we're following the Uranus cycle, that's during the Capricorn transit, the structures of society. Why were inventions during the Aquarius transit so dull? I'm warmed to see big thinkers bring up this point, 'social web 2.0' a.k.a. Facebook, Spotify, Twitter etc. are not inventions on the same scale of revolution or as evident contributions to humans as the list at the top.
They are not dull, you just can't see them. Here are some interesting ones:
- Deep Belief Networks, about 2008. Their full potential has not yet blossomed, and to understand it's impact, you have to have enough understanding of how DBN works.
- Magnetic light "batteries", about 2010. That's a huge one, or will be.
- Bitcoins, 2008. This one is also huge, not because how it can replace conventional currency, but in what it can do that conventional currency cannot. It's only now, with the Uranus Square Pluto series that we'll start to see it come into play big time.
- Smartphone 2007. Though people might have argued that "smartphones" is not a real invention, that it had already existed, 2007 - 2008. The main thing is that for a the first time, a LARGE number of people carry a personal computer in their pocket. That's a huge shift in consciousness and the way people interact with the computing world.
- Cloud Computing, 2005 (specifically, the Xen Hypervisor and paravirtualization). That one had a huge impact, again, mostly invisible.
- Internet Browser, 1993. The internet wasn't invented in 1990, that was the ARPA project in the late 1970s (Pluto in Libra), along with intermodal containers (which had a huge impact on globalization)
- Complexity Theory, around 1990, thought it had been bubbling up since the late 1970s. It's from here you peer-to-peer, cloud, social networks, etc.
- Personal 3D Printers, maybe 2008, but they didn't really start tipping until 2012. This one is also huge. Where 3D printers are at now is where personal computers were at in 1980, and where the internet was in the mid-1990s. I guess those economists and philosophers have a big blind spot
- Working quantum computing processor, 2012. Probably the biggest one of them all. It's not just another computer.
Those big thinkers you are talking about forgot another big thinker of the 20th century: Buckminster Fuller. He talked about the ephemeralization of technology, that is, technology tends to get smaller and smaller until it becomes invisible. Once it becomes invisible to the mainstream, it evolves faster.
You gotta dig a little deeper.
They are not dull, you just can't see them. Here are some interesting ones:
-...
You gotta dig a little deeper.
The premise is important, it is not that progress in many areas isn't being made, but that the world-changing (immediate change, not prospective change) that ripped through the world at the onset of past inventions hasn't happened, as many people set as their reference point - since 1990, with the World Wide Web. You could list 5,000 signs of progress, but that would still miss the point.
'….The soldier's helmet of the near future may contain something more than extra protection from flying shrapnel......any one remember about 4 or 5 years ago of talk about devices that could make military vehicles invisible to the naked eye?
Strange how so many new ideas appear through military design 1st.In my opinion its to do with more money being put into designing for the military.
I guess this device could be put to more important useful purpose for humanity in rescues where it was too dangerous for people to venture.Ie collapsed mines?
Good that you are home now ptolomySorry i didnt reply earlier, I've been in hospital almost a week.
Perhaps. Although may I add - JMO not necessarily?Yes JUPITERASC,As usual,the army gets the development of the new idea,
It reminds me of a few more that are very apparent at the moment.The drone appears to be developing very fast,Not just the flying types.But ive been told that tethered Ground based drone soldiers are likely to become more advanced in the USA in the very near future,I've not confirmed this from my own research yet but it wouldn't surprise me.The same source told me that the autonomous untethered ground drone/soldier was not far behind in development.
I guess this device could be put to more important useful purpose for humanity in rescues where it was too dangerous for people to venture.Ie collapsed mines?
Its a shame mankind's development of new ideas is not more initially more positive.
But i suppose starting with the military needs is better than not developing the idea at all.