Friday, May 13, 2016

Innovation Is What Powers Advancement

Occasionally (more than occasionally) I'll read articles about how just about just everything has been invented and advancement has pretty much stopped. I always roll my eyes, which I do a lot.

People have been saying this for a long time, and they are always wrong.

Perhaps it's all that science fiction I read in my early teens. When you're suspectible to it (and I was) it stretches your brain and it never goes back to normal.

I keep up with science and technology and it's why I know that the supply of energy is going up and prices are dropping. Prices are going to keep dropping, too. One of the reasons is the advancements in nuclear reactors, which are getting smaller, safer and more powerful. Now they're coming up with stuff I've never heard of before. Molten salt reactors?

If nuclear reactors weren't safe (except for the idiot Russians and Japanese) we wouldn't have nuclear-powered subs.

I wouldn't be surprised if someday some sort of Stargate wasn't invented. And that would be cool, just about as cool if some sort of warp drive was invented.

Only time will tell.

The pessimists are always wrong. I can remember when Paul Ehrlich, who has never been right, was claiming the world was going to starve to death. Now we have more food than we know what to do with, and it's been given away at food panties. Food is easy to find.

Global warming! The ice caps melting! Bee genocide! It's all crap.

Innovation is never is never going to stop.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...


A lot of innovation may be fraudulent (e.g., nuclear power may actually be a fraud):

http://www.big-lies.org

highfly said...

lol anonymous that site makes my eyes bleed.

kurt9 said...

Much of the alt-right/neo-reaction scene is decidedly luddite in its attitude towards technological innovation. I do not understand why this is. Technology empowers the small relative to the large, especially when the 3-D printing and bio-engineering revolutions hit full force. The alt-right guys, being somewhat of a minority, ought to understand and identify with this dynamic as it is essential for the future of their objectives. For some reason many of them do not.

I also have to tell you that I've changed my mind about Voxday. After reading his recent post glorifying war and denigrating peace and prosperity, I have decided that he is both a charlatan and a sociopath. I don't care about his past accomplishments. I consider this recent posting to be the ranting and raving of someone who is sick in the head. I no longer have any respect for him or any of his positions.

I think he needs to visit some VA hospitals and listen to combat vets tell their stories. However, this is unlikely since he lives in Italy and any war vets still alive are now in their 90's.

Unknown said...

I am of the alt right and very much for science and technology. And I've been saying for years there is something wrong with Vox Day, Roissy and Roosh.

Anonymous said...

"Much of the alt-right/neo-reaction scene is decidedly luddite in its attitude towards technological innovation."

I can understand, given the new surviellance and datamining technology and the sorts. But such people are more focused on problems than solutions. Which always leads to unhealthy paranoia.

sth_txs said...



https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/disruptive-new-paradigms-in-space-launch-and-nuclear-power/


https://neutronbytes.com/2016/04/27/new-paradigms-emerge-for-innovation-and-investment-in-advanced-nuclear-energy-reactor-designs/

kurt9 said...

I have concluded that Vox Day and his blog followers are nothing more than chicken-hawks, and have said so on his blog.

AAB said...

Bob said...

Food is easy to find.


Tell me about it. I just picked up half a dozen loaves from Tesco that were reduced to 1p. And enough 1p bagels to keep New York happy for a month!

Collectively speaking we're producing so much food that loads of it is either rotting in consumers larders, or being thrown into landfill, or incinerated. If that ain't proof of our progress in farming and food science then tell me what is. Food is so cheap that plebs rarely suffer from food insecurity like they did in pre-industrial times; and it's all quality food as well. No more scurvy or ricketts in these parts.

Anonymous said...

"just everything has been invented and advancement has pretty much stopped"

Or, as Lord Kelvin put it: "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and more precise measurement."

A bare few years later, a fellow named Mr Planck published some interesting papers on the nature of light.

J.M. said...

Much of the alt-right/neo-reaction scene is decidedly luddite in its attitude towards technological innovation. I do not understand why this is. Technology empowers the small relative to the large, especially when the 3-D printing and bio-engineering revolutions hit full force. The alt-right guys, being somewhat of a minority, ought to understand and identify with this dynamic as it is essential for the future of their objectives. For some reason many of them do not.

I agree with you on the madness of Vox advocacy for war, however war is coming whether we want it or not. BTW your characterization of alt right is as full of wholes as Swiss cheese, but with more strawmen. Many in the movement and outside of it recognize the value of technology like 3d printing, drone technology and others (bio-engineering will kill billions before it becomes useful, the ways of destroying things with these technology are far easier to come by than the ways of creating something useful and healthy, and no, the GMO crap Americans consume is not an example of success).

However most technology developed today and touted as the next best thing in big forums, magazines and media is to control. Nothing that can take us to realm like space is advertised or even encouraged by the Governments. Example:

Self-driving cars: Perfect way to destroy freedom of movement and privacy in one blow. For a few km/h more, anyone from Joe the bureaucrat to Jenny in Marketing for some business will know where am I and more importantly, can take control of my next destination at will...
VR: Perfect way to destroy rebellious and "troublesome" spirit and individuals putting them to sleep and take away any incentive of self-improment in the real world with distractions. As is developed today and touted, almost no usefulness.
Bio-engineering: Crops that are sterile, produce their own pesticide and whose effects on human physiology are for the most part unknown and the few ones that are known are not encouraging (one reason why thinking elites don't eat that crap but want to force feed you with it).
Social Media: While useful at times, it's wild success...if you wanted to create a self-updating database of everyone and brainwash vulnerable people at the time you destroy the sexual market for most men inflating the egos of the princesses. Sorry Bob but experts worst expectations were surpassed...

I could continue but I think you get my drift. Sorry Kurt but is unlikely we'll leave this planet at least in the 21st century, unless a massive upheaval that doesn't destroy the current technology and knowledge happens. Current governments and elites are interested in control and the last thing they need is "trouble-makers" beyond their reach and jurisdiction, whose labor is untaxable. Besides inventions like electromagnetic shields or something similar to protect the ships and stations in their journey will be necessary if humans will ever live in space, not visit it...