Technology

[starboyK]

In the near future, say 40 years, the technology that will truly shape the planet as well as the path that humanity will take will most likely be in the micro-world of nanotechnology. That will ultimately lead to advances in the macro-world that we see and experience, however, I believe humanity will experience a period in time soon after that will resemble the Dark Ages- only in the sense that technology cannot continue to increase as exponentially as it may seem today. The technology spike that in a short amount of time may seem to indicate a smooth parabolic curve will most probably be seen in subsequent ages as more of an explosion of ideas resulting from the discovery and fine tuning of glassworks (or so it seems to me i.e. telescopes, microscopes, reading glasses, et alia). Not to turn this into some sort of essay or argument though, I just believe that a certain plateau will be reached where advances will emerge, but not on the daily basis that most seem to see in the future. It may take a few hundred years to reach that plateau and the universe by that time may be much less of an enigma, but for technology to continue exponentially forever would be saying that the more we find out about the universe in which we live, the faster we will learn that there is always more to learn even faster. (Yes, I know that terminology is confusing but that is what a parabolic curve would indicate) While mathematical geniuses will continue to expound on the work of their predecessors, and technology will continue to be fine-tuned, I do not believe that "the sky is the limit" meaning only that one day, humans could reach the sky where climbing more, while possible would be irrelevant and would occur more on a ideological desire to know rather than a "need to know" basis. On the other hand, I could just be full of crap. Either way, my head hurts so I think I'll stop typing now.

p.s. I've read many posts, blogs, etc., but this is the first time I have ever posted myself.