Ask HN: Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade?

I still have the same DSL upload speed I did a decade ago. So at least that's status quo. I've been trying to think of something that humanity has done, besides come up with new ways to sell advertising. Any important diseases cured? Any increases in privacy, civil rights, human rights, intolerance?

Anything?

The movie Idiocracy explains it all.

Part of the problem is that there are too many lock-in and obfuscation mechanisms in place: monopolies, patents (ironically created to "help" innovation), and legal nonsense making everything 1000% more complex than it often needs to be. How many people have jobs whose sole purpose is to sift through this crap: be it insurance forms, etc.? The argument is always, "well at least they have jobs"; when the reality is that it's not a good sign for society to have so many people with jobs that are not directly adding value.

Part of the problem is the end of the Cold War. When the U.S. was interested in "beating" the Soviet Union to space travel, etc. there were lots of things going on. Now, perhaps China and India will step up to compete in this way and drive future developments. If there aren't superpowers, things slow down.

Part of it is that some people just don't care where we are, versus where we could be. As crappy as life can be, the average quality of life still seems to be higher than at any point in the past. It seems that the majority of people stop demanding something better, once they are basically comfortable. (There are exceptions to that, of course.)

These things all have side effects, such as fewer jobs, less chance of receiving a good education, etc., so that after awhile, a small problem becomes a big one.

In terms of medical advances, there may not have been any major blockbuster disease cures found, but there were several very important advances & innovations. I'll crib from ABC News and call out a few that I think are impressive as a layperson: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Decade/genome-hormones-top-10-m...

- Heart disease numbers dropped considerably: so many heart-related diseases and emergencies that previously would be fatal or have many more severe consequences are now survivable and livable.

- Stem cell research: even with the lack of US/federal funding, stem cell research started to bear fruit, and looks to only grow from here.

- Improved cancer survival rates for many types of cancers: Huge. We're a long way away from a real cure, but survival rates have never been higher.

- Incredible advances in arthroscopic & noninvasive/outpatient surgery & procedures: In 2004-ish I blew out the "terrible triad" of knee ligaments; my surgery scars are just little dots. My brother had similar surgery just about 6-8 years prior to that, and he bears the ugly long scar over his kneecap.

That's just gleaned from one decade-end retrospective article, and is just focused on medical advances.

But also, stop and think back to the internet in 2000 versus where we are now. There's been a hell of a lot of innovation there, as well; think of all of the things that are now possible or even commonplace to do online that were merely a gleam in our minds a decade ago...

If anything, just thinking about the pieces and foundations that were put in place throughout the 00s excites me for the possibilities of this next decade even more. It should be a very exciting time.

Access to knowledge through things like open courseware and one laptop per child. These movements are in their infancy now as they get bigger the 00's will be known the decade they were born.

Mobile phones (and the related communications) have gone from first world luxury to being more common than clean fresh water in many third world countries.