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Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

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Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#11

Post by grif-fin »

I guess it would be correct to say: Many reasons and very hard for me with my knowledge to judge which ones had the most effect. But since it is an interesting question I will throw a guess at it.

I think reading through the history we may owe a lot to WWII. One of the cruelest thing ever happened to humans may have redirected their global way of living together. As soon as the competition got redirected a bit towards tools which required more investment in science many miracles like medical, space and communication advancement happened.

One of my favorite yet most saddest quotes which may relate to above would be when Neil deGrasse Tyson said that (not exact word order): "Unfortunately no discoveries have ever been made for the sake of science all have been driven from war or other secondary factors.".

So to sum up, we have been going into the loop of advancement & war destruction for many centuries. I guess in last 100 (or 75) years we did it less, so the 'secret' is there.

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#12

Post by joeclark77 »

ForFreedom wrote: post #8
babyrainbow wrote: post #4

What are these advancement that you see that made you ask this question?

If you go back 100 years and fast forward to today, this period is where humans have advanced most than all of the 5000 years

I think you're evading babyrainbow's question. Many new technologies have been developed, true. But we've also spent the last century conducting experiments in communism and genocide. So on the whole, are we (and I'm including the whole human race in "we") better off in all respects or only in some?

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#14

Post by brianwawok »

Jaruzel wrote: post #5
flukus wrote: post #2

There's more of us. Specifically, there's more of us contributing to human advancement than ever before. "Luxuries" like literacy are a pretty new advancement.

Seconded. In 1900 there were 1.2 billion people on the planet, and it took over 100,000 years to get to that number. In only 116 years we've added another 6 billion to that total. :( ...and people say we're not-overpopulating the planet...

I had a bowl with 1 cracker in it for 3 weeks. Over the last 24 hours it now has 7 crackers. And people say my cracker bowl is not overpopulated...

Look. Raw numbers mean nothing. What is the sustainable population of this planet. 1 billion? 10 billion? 100 billion?

I have no idea. As tech improves, our impact per person could be lower. So perhaps the limit today is 5 billion... But in 20 years it could be 20 billion.

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#15

Post by brianwawok »

joeclark77 wrote: post #12
ForFreedom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go back 100 years and fast forward to today, this period is where humans have advanced most than all of the 5000 years

I think you're evading babyrainbow's question. Many new technologies have been developed, true. But we've also spent the last century conducting experiments in communism and genocide. So on the whole, are we (and I'm including the whole human race in "we") better off in all respects or only in some?

You don't think genocide happened before ww2? Genocide is very old

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#17

Post by kpil »

Literacy and education, starting to be seen as useful for all classes in the 19th century, following a long period of scientific progress among the higher classes during the 17th and 18th century.

Cheap manufacturing of more or less everything, including high quality food, newspapers and books.

More people, although there are many countries with a lot of people and no scientific advance, so you also need the above.

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#18

Post by pitaj »

Jaruzel wrote: post #5
flukus wrote: post #2

There's more of us. Specifically, there's more of us contributing to human advancement than ever before. "Luxuries" like literacy are a pretty new advancement.

Seconded. In 1900 there were 1.2 billion people on the planet, and it took over 100,000 years to get to that number. In only 116 years we've added another 6 billion to that total. :( ...and people say we're not-overpopulating the planet...

10 billion people could fit within the USA with a population density of less than New York City.

Re: Ask HN: How is that humans advanced so much in the past 100 yrs in all fields?

#20

Post by eicossa »

joeclark77 wrote: post #12
ForFreedom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go back 100 years and fast forward to today, this period is where humans have advanced most than all of the 5000 years

I think you're evading babyrainbow's question. Many new technologies have been developed, true. But we've also spent the last century conducting experiments in communism and genocide. So on the whole, are we (and I'm including the whole human race in "we") better off in all respects or only in some?

Look at the Old Testament for descriptions of too many genocides. . If graded on a curve, the 20th century comes out as a pretty nonviolent genocide-free century.
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