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Tech Progress Is Slowing Down

wsj.com

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Re: Tech Progress Is Slowing Down

#4

Seems like a weirdly timed article given the new S curve is about to start with ML finding numerous real world applications.

If anything, I take articles like this in mainstream media as a canary in the coalmine that something big is about to happen.

Can you elaborate what you mean?

Re: Tech Progress Is Slowing Down

#5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, I take articles like this in mainstream media as a canary in the coalmine that something big is about to happen.

Can you elaborate what you mean?

Not the GP, but this is how one can view it:

When the leaps in progress are so large that the general public does not understand that they have happened, or see them somehow as lateral moves rather than forward moves, a lot has happened in a short span of time.

Re: Tech Progress Is Slowing Down

#10

Seems like a weirdly timed article given the new S curve is about to start with ML finding numerous real world applications.

It’s a promotional piece because Smil has (yet another) new book coming out.

I’ve seen it (thanks Z-Library) and am distinctly underwhelmed. It’s about tech hype and failure but says nothing new and even the rehashes are poorly done, judging from the areas I personally know best.

Vaclav Smil started off as a knowledgeable commentator on sci-tech (his fertilizer book is especially nice) but has devolved to basically a brand, with the work (such as it is) done by an army of grad assistants. Very surface stuff beloved by the likes of Bill Gates who confuse surface with depth.

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