TFenrir t1_is5nno3 wrote on October 13, 2022 at 2:09 PM

Reply to comment by CleaverIam in Have we reached a technological plateau? by CleaverIam

So literally self-driving cars that you describe exist - level 4 autonomous vehicles that you can pay for, get in the back seat, with no driver and get taken places.

To the rest of your points, it's fundamentally illogical. A plateau implies an inability to continue to climb, but we can list hundreds of advancements that have happened. That you dismiss them does not mean that we have plateau'd.

Like, watching the advancements of Boston Dynamics robots shows a clear improvement. Watching, but the fact that you are even looking at humanoid robots to be out of the lab, ignores all the other actual practical advancements we've made in automation in warehouses and factories with robotics.

CleaverIam OP t1_isa2ahc wrote on October 14, 2022 at 12:13 PM

By plateau I don't mean an inability to make advancements. I mean advancements at a much lower rate them we got used to

TFenrir t1_isab99m wrote on October 14, 2022 at 1:27 PM

When did we get used to a faster pace? We have bio science literally creating new mechanisms that we are using now to cure genetic disease, and to create mrna treatments. That would have been science fiction a decade ago.

Boring material science improvements have allowed for rechargable batteries that are now not only in all our phones, and electric cars, but in a quickly growing industry of electric bikes or even vehicles that just didn't exist a decade ago. I see them every day.

We just created a replacement to the Hubble telescope, have internet slowly being made available via satellite everywhere, and knocked a meteor off track by shooting a rocket at it.

Our internet speeds and advancements in software and hardware allow for things like music and video streaming everywhere, where a decade ago we consumed all our content via disks or downloads. We have AR/VR rapidly making it into normal every day use society. We have smart homes where I literally shout to the ether to control my home or ask where my phone is.

I haven't even touched AI advancements since 2012. Or 2017. Both large milestones. We're now creating AI that I use every day at work, that people are making brand new kinds of applications with, that are generating text, code, and images - and we are on the cusp of AI that can control apps on your computer just by talking to it - don't believe me? Look into Adept and their action transformer.

I actually could go on and on. Almost every single company today has to be a tech company first. Why do you think that is, if tech advancements are slowing down?