[lbo-talk] Entering a dark age of innovation

[Autoplectic]

On 7/3/05, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Sujeet Bhatt wrote:
> 
> >But according to a new analysis, this view couldn't be more wrong: far
> >from being in technological nirvana, we are fast approaching a new
> >dark age. That, at least, is the conclusion of Jonathan Huebner, a
> >physicist working at the Pentagon's Naval Air Warfare Center in China
> >Lake, California. He says the rate of technological innovation reached
> >a peak a century ago and has been declining ever since. And like the
> >lookout on the Titanic who spotted the fateful iceberg, Huebner sees
> >the end of innovation looming dead ahead. His study will be published
> >in Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
> >
> Very, very interesting. I strongly suspect that there is a strong
> correlation between the fall in the rate of innovation and the
> deskilling of labor /"rationalization" of work. Wish I had the skills to
> do the research to find out if that's true.
> 
> Joanna

-----------------------

Here's a review/critique of Heubner's piece. 

Is it that there's been a fall in the rate of innovation or a massive
rise in population?

And let's not forget the US military doesn't get as much cash to do
scientific research as it used to, so there could be other motivating
factors leading Heubner to massage the data.

The low-hanging science/technological fruit has been plucked but that
doesn't mean we've reached a technological barrier yet; it might mean
we need different forms of knowledge production/collaboration that are
fettered under contemporary capitalism. Lord knows there's plenty of
stuff we need to invent in order to avert wrecking the planet
completely.

Deep space travel by humans ain't in the picture due to human
physiology, check the archives for an article I posted on the issue a
few years ago.

<http://accelerating.org/articles/huebnerinnovation.html>

Ian