I read some where that humans tend to make new scientific breakthroughs every century or so, kind of like the tides i guess but instead of the level of water rising and falling it is more like the creative process rising and falling.
2006-12-12 00:37:38 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Alternative ➔ Other - Alternative
No, its been more or less progressive and more or less getting faster and faster. There are more scientists practicing today than in all of history put together.
The only pauses have been for bouts of religious intolerance (sadly common), the best known being the dark ages, caused by christianity.
2006-12-12 01:45:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
No, this is definitely not true.
If you consider the period from the end of the Roman Empire (say about 300 - 400 AD or somewhere in there) then there was a period following for about 1000 years when Western Europe was pretty short of technology advances -- the only notable advance was the windmill. But of course, in the Islamic world they were in fact making some advances... as in, math, chemistry, history, the technology of information management (they invented the library as we know it)... then after the invention of science in the 1600s with Galileo, Robert Hooke, Newton, Robert Boyle, Van Helmont, etc Europe took over the technological lead and since then technology has been advancing quite rapidly and without any noticeable pauses. From 1750 on there is no decade when there wasnt a major technological advance. And since the late 1800s there has not been a single year in which some important technology has not advanced -- make a timeline and put on it modern clocks, maps with accurate longitude, the first microcopes, the first telescopes. the flush toilet, the first theory of the atom, the law of conservation of matter, the periodic table, the discovery of induction, the Faraday effect, the Newcomen engine, the Watts engine, the corliss engine, the Stephenson 'Rocket', the Congreve rocket, anaesthesia, modern currency, the stock ticker (Thomas Edison's first big invention) , the phonograph, cinema, digital phtography, animation, magnetic information recording, etc etc etc etc --- there is not one single year when there was not a major step forward.. And in recent decades, the whole process accelerating -- there was no year in any living person's life when we did not make multiple major advances...
So, that supposition (it is far too weak an idea to call it a theory) is just bogus, dude.
2006-12-12 10:51:33 · answer #2 · answered by matt 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Some people view the history of science as occasional, fairly rapid "paradigm shifts" (scientific revolutions) separated by longer periods of more gradual "normal science".
It might take many years of normal science to fill in the details, before the next "breakthrough". But, a lot happens between scientific revolutions. In particular, that's when the current theories are applied.
So, rather than the water level rising and falling, maybe the water is sloshing back and forth between paradigm shift and normal science, or between theory and application?
2006-12-12 05:22:53 · answer #3 · answered by btsmith_y 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It goes in cycles, until some catastrophe happens and technology is lost to ignorance. We have seen evidence of batteries and light bulbs in ancient Egyptian ruins. Tremendous amounts of medical knowledge existed prior to the dark ages. However, all of this was destroyed by the spreading Catholic church. Anyway, if you look at the population today, everyone uses and appreciates the high tech stuff, but only a VERY small population has any clue how it works. The grand majority of the population is ignorant of most of the basics of electricity, physics, history, biology, you name it. We stand to take a huge step backwards at any time. Rome was the greatest civilization ever developed, and it fell fast. Don't think it could not happen.
2006-12-12 09:48:15 · answer #4 · answered by Boatman 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If your mind could concieve knowledge and know the difference in technology, I would give you a bravo. But don't worry, most people can't. We are merely re-learning things in ways but in actuality history is only repeating itself again. There was an era in time (with all the book burning and assualts going on) that completely stopped our progression in science and halted the learning of great things on the brink. It has took many years for the people to re-learn things forgotten and to catch up again, so that we can finally continue to pursue the greater aspects of our human knowledge and the progression of our great minds.
2006-12-13 11:19:55 · answer #5 · answered by LADY ~ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you think about it,mankind is never on the falling side as you put it in the technology department. In fact the more we learn.....the faster we learn. Kind of like we ten fold or exponentially leap as we learn more. I think there has been more innovations and inventions in the past 100 years than there has been in all the time man has been on this earth.
2006-12-12 00:50:56 · answer #6 · answered by dewhatulike 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
coincidences and/or selective memory
like when 38 bad things happen to you each day the whole week
and friday just so happens to be Friday the 13th
you'll say "man...this Friday the 13th prooves that it's always a bad day"
2006-12-12 03:49:12 · answer #7 · answered by retired 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you just need to look into the history of mankind.
2006-12-17 03:09:40 · answer #8 · answered by Some Science Author 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, for example people discovered the gun, but it took a few more centuries before they found the conical bullet, rifling, the catridge, and better gunpowder
2006-12-12 00:48:16 · answer #9 · answered by Pastvarient 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not every century, it's every day.
2006-12-12 05:56:20 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋