this is the year 2007 already. shouldn't we have flying cars by now? shouldn't we have a different source of energy than oil? why haven't we figured out a more efficient way of producing energy than water turbines? why do computers evolve so slowly? i remember when the first 1GB harddrive came out. after they made that, why didn't they start working on the 1TB harddrive instead of going for the 2GB. why are we still using aircraft that was built over 30 years ago? we should have faster, bigger, more efficient aircraft by now. why are we continuing to build our homes out of wood when we've seen that wood homes can't withstand a hurricane. why don't our soldiers have laser guns by now? they should have figured out by now how to make a laser gun.
I can go on and on.
2007-03-13 22:36:40 · 5 answers · asked by brandon 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
really that answer to this is pure and simple. Money!
take your hard drive example with some easy (fake) numbers. when the 1gig hd came out to the larger populations they sold for 100 dollars. and the 512mb harddrives were 50 dollars or maybe 40 for an older one. a year goes by and the 1gig now is selling for 75 dollars, and the 512s are 30 dollars now. But they now came out with the 2gig. they can now probably sell these for 200 for the good ones. after a few months go by you can now find a decent 2gig for 125.
people are coming into the store buying all these for various sale totals ranging around 100 dollars. at this point in time, if a Terabyte came out do you think anyone would buy this if it cost 1024 x 75 = 76,800 for a hard drive? probably not. so if they made the TB at this point they would have to charge a reasonable amount like say 2,000 for it.
Compare the two options from a producer's PoV. make 2gb harddrives and sell them for 200 a pop, or make a terabyte harddrive and sell for 2000. i'd imagine that that's not even close to being a hard decision. the difference in the cost to make a 2gb vs a Tb is a huge amount.
then a year later, this Tb hds can be found for 500ea so who wants to buy those 2gbs anymore? they're done. now there would be no good reason at all to waste time and money making 4gb, 8, 100, 200, 500gb harddrives.
by taking their time, they don't miss out on making money while the market is only expecting 100-500gigs these days.
However, you've got a good point.
2007-03-14 20:15:54 · answer #1 · answered by smokesha 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Not an Engineer are you? You sound like the person sitting on the side of a race track and complaining that the racer should be able to run faster.
By the way I remember when the first 1 megabyte Winchester hard drive came out. About the size of an end table and about 150 lbs. The reason they didn't make the 1 TB drive right after the 1 GB drive is because at the time a 1 GB drive was pushing the current technology to the limit. Oh by the way that was many many years before you saw the 1 GB drive, because like all of these things the first one cost a fortune and was only used in research labs.
And why do we still live in houses made of wood? You don't have to, but you will have to pay the price. Why do we still fly planes that are 30 years old? They still work, which is more then I can say for some of the new stuff.
2007-03-14 08:19:26 · answer #2 · answered by Bulk O 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Technological advancements are been extrodinarily fast and are growing exponentially. My first computer had a 40 MB hard drive about eight years later i got a computer with a 2 GB about 8 years after that i got a 120GB WOW! computer ram used to increase by KBs not MB much less doubling on a regular basis. Developments have to occur in steps. you can frame your house with a metal frame but it is EXTREMELY expensive. It took decades to aircraft to reach the speed of sound now we can go over 3 times that fast. Harrier jets can take off vertical..what an novel development. Some of what may hold us back more may be that we are creatures of convention. We dont want to make radical changes, society wont except it. If we went from wearing 1920s clothes to wearing 2007 clothing in one year im guessing no one would buy any clothes. Laser guns especially at this point would be cost prohibited and would require very expensive maintanance and would be very fragile. It would be very hard to drive out oil anytime soon, we make way too much money exploiting it. We are expanding out technology by leaps and bounds. Think how far we have come 100 years.
2007-03-14 06:22:19 · answer #3 · answered by beano007 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answers to most of your questions are simple. Political. Alternative fuels have been created. ie gasahol, gasoline made from corrn cobs, the only place I ever saw it sold was in the mid west, why not every where? The big oil companies like those billion dollar profits quarterly. Hydrogen fuel cells are possible and safe, but the public is misinformed. Hybrid cars wonderful but the proces are so high the average person can't afford them.
Its all the same.
2007-03-14 09:24:11 · answer #4 · answered by desertlady 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a capitalistic soceity whats more important then technological growth is PROFIT...
2007-03-14 05:53:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋