Stagnation?

More money than ever before is being spent on research. We have more resources to work with to due to better computing speeds and techniques. Yet why is it that the majority of new products coming out are just small improvements on past ideas? We see the fighting over HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray, both of which advertise better resolution, graphics, and data capacity, but not much else... Ever since the iPod made mp3 players popular, many companies have tried to duplicate that success with their own. Yet the iPod itself was not new, as mp3 players had been around for a while. Windows Vista has just come out, but for the most part, it has just improved on many of XP's functions. Of the newest games many are rehashes. So are the game systems. Many of the big companies are fine with just beating the dead horse.


However, there is still ground being made. Quantum Computing is making its debut. Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more prominent (see previous post). Nanotechnology research is definitely progress. The wii shows some originality.


The question is whether our generation is for actual progress, or will the stagnation over come us? Join me in taking a brief outlook at different fields (coming soon).