Thanks for doing this Jason. I agree with your response here. Seems natural to think that there are diminishing marginal returns to ideas within a sector.
You mention APM, which would spur progress in other sectors. Are there ways to identify which sectors open up progress in other domains, i.e. identifying the ideas that could remove the constraining factors of progress (small and big)?
I think basically you have to look at where an innovation sits in the tech tree.
Energy technologies tend to be fundamental enablers of other sectors. J. Storrs Hall makes a good case for the need to increase per-capita energy usage, which he calls the Henry Adams Curve: https://rootsofprogress.org/where-is-my-flying-car
But also, a fundamentally new way to do manufacturing, transportation, communication, or information processing would enable a lot of downstream progress.
Thanks for doing this Jason. I agree with your response here. Seems natural to think that there are diminishing marginal returns to ideas within a sector.
You mention APM, which would spur progress in other sectors. Are there ways to identify which sectors open up progress in other domains, i.e. identifying the ideas that could remove the constraining factors of progress (small and big)?
I think basically you have to look at where an innovation sits in the tech tree.
Energy technologies tend to be fundamental enablers of other sectors. J. Storrs Hall makes a good case for the need to increase per-capita energy usage, which he calls the Henry Adams Curve: https://rootsofprogress.org/where-is-my-flying-car
But also, a fundamentally new way to do manufacturing, transportation, communication, or information processing would enable a lot of downstream progress.