Thread: Do you believe technological advancement is being halted by various powers that be?

I always thought we should be far more advanced than we are now. Cars running on water/oxygen, wireless electricity transfer etc.

But of course, the problem with these inventions is it hurts the oil companies and, they probably won't think of a way to charge wireless electricity any time soon.



So do you think/have evidence that powerful individuals stop any scientist that makes a breakthrough in an area that would harm his business, but would be of great significance to humanity?

Oil companys and the like do have the world by the balls. If you haven't seen it yet "who killed the electric car" Is a great example of corporate abuse. I hear about people making breakthroughs and being silenced but most seem to lack fact and seem real short. Maybe that's how big bro wants it?

when Japan came out with HD TV, the us government banned the sale of any HD TV's in the us for 4 years, so we could catch up. True story

Originally Posted by dante92

I always thought we should be far more advanced than we are now. Cars running on water/oxygen, wireless electricity transfer etc.

But of course, the problem with these inventions is it hurts the oil companies and, they probably won't think of a way to charge wireless electricity any time soon.

So do you think/have evidence that powerful individuals stop any scientist that makes a breakthrough in an area that would harm his business, but would be of great significance to humanity?

I think they may try to, but any invention that's important enough will get out eventually anyway.
It does slow everything, though.

psh oil and gas companies arent omnipotent. there are full electric cars now and im sure if there was some way to use corn or water as fuel it would be public =p

conspiracy theoriezz!!!

also we do kind of have wireless electricity (inductive charging)

wtb cure for cancer/aids

Originally Posted by dante92

I always thought we should be far more advanced than we are now. Cars running on water/oxygen, wireless electricity transfer etc.

But of course, the problem with these inventions is it hurts the oil companies and, they probably won't think of a way to charge wireless electricity any time soon.

So do you think/have evidence that powerful individuals stop any scientist that makes a breakthrough in an area that would harm his business, but would be of great significance to humanity?

If you could create a magnetic flux large enough to induce a current at a significant distance, wouldn't it also be strong enough to kill people in the middle? (Not to mention fry all the unshielded circuits in between.)

If you use electrolysis to break down water into its constituent parts you'd need a voltage source; presumably that voltage source would have to be charged using your power mains, which, therefore puts even more pressure on power plants.

Conclusion:
In those specific cases its more technological difficulty. However, in regard to your question, yes probably, although more so meddling governments than anything else. For example, getting involved with bandwidth allocation: giving analog TV a large section of ideal bandwidth frequencies that could be used for mobile broadband, meanwhile on air viewing is decreasing yearly and mobile broadband usage is going through the roof.
Governmental obstruction isn't limited to science and technology, their protectionist policies often have the same effect in the economy.

Its pure speculation that oil companies etc have held back growth, but its fact that some specific policies have done alot of harm.

its obvious they they are, otherwise every factory in the world would consist of robots

Originally Posted by dante92

I always thought we should be far more advanced than we are now. Cars running on water/oxygen, wireless electricity transfer etc.

I think I did see an ad, few years ago, about converting cars to use water. I don't know if it's real or not.

I know that at least drug companies hold off on advancements until the patents on their old drugs run out. They love to make money.