Zeev, these are all not facts, but fantasies, taken perhaps from popular magazines, like Time, where ignorant journalists write up something they have no idea about with as little effort as possible.
(i) it is extremely well known that interatomic distances are 1 to 2 Angstrem, not 5 A. Si or not Si does not matter much in this regard. It is also extremly well known that they are irrelevant to ultimate transistor size, as other effects make it impossible to scale current technology below several hundreds of interatomic distances.
(ii) IBM is not working on interatomic hopping, as such thing does not exist in nature.
(iii) The world could not reduce defence expenduteres by $1,000B as that was sum total of all such expenduteres, and since now they are not exactly zero, the change was less than total. US reduced defence expenduteres by some 20%.
(iv) It is definetly not a fact that reducing defence expenduteres must, no matter what, from general considerations, improve "general wealth".
(v) Motion of China is NOT a fact, and that whatever Marx wrote is correct is NOT a fact.
(vi) Former SU GDP is way less than it was ten years ago, the country is falling apart.
You can see any fantasies you want, but to call them "fact" is self-delusion. And to sell them to others as "facts" is irresponcible.
And the point is not if there is scientific and technological progress, there is always, because it is cumulative. Technology, howevere, does not garanty economic progress, much less political progress. And, as everybody should know, US Steel peaked out in 1956, and GM peaked out in 1967, and IBM peaked out in 1973 - and it does not mean there is less steel, or cars, or computers produced, or that they are worse.
Joe |
