Breakthroughs in Last 20 years?

Atomic

Atomic

Atomic

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27 Jan 2005
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Has there been any unique breakthroughs, progress or achievements in the last 20 years that are unique. I.e, not the internet or GPS as their roots go beyond that timeline?

I'm trying to think of things, but can't.
 
It's a bit challenging as almost everything has a timeline that goes back further than 20 years. Ruling out all internet based inovation is to forceably overlook much of the key inovation of the last 2 decades.
 
Atomic said:
Has there been any unique breakthroughs, progress or achievements in the last 20 years that are unique. I.e, not the internet or GPS as their roots go beyond that timeline?

I'm trying to think of things, but can't.
Click to expand...

I think, depending on how far you're willing to stretch things, that all technology pretty much comes down to this. Think about a PC - where are its terminal roots? The Spectrum? that old BBC home computer from way back when? The difference engine? All of these thingsare evolutions of technologies that came before them, not a completely original concept. Can you name any such development, from any time in the last thousand years?
 
Targetted molecular disease modulation.
Gene therapy.

Sure we knew about genes earlier, but we didnt treat genetic disease.

Surprised no one has weaponised it, can't believe all govts stick to the rules on biological warfare, suppose their was HIV ( tinfoil hat time ) but it is not quite the same.
 
HIV-b vaccine at 90% succse rate, now going into 2nd human trial,
And a he'll of a lot of other medical stuff.

Magnetic, light and other wave length invisibility

Translucent concrete, but maybe not in your criteria as it's based on normal concrete.



It's hard because all new inventions are based on or use older technology. So strictly speaking there probley isn't any, anywhere in time. Even gps is based on older principles and those principles are based on older things, so on and so forth.
 
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Atomic said:
Has there been any unique breakthroughs, progress or achievements in the last 20 years that are unique. I.e, not the internet or GPS as their roots go beyond that timeline?

I'm trying to think of things, but can't.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all new discoveries are based on previous work - even if they are a big deal (like gene therapy or the WWW) most are based on existing knowledge (Newton's "Standing on the shoulders of giants" and all that).

In terms of eureka moments that have come out of nowhere - I can't think of any, but tbh often these things take much more than 20 years to be fully appreciated and understood. Perhaps someone has just cracked FTL travel last week, but it will take 60 years for it to be believed, understood and implemented.
 
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