[MHGinTN]

Well Pilgrim, my minivan has a forty gb computer in it. My vehicle has more computing power than the original Moon missions.

[Rockingham]

The computer in your minivan is a manifestation of highly predictable progress in shrinking transistors. Many domestic appliances also now have computers more advanced than the Apollo spacecraft, with smartphones putting far more substantial computer power in the hands of much of the world's population.

Where though are the much hyped advances like supersonic civilian air travel, the routine cure of cancer, stem cells reversing spinal injuries, age erasing nanobots, room temperature superconductors, flying cars, cheap fusion power, and so on? I do not argue that such things are impossible, only that the hype of inventors, promoters, and reporters ought to be taken with much caution.

Commonly, it takes several decades for major scientific and technical advances to be developed and put into wide use. Moreover, many such advances of seeming great merit fall by the wayside due to practical or economical limitations or the development of better competing technologies.

Moreover, the constant hype of supposed scientific and technological progress leads to a sort of scientific millenarianism that can be made to project either utopia or doomsday. Again, public skepticism about claimed scientific and technical advances seems in order as an essential corrective.