Re: Are things really getting too complicated?

[Jed Rothwell]

I wrote:

When a society feels a strong need for a tool, and the tool is technically 
within its grasp (meaning it does not require any fundamental new 
discovery), development becomes inevitable.

That does not mean we always invent things when we need them. Necessity 
alone is insufficient. We must also "feel a strong need." We have to agree 
as a society that the problem exists and it should be solved.

I think the US desperately needs better automobiles and a replacement for 
oil. But unfortunately, the Congress and most citizens do not agree, and 
they do not feel any need to address these problems. Good solutions have 
already been invented, such as hybrid and diesel engines. But we are 
ignoring these innovations. We may go on ignoring them until we are 
destroyed by pollution or terrorism financed from oil profits.

Sometimes, societies feel a strong need to invent things that serve no 
purpose, such as the ancient Egyptian pyramids or the Space Shuttle.

- Jed