Five Great Inventions of the nineteenth century have shaped our modern age: electrification, the internal combustion engine, chemistry, telecommunications, and indoor plumbing. All monumental achievements that led to surging economic growth in the 20th century. But each of these innovations are far more significant than what we settle for today. We have entered into a great stagnation. Are we doomed to stay here?
Eli Dourado, senior research fellow at Utah State University, argues that we are not. In an article for City Journal he outlines several new productivity revolutions driven by technological advancements that are within our immediate grasp.
One obvious example: mRNA vaccines. This breakthrough promises vast and potentially revolutionary biomedical applications beyond our current predicament.
He outlines several more, including closed-loop geothermal energy technology, reusable rockets that enable space access and exploration, and advances in biotechnology enhanced by AI and computational computing.
Dourado explains that while these new advancements may take time to produce the sustained benefits they promise, there are unnecessary impediments that we are imposing upon ourselves right now. This is throttling our current potential, he says
Examples abound, from housing, to biotech, to aging research, to supersonic technology, to nuclear power. All are underfunded or underexplored or bound up in regulatory review processes, and all would produce much higher productivity growth if we had the political will to make it happen, he argues.
“We can be optimistic about the technological obstacles to economic growth: there are none,” he concludes. “We are not doomed to decades of stagnation. But we need to think differently.”
