How to stop the equivalent of Moore's Law? It has been done withy nuclear power. Up till about 1970 newbuilding of reactors (& to 1980 their completion) had been on a rising curve both as a proportion of power use and in total.
Then the ecofascists gained enough power to push through anti-nuclear scare stories, all of which were either wholly or largely false, and the industry was effectively halted. Since then the catastrophic global warming fraud has been used to increase the cost and reduce usage of electricity across the developed world, hence recent recession.
An entirely different example was the way the 16thC Japanese government rolled back the use of cannon by (1) requiring all cannon makers to be licenced then (2) requiring them to live in the capital then (3) issuing no new licences then (4) inducting all cannon makers into the aristocracy but at the same time saying they couldn't make cannon.
A common trait is that both banned products (reactors and cannon) are big objects that are difficult to hide while other technologies not banned (computing capacity, muskets in Japan & crossbows in medieval Europe) are smaller and portable when government inspectors turn up.
and in reply to a mention of Arthur C. Clarke in reference to progress not being as fast as the science fiction writers who promised flying cars and Moon settlements by now
neilcraig
You can see how my mind is revolving around the question of using economics/social engineering to speed up the process.
Then the ecofascists gained enough power to push through anti-nuclear scare stories, all of which were either wholly or largely false, and the industry was effectively halted. Since then the catastrophic global warming fraud has been used to increase the cost and reduce usage of electricity across the developed world, hence recent recession.
An entirely different example was the way the 16thC Japanese government rolled back the use of cannon by (1) requiring all cannon makers to be licenced then (2) requiring them to live in the capital then (3) issuing no new licences then (4) inducting all cannon makers into the aristocracy but at the same time saying they couldn't make cannon.
A common trait is that both banned products (reactors and cannon) are big objects that are difficult to hide while other technologies not banned (computing capacity, muskets in Japan & crossbows in medieval Europe) are smaller and portable when government inspectors turn up.
and in reply to a mention of Arthur C. Clarke in reference to progress not being as fast as the science fiction writers who promised flying cars and Moon settlements by now
neilcraig
Different case where Clarke underestimated (& all right-thinking people thought he was impossibly optimistic) - the space elevator in Fountains of Paradise is set in mid 2100s because of the assumption that there would be no material to make it of earlier. In fact we have buckytubes which, theoretically, could do it now.
You can see how my mind is revolving around the question of using economics/social engineering to speed up the process.
