Tremendous Progess Forecast in Technology
But what about the social sciences?
In the New Scientist (9/24/05), Ray Kurzweil, who received the U.S. National Medal of Technology, forecast the immense progess that will be made technologically. He said, “We won’t experience 100 years of technological advance in the 21st century; we will witness in the order of 20,000 years of progress when measured by the rate of progress in 2000, or about 1000 times that achieved in the 20th century.”
Our technologists and scientists use the scientific method, so, on the whole, they operate at relatively high efficiency.
But what progress can we expect in the social sciences? They have not, to any great extent, followed the scientific method. There are many references in the literature to the poor quality of research in the fields of education, psychology, and some of the other social sciences. This means that progress will be much slower until reform takes place in the social sciences. Our lives, health, and well-being will be much better when the social sciences wake up and start using the scientific method extensively.
