Progressive (adjective) - going forward or onward; making progress toward better conditions.
Regression (noun) - the act of going back to a previous place or states; return or reversion.
Thus, progressive regression... would seem to be quite the oxymoron.
But is it, really?
Whilst having a nice long, hot, shower, my thoughts were all over the place, as they usually are. Thinking about innovative new technology (I'm the first to admit I'm a bit of a geek), I came to several conclusions.
The first of these is that we have some incredibly cool technology these days. I mean, really, some epically awesome stuff.
But the second conclusion I came to, and the one that I'm going to focus on in this blog (as much as I'd love to go on about each and every one of the latest and greatest gadgets on the market), is that technology, and our understanding of how it works, is changing so rapidly that we can barely keep up with it. Only 10 years ago, half the stuff out there on the shelves would have seemed like impossibilities! Now, let's zoom out a little, and look at a slightly bigger time-line. First, a couple of my favourite quotes, just for the heck of it.
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
More than 60 years later (which, relative to history in it's entirety, is not a long time), some households have five computers in them, with hundreds of millions of computers all around the world, half of which weight no more than 1.5 kg! These quotes go to show that back in the 1940s, there was a set idea of what computers were like at the time, and they had what they thought was a very accurate opinion of the future that was in store for computers. Oh, and the world's fist general purpose computer (several acres wide), if rebuilt with the same specifications today, would be the size of a pin-head!
The limitations on what we could do with technology nowadays are far wider and further away than they used to be. As technology advanced, so did the limits. We're getting further and further ahead, yet we are not actually getting any closer to the ultimate, the maximum, the point which we cannot surpass. Why? There are no limits.
Not everyone is as geeky as I am, though. So let's look at it from a different angle.
Knowledge. We live in what has been called the Information Age. The human race has never known as much stuff as we do today. We've never had such easy, quick, access to anything we need to know. You want to find out something, Google it. Google has all the answers.
Or, does it? The more we know, the more we find out and discover, the more questions arise to do with such knowledge. Human beings have never had as many questions before as we do today. You see, one piece of new knowledge and understanding brings with it a thousand new questions. The closer we get to knowing everything there is to know, the further away we get from answering and solving all the questions we have. The limitations of things that there are to know about Earth and everything in and around it just keeps on growing the more we figure stuff out.
It's like numbers. I love numbers! But that's not the point. Numbers are just going to be used to demonstrate this idea. There is a never ending supply of numbers. There are absolutely no limits on the biggest number possible. It's what we call infinity. Some things can be counted, but numbers cannot, contrary to what you may have been told all your life. 1, 2, 3... the limit in your mind may currently be one trillion and three. 4, 5,6... it's now one trillion and six. Think of the biggest possible number you can think of. Is that the limit? If you think so, try this.
Double it. You now have a number twice the size that you thought two seconds ago was the biggest number there was. Double it again. Triple it. It's now six times bigger than just moments ago, eight times bigger than originally. Times it by one million! It just keeps getting bigger. There simply doesn't seem to be an end to all these numbers!
That's because there isn't. There are no limits.
You see, limitations are purely relative. Relative to what? You may ask. The point where you currently stand, I'd answer. In reality, there are no limits. They're merely the furthest thing away from your present position that you could possibly imagine. Step forward a few steps, and you can suddenly see a few steps further ahead than a moment before. As you move, so do the limits, so do the boundaries.
It's what I like to call progressive regression. A semi-accurate term for us never getting any closer to the end of the realm of possibilities.
Go for it.
