I am currently obsessed with futurism but I am terrified I will run out of novums to contemplate about. A novum is an idea like “FTL travel” or “Gene splicing”. I was wondering if their is any proof that their is an unlimited amount of ideas that humans can come up with. My uncle was reading Bernard Stiegler before he died and Stiegler said that technology is a law of nature and it is always progressing. I didn’t 100% buy that and I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a source that could help convince me that technological progress and ideas are unlimited. — Maximum7

While I can't find a source to help, I would believe that the existence of infinity as a concept would support the case that their would unlimited ideas. For example, outside of the observable universe, there is a potentially infinite number of unknown obstacles and uses for objects that we may discover, also thus, there is always the potential for us to find a problem that we don not currently have a solution to.

I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a source that could help convince me that technological progress and ideas are unlimited. — Maximum7

You might as well decide for yourself, because nobody has the answer.

IMHO, there are reasons to suppose that progress will not be unlimited. In order for our progress to be unlimited, we would have to be unlimited, and we are--just my guess--probably not. As species go, our 'high achievement record' is pretty short. There have been bright flashes in the pan, but nothing resembling a constant beacon of steady progress.

Think: The industrial revolution started with steam roughly 250 years ago. After not a lot more than 1 century of full-blast industrialism, we are heading towards inadvertently heating the atmosphere to civilization-stopping temperatures.

What can possibly go wrong with everything that we can think of? Well, just about anything. We are the weak link here. We are not good at long-term thinking. It's difficult for us to plan 10 years ahead, let alone 100 or 200 years. Coherent planning and execution over long periods of time just isn't our forte. We are not good at calculating the downsides of things we want to do.

We will be doing well to exit stage left honorably and gracefully, at some point in the future, without taking everything out with us.

I'm gonna speculate since the issue is about the future and all we can do is that.

Historians have the habit of dividing up the timeline of human civilization into so-called ages: the classical age, the industrial age, the space age ,the computer age, so on and so forth. Rightly so, most people who study humanity's progress - past, present, and future - seem to be in two minds about the current, ongoing era. Is it the computer age or is it the information age? Perhaps they are synonymous and it's I that failed to notice this simple fact.

The information age boils down to reducing everything to information and as of now that simply means translating stuff (objects/phenomena) into bits (binary digits), bits being the stock-in-trade of modern computers.

Information can be transmitted at lightspeed thereby allowing us, humans, if information is all there is and all that matters, to overcome physical limitations like gravity, lightspeed barrier, and a whole host of other constraints.

Prof. Michio Kaku (scientist & science educator) writes in his book about how consciousness could be encoded on a laser (light) and "launched" into outer space. This gives us just a taste of what could be possible if the information age is true to its claims - everything is information.

As an aside, I started a thread long ago about photochemistry. A highly advanced civilization could have mastered photochemistry to such a level that they could, in principle, design EM radiations that could initiate life-generating chemical reactions on planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone. I'm not a scientist so I have no idea which part of the EM spectrum would be best suited to such a task, nor do I have the slightest clue what the life-giving code would look like. :point: Alien Origins Of Life - Photochemistry

Makes me wonder if the photochemical code (IF life on earth began in such a fashion, big IF) included consciousness, thoughts about God (our alien creators?), etc. Michio Kaku's ideas don't seem so outlandish/weird/far out anymore.

I am currently obsessed with futurism — Maximum7

checkout the technological singularity

I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a source that could help convince me that technological progress and ideas are unlimited. — Maximum7

The development of knowledge might be unlimited in theory, given the vast scale and complexity of reality. At the least it's hard to imagine ever learning everything.

However, in practice, technological progress on Earth is dependent on human beings, a species with some serious psychological issues. Human beings would be the limiting factor on technological progress.

Imagine that I souped up my car so it would go 1,000mph. Sounds impressive until you realize that I'm not capable of controlling a car at that speed. In the development of this super car I'd sooner or later find the speed at which I lose control, crash and die. End of technological progress.

I understand what you’re saying. Technological progress can be impeded by human limitations BUT humans are also very intelligent and someone would quickly determine a 1,000 mph car is dangerous and inefficient and would work on making a train or plane go that speed. Much easier to control and while not as convenient; same end result.

In the late 1800s a US senator proposed closing the patent office because everything that was worth inventing had already been made.

I was wondering if their is any proof that their is an unlimited amount of ideas that humans can come up with. — Maximum7

You don't actually require an unlimited number of ideas unless you plan to live forever. So, demands of an infinity can be set aside I imagine. I would go to the local home supply store and take a look at the number of vacuums for sale. There is really nothing that can truly be called a singular idea in that it can't be driven further or deviated slightly from to produce something new. And even if all these are exhausted there is the matter of optimization. According to the law of thermodynamics all systems leak some amount of their inputs which implies every system can always be optimized for increased efficiency. So, the question really becomes can even a single idea be truly exhausted much less our capacity for new ideas. Credit rational inference the greatest philosopher we have known.

The best argument for this is the infinity of the Universe as Bradaction also mentioned.
All human history is a continuous attempt to find the Reason for everything. Except instinct of survival of course. The moment mind was born in human kind that exact moment curiosity was born also. And for me at least human curiosity played the biggest role in evolution and its power is limitless.

So yes people will go on seek for the Reason, for Truth. That will never stop. Step by step with science, with ideas, with technology. Every technological improvement even the smallest one, at whatever field, I see it as a tiny step that brings humanity closer to the Truth. So for me definitely since Universe is limitless human ideas are limitless too as to discover it. So these ideas get transformed to science and technology,which makes science limitless too. Well at least that's my best argument in that kind of discussions.