Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Examples


Mature technologies


  • Farming, most advances are in slight improvements of breeds or in pest reduction
  • Motor vehicle, widely used by non-experts, the general principles have not changed for decades
  • Telephone, though considered mature, mobile phones showed a rare potential for substantial changes even in such technologies
  • Firearm, typified by assault rifle technology, most advances are slight improvements as manufacturers alter balances between weight, firepower, range, and accuracy


Technologies not yet fully mature


  • Internet, with still partly conflicting technological standards
  • Computers (becoming more mature due to advances in user-friendly operating systems)
  • Economic models (still showing high failure rates in economic prediction)


Immature technologies


  • Nanotechnology, actual industrial applications limited so far
  • Manned space flight, limited, failure-prone and uneconomic
  • Quantum computers, so far mostly a theoretical concept
  • Nuclear fusion power, mainly theoretical in practice as containment energy expenditure thus far outweighs yielded energy

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