We’re all familiar with how science and technology is portrayed in the media. Terms or phraseology like “exponential progress”, “breathtaking progress”, “mind-blowing advances”, “limitless potential” and “lifespans more than doubling” might come to mind. There probably isn’t a single notable expert in any scientific field that has ever admitted, publicly, that progress is slowing down or even plateauing (despite millions or billions in funding and despite so many more people working in the area and in a more connected way, to boot). How can they? Their funding and survival depends on the confidence we, the public, place in them. It’s impossible all of the fields are progressing, much less exponentially, if you think about it. The present coronavirus or COVID-19 viral outbreak reveals just how far behind we really are, technologically; at least when it comes to handling crises like this.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that we wash our hands more often (and more thoroughly), not touch our faces as often, practice social distancing and quarantine the infected. This is the best medical science has to offer in 2020. Yes, that’s 5 years after we were supposed to have millions of silent flying cars zipping all over the skies. About 10 years after we were supposed to have designer babies, human clones, genetically-engineered super geniuses and super athletes (who would further propel humanity’s progress in many areas), affordable 3D-printed organs like kidneys grown from your own DNA at a clinic nearby, just about every disease cured and people routinely living beyond 100 years of age.

Clearly, none of those things happened and the reasons are numerous. Instead, the best we have in the year 2020 when faced with a crisis like this are incredibly primitive approaches that we could and would have done even in 1720. Not much improvement in centuries. Even when faced with this not-so-deadly virus (never mind a really bad one), the world economy has come to a near grinding halt, billions of people have lost many of their assumed freedoms and doctors and nurses are scrambling to treat the ill because they don’t have enough equipment and supplies. Most “conscientious” people are wearing cheap face masks, thinking it helps (it likely doesn’t or not by much). Where is all the science and technology that has been “exponentially progressing” in the last 20-30 years gone? It is certainly not on the ground and available right now, where and when it is needed most.

Why can’t we manufacture all the things we need cheaply and effectively? This includes medical equipment like ventilators and high quality masks for people to wear. Why don’t we have hi-tech sensors that can detect (maybe even disinfect) people with the virus based on its DNA signature or something? The human genome was sequenced nearly two decades ago but what has come from it, really, in that time? We keep hearing about CRISPR (a tool for editing genomes) and how “incredibly powerful” it is yet scientists are probably more concerned about some Hitler getting his hands on it rather than how it can be applied in the present to improve all our lives. Ethics and morality certainly have their place in science but please, not at the expense of so much progress.

To be fair, we have indeed made some strides over the decades in computing and especially communication. These things certainly ameliorate many issues in our current situation but what good, really, are increasingly better communication tools if a tiny virus could destroy the world economy, put millions out of jobs or in the worst case, even wipe out our species? Can humanity survive even another century if we don’t see equivalent progress in medical science, biotech, artificial intelligence, chemical engineering, material science and many others that would shape the kind of world people in 1970 thought 2020 would look like? A world that was 50 years in the future for them, even beyond most of their lifetimes. Where are scientists and futurists today saying we will be in 50 years? Do you believe them?

Will we be battling viral outbreaks in pretty much the same way even in the year 3020? Washing our hands more, not touching our faces as often etc. If so, the next time we hear predictions or even promises about what the near future holds in terms of scientific progress, we should take it with two grains of salt instead of just one. In fact, it’s quite possible that as a species, we are not really getting more intelligent, but less. Are the most intelligent people having the most babies? Quite the opposite. Especially when we’re also constantly told that genes and IQ are not associated in any meaningful way; that with enough opportunities, education and training, anyone can achieve anything. Besides, low IQ people and those who are misled into overestimating science tend to have a lackadaisical attitude toward things like quarantines, lockdowns and controlled movement.

In any case, given how we must handle COVID-19, and all the sacrifices humanity must make due to a lack of technological progress in so many fields, it is very clear we are not nearly as advanced as we thought we were. This is because in many scientific fields today and for some time now, it really seems as if we have thrown our hands up and just accepted certain things. Our mortality perhaps being the most obvious one. Hardly anyone even remembers the promises from decades ago of science soon being capable of reversing the ageing process (not just stopping it). It has become common in science to overpromise and under-deliver. To portray relatively minor achievements or improvements as being of far greater impact or importance than they really are. Nevertheless the truth tends to come out; especially in situations like this.