Things do advance, but they're a lot less spectacular, sometimes because we're running into hard physical limitations. Supersonic flight, for instance: it's just super difficult to make it economically feasible. But subsonic aircraft are much better than they were back in the 1970s. Cars are leaps and bounds above what they were in the 80s: more reliable, safer, faster.
Scientists are also running against physical limitations: to do Big science, you need expensive equipment, like the LHC, but also electron beam microscopes, sophisticated automatic lab equipment, etc. so you need a lot of people to make this stuff works.
The problems we do get are more social than scientific: most new buildings aren't much better than the ones from the 70s, but that's because people aren't applying the science that exists. Transportation and energy are similar: it's not sufficient that the technology can be used, the social and economic structure has to be there to support it.
For instance, you could dream about a citywide automated contained transportation system in Montreal. You'd have a big east-west conveyor, with links to the mainland at each end of the island, plus a big north-south corridor to get across the island and cross the St. Lawrence. Then you'd only need small electric trucks to move the containers to and from stations along the conveyors.
But that's never going to happen because you couldn't put the structure in place.
I think you didn't read the article carefully. We don't need more people doing the same stuff. We need people willing to waste all their cash to BUILD something from new discoveries.
Earlier new technologies used to be priced sky-high. Now cost benefit analysis is the only thing that matters.
Scientists are also running against physical limitations: to do Big science, you need expensive equipment, like the LHC, but also electron beam microscopes, sophisticated automatic lab equipment, etc. so you need a lot of people to make this stuff works.
The problems we do get are more social than scientific: most new buildings aren't much better than the ones from the 70s, but that's because people aren't applying the science that exists. Transportation and energy are similar: it's not sufficient that the technology can be used, the social and economic structure has to be there to support it.
For instance, you could dream about a citywide automated contained transportation system in Montreal. You'd have a big east-west conveyor, with links to the mainland at each end of the island, plus a big north-south corridor to get across the island and cross the St. Lawrence. Then you'd only need small electric trucks to move the containers to and from stations along the conveyors.
But that's never going to happen because you couldn't put the structure in place.