&gt; The technology advances when it can advance, no matter what.<p>I know it&#x27;s a popular theory but I don&#x27;t know that it stands up to scrutiny. Nuclear weapons technology hasn&#x27;t advanced in many years, for example; the few who could do the R&amp;D don&#x27;t seem interested. Technologies involving cannibis and LSD have not advanced in large part, AFAICT, because they are illegal. How do you overcome those and other obstacles I raised above? Another: Powerful interests freeze development in many industries.<p>Here&#x27;s another way of thinking of it, more theoretically: There are an effectively infinite number of technologies that could be developed; only a few are chosen. Almost all tech is ignored.<p>I think that calling it inevitable is a way to duck difficult questions and obligations, similar to the way that some blame the free market and self-interest for their choices (as if those are gods who forced the mortal&#x27;s hands).