# The most advanced tech mankind has ever made **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 2, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942 "2020-06-02T19:13:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/1 "2020-06-02T19:13:41Z")
I’ve been doing some reading on EUV (extreme ultraviolet) technology used for semiconductor lithography and am fascinated. I have no background in the field, but wonder if what Holland’s ASML has done here would count as the most advanced tech mankind has ever made to date, with their $150 million etching machines - or perhaps, the products that their customers make, rather - the 3-nanometer chips being made by TSMC. Even nuclear reactors or spacecraft seem simpler by comparison. This is inherently subjective so it would be more GD than GQ. What’s the most advanced tech currently in existence? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/2 "2020-06-02T19:39:38Z")
I would go with something like CERN or the ITER as the most advanced tech currently in use or that will be in use soon. I suppose the James Web when it goes up could qualify. Or maybe some of the nano-tech being developed, or solid state battery development projects. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/3 "2020-06-02T19:59:56Z")
Quantum Computing is tech-intense, requiring ordinary microchip tech and also cryogenics, plus it is, in itself, a remarkably complex idea. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/4 "2020-06-02T20:06:52Z")
I don’t know much about it, but is EUL laser etching at a shorter wavelength? If so what makes it more difficult than other forms of etching? I always assumed quantum computers and fusion power were the most cutting edge technologies we have. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/5 "2020-06-02T21:58:13Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I don’t know much about it, but is EUL laser etching at a shorter wavelength? If so what makes it more difficult than other forms of etching? > > I always assumed quantum computers and fusion power were the most cutting edge technologies we have. Fusion power? I wasn’t aware we had developed that technology yet. From what I’ve read I’m not quite sure that we have actual quantum computers yet either. ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/6 "2020-06-03T00:19:15Z")
AFAIK we got both, bot none practically usable. Yet. Fusion works, but takes more energy to contain the process than it is released. Quantum computers are more tricky. They need a lot of energy (brute force) to resolve some simple equations, but are promising in some fringe fields in near future… ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/7 "2020-06-03T00:52:51Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Fusion power? I wasn’t aware we had developed that technology yet. From what I’ve read I’m not quite sure that we have actual quantum computers yet either. Thats why I feel its among the most advanced, because we have international efforts to achieve it and we can still barely do it. Fusion power is an international effort with groups like [ITER](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER). So top minds from the most scientifically advanced nations are working together to understand fusion and are still struggling. Quantum computers exist as far as I know, but aren’t really powerful enough yet to make a huge dent in society. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/8 "2020-06-03T02:21:28Z")
The entire Semiconductor industry is probably the best example of cutting-edge technology. It’s not just the lithography that is hard - it’s the robotics, ultra-pure chemicals, computer-aided design, etc. that make it more advanced that anything else I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/9 "2020-06-03T02:26:09Z")
Amazon Alexa. I can sit in my living room, say out loud that I desire something, and in less than a day it shows up on my doorstep. Indistinguishable from magic, thus incredibly advanced technology. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/10 "2020-06-03T13:08:49Z")
What are the criteria? Difficulty of implementation? Complexity? Impact? The selective implantation of gene sequences into living DNA is the apex of current technology. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/11 "2020-06-03T14:14:36Z")
I’d go with Hubble, personally. Shooting rockets into space is fairly easy compared to launching a space telescope with micrometer tolerances. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/12 "2020-06-03T18:55:35Z")
I don’t have a good answer to this question, but maybe whatever technology required the most iterations of previous developments to come to fruition. For example, a moveable-type press required the prior development of paper and lead type, and so on. I think the further removed any given piece of technology is from smashing things with rocks, the more “advanced” it could be considered, technologically speaking. I was thinking of the technology trees from the _Civilization_ games when I wrote this post, but I don’t know how well they could define actual advanced technology. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/13 "2020-06-03T19:09:25Z")
Quantum computing via the use of photonic logic would make computers roughly 5,000 times faster than the incredibly fast computers we already have. We can only wildly imagine the results of that. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/14 "2020-06-03T19:53:54Z")
> [@Tabco](#): > > I don’t have a good answer to this question, but maybe whatever technology required the most iterations of previous developments to come to fruition. For example, a moveable-type press required the prior development of paper and lead type, and so on. I think the further removed any given piece of technology is from smashing things with rocks, the more “advanced” it could be considered, technologically speaking. I was thinking of the technology trees from the _Civilization_ games when I wrote this post, but I don’t know how well they could define actual advanced technology. I’m sure there is a name for this but I don’t remember what it is. I recall Nick bostrom talking about it when discussing the biggest threats humanity will face in the far future, and a lot of the threats were things we can’t fathom. The reason is that the base technologies that will allow those future technologies didn’t exist yet. So it would be like people in the 18th century trying to understand nanobots and the grey goo threat, or quantum AI, or nuclear war as the major risks of the world of the future. It wasn’t possible for them to fathom the risk since the pre-existing technology that made these technologies feasible didn’t exist yet. Having said that, I agree with what you’re saying but also I think a technology that requires a lot of different fields of science to work. Quantum computers need to be cooled to near 0 kelvin to work. So you’re not just building a quantum computer, you’re cooling it to a temperature lower than deep space. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/15 "2020-06-04T14:06:39Z")
I would argue that the LIGO is the most advanced technological system yet developed: > **[LIGO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO)** > > The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large observatories were built in the United States with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry. These observatories use mirrors spaced four kilometers apart which are capable of detecting a change of less than one ten-thousandth the c It is so exquisitely sensitive that it can detect changes in length on the order of one ten-thousandth of the diameter of a proton. And the accompanying detection and analysis systems can use these changes to observe events that took place in other galaxies, millions of light years distant. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/16 "2020-06-04T23:06:37Z")
How about the kind of technology that goes into a self driving car like a Tesla? Processing streams of data in realtime from all those cameras, radars, lidars and large numbers of sensors, controlling the car and navigating through traffic. Not quite there yet, but getting better all the time. I predict that one day soon, these cars will be so technologically advanced that they will be able to drive me home when I am drunk.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/17 "2020-06-04T23:47:37Z")
Gravity Probe B [Gravity Probe B - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Probe_B) Required the most spherical objects ever built as the gyroscopes. Measured effects at the scale of milli-arcseconds per year. Maintained the gyros at 2 degrees Kelvin - in space ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/18 "2020-06-09T16:18:41Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > I would argue that the LIGO is the most advanced technological system yet developed: > > [LIGO - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO) > > It is so exquisitely sensitive that it can detect changes in length on the order of one ten-thousandth of the diameter of a proton. And the accompanying detection and analysis systems can use these changes to observe events that took place in other galaxies, [del]m[/del] **b** illions of light years distant. [sgs7 correction] This is an answer that popped into my head, due to [watching this video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iphcyNWFD10) Boggled by the high-tech required to detect gravitational waves, the host resorts to calling it an “absurdity.” ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/19 "2020-06-09T17:17:27Z")
I doubt this would be a contender for the most “advanced tech.” But more “hard science” (mathematics, physics, and engineering) is required in the building of an atomic bomb than any other system or device. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942/20 "2020-06-09T21:30:35Z")
I dibs the GPS system. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-advanced-tech-mankind-has-ever-made/854942.md?page=2)