# What Is the Most Technologically Advanced Country in the World? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 5, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401 "2011-06-05T15:43:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/41 "2011-06-07T10:00:17Z")
What about digital watches? I think those are a pretty neat idea. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/42 "2011-06-07T12:42:42Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > What about digital watches? I think those are a pretty neat idea. You’re clearly primitive. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/43 "2011-06-07T14:31:10Z")
I think we can all agree it’s a poorly framed question, lacking parameters and biased toward the USA, as posed. That said, this: > [@](#): > > The telephone, the automobile, airplanes, radio and television technology, exploration in space, Makes me want to ask, ‘What have you done for me lately?’. There was certainly a time when the rest of the world was far, far behind America, but I think that time may have passed. They are not alone in creating current advancements in Medicine/research/new technology these days, by a long shot. Current economic trends lean toward cutting/gutting education and research funding such that they may well find themselves eclipsed by those who have practiced sounder economic policies affording them the opportunity to make the required investments in those areas. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/44 "2011-06-07T14:37:48Z")
It’s funny, every time I look at this thread, I think of Finland and Nokia. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/45 "2011-06-07T14:55:28Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Having lived abroad a bit, I’m going to have to vote the USA: > > Clothes Drying Machines > Central Water Heaters > Central A/C > Garbage Disposal Systems > In-Wall Wiring > Dish Washing Machines Laziest/softest country, sure, but none of those things is particularly \*advanced \*as tech goes. I’m thinking Japan and the US in a tie. US wins on the space front (I think all those X-Prize companies are US-based, right?), Japan wins on the robots front. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/46 "2011-06-07T17:08:10Z")
I was going to say Japan, but Singapore is a good suggestion, and Scandinavia as a whole too - they’re very likely to have ‘all mod cons’ in their homes and they are innovaters in mobile phone technology. > [@Ravenman](#): > > It isn’t just that the US has these kinds of things, it is also that they work a lot better than the most common European versions of them. Take, for example, the British washer-dryer. A piece of crap machine that administers a mild waterboarding to dirty underwear to convince them to giving up a little bit of dirt after six hours of running time, leaving the owner with a somewhat moist pile of clothes ready to be put back into a marshy swamp. > > Or the ubiquitous hand dryer that achieves wind speeds in excess of 35 km/h (is that a lot?) and at temperatures as high as 25 degrees centigrade (is that a lot?). Those things don’t stand a chance against the US-made Xcelerator which features air speeds of 200 mph and 135 degree Fahrenheit. Those things cannot be used in enclosed bathrooms without open doors or windows, because the overpressure generated tends to incinerate every living thing inside. Hoo-rah. Ubiquitous? The only place I’ve ever seen a hand dryer is in East Germany, not in the UK. In the UK it’s rare to see something listed in km/ph too. Are you sure you’re not mixing your countries up? I have the impression, from all the places I’ve lived in the UK and from what US friends have said, as well as TV, that dishwashers are somewhat less common here but having your own washer/dryer (which works well - I’ve no idea what piece of crap you were using) is rarer in the US, at least in apartment buildings. So we come out pretty much even. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/47 "2011-06-07T18:19:20Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > The telephone, the automobile, airplanes, radio and television technology, exploration in space, electronic and medical technology, > all have been invented in, developed, and/or made ubiquitous and well-functioning by the U.S. This sentence ignores the vast array of research done in many countries and the interplay of knowledge and competencies across national borders that culminated in the artefacts we can agree are telephones, automobiles, airplanes, radios, televisions, space exploration, etc. Space exploration in particular is one that’s hard to claim for the US as most major milestones were reached first by the Soviets and much of the technology _currently_ used to get bodies into and out of space was developed in the former Soviet Union. That’s not to downplay the vast contribution American scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs etc. have made to the material progress of humanity. Just to accent the US’s role while ignoring the contribution of people in other nations, is myopic at best and chauvinistic at worst. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/48 "2011-06-07T21:24:21Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Ubiquitous? The only place I’ve ever seen a hand dryer is in East Germany, not in the UK. In the UK it’s rare to see something listed in km/ph too. Are you sure you’re not mixing your countries up? I think it’s safer to assume he just pulled the thing out of his ass. The hand dryer thing is the real WTF, given that the Dyson AirBlade was developed in the UK with an [airspeed of 400mph](http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=AB03-WHITE). ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401/49 "2011-06-07T21:32:56Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Just to accent the US’s role while ignoring the contribution of people in other nations, is myopic at best and chauvinistic at worst. The question was which country was most technologically advanced. This has nothing to do with the underpinnings of developments in other countries that may have contributed to its (the most advanced country) having become that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-technologically-advanced-country-in-the-world/584401.md?page=2)