″.. but technological change feeds on itself, and therefore has a positive second derivative.”
Nitpick: If technological progress were merely quadratic in time, then too it would have a positive second derivative. Kurzweil of course claims something much stronger—that technological progress is exponential in time, which means the first derivative and all succeeding derivatives are also exponential.
Why does statistical hypothesis testing continue to be used in many research fields despite its very many flaws? Are there biases at work here in that the widespread rejection of hypothesis testing would lead to the trashing of many senior researchers’ works? How skeptical should we be of science in general if such shaky methodology is so widely adopted?