The keystone discoveries of Mankind were fire, the wheel, the lever, aerodynamics, chemistry, and electricity. Pretty much all of our technology is based upon these basic discoveries. As a species we made huge leaps through these discoveries. They are the essential concepts of the universe as we understand it and all of our technology is based upon them.
But is this all there is? Really? We haven't made a single keystone discovery regarding the basic nature of the universe in a long time. All of our developments in the past several decades have been nothing more than advancements and refinements of these basic discoveries. Either we have lost that pioneering scientific spirit, or there simply aren't any more fundamental discoveries to be made. I tend to think it's the former.
Instead of pioneering new areas of discovery our science has become constrained by rigid thought and peer review and has stagnated. Surely electricity isn't the be all and end all of useful energy in this complex universe. I think that in some distant future our civilization will be referred to as the "electrical age".
Where are our pioneers these days? Edison, Franklin, and Tesla, among many others brought us to where we are today and yet their breed seems to have died out in our civilization. We haven't had a major fundamental discovery in a very long time. I fear this spells the doom of our period in history and we are destined to fall into the same dust as all of the other civilizations that have risen to the peak of their technology and passed away.
Maybe this really is all there is to discover. Perhaps there are no more fundamental discoveries left. This may really be all there is to the basic nature of the universe. If so, we have reached the ceiling and can only fall from here.
I hope not.