Is the force awakening?

Scientific and technological progress over the centuries was very strong in some fields, much weaker in others and even virtually absent in a few so far. For the future, there are a series of areas where new breakthroughs can be expected to occur. However, there is some evidence that such breakthroughs seem to be increasingly difficult to achieve. The paper reviews these discussions, maps scientific and technological progress over the centuries and presents new ideas on how to foster and accelerate scientific and technological advancement.