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If Cardwell's Law can be extrapolated into the future, no single society should expect to be on the cutting edge of technology forever. Contrary perhaps to what economic logic suggests, most societies have not been particularly amenable to the application of new ideas to production. As Schumpeter stressed, the enemies of technological progress were not the lack of useful new ideas, but social forces that for one reason or another tried to preserve the status quo. These forces represented different interests can came in a variety of forms: environmental lobbies, labor unions, clayfooted giant corporations, professional associations, reactionary or incompetent bureaucracies may all, in one way or another, try to block the kind of relentless and aggressive thrusts forward that occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

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This is an interesting point, and I like that it's apolitical. I agree with it, but it also comes down to how one defines "progress."

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"Of course, if technological change eventually leads to the physical destruction of our planet, survivors may no longer wish to use the word progress in their descriptions of technological history."

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