Present-forward Future-backward overlap
From apm
This goes both ways:
Theoretical overhang
Having already pre-solved a huge swath of theoretical stuff that suddenly gets applicable all at once stuff since some critical technological percolation limit limit point has been crossed on the practical experimental side.
- This can potentially lead to an unexpected boost in development speed. See main article: theoretical overhang
- This is more likely when more future-backward development work is done rather than present-forward development.
Obviously without any present-forward development nothing happens at all.
Experimental overhang
That's basically the case when a lot of experiments have been done with satisfactory outcome but one does not really understand the theory behind it and thus has a hard time expanding on it. Black magic experimental systems.
In this situation it's basically necessary to so some research to catch ones understanding to the state of experiments.
- This can potentially lead to an unexpected drag on development speed.
- This is more likely when more present-forward development work is done rather than future-backward development.
