I don't think informal channels, and conferences, which are infrequent, and really expensive to travel to, are enough. Before the 1600s, science was largely done by wealthy people who had large enough houses to have a laboratory in. Scientific results weren't publicly shared; at best they were shared between the experimenter and a few of his/her friends, who communicated by private letters.
In the late 1600s, the first journal was founded, which meant that it became the norm for all scientific results to be shared publicly. This era coincided with the birth of the Scientific Revolution, which was an incredible flourishing of scientific thinking, that formed the basis of modern science.
I think that with a much more connected scientific community, that operated more as a global brain, rather than relatively disconnected nodes, scientific progress could double. So if cancer would normally be cured in, x years, I can see that coming down to 1/2x years, with an accelerated science, and, given the length of x, that shortening is likely to be a matter of years.
In the late 1600s, the first journal was founded, which meant that it became the norm for all scientific results to be shared publicly. This era coincided with the birth of the Scientific Revolution, which was an incredible flourishing of scientific thinking, that formed the basis of modern science.
I think that with a much more connected scientific community, that operated more as a global brain, rather than relatively disconnected nodes, scientific progress could double. So if cancer would normally be cured in, x years, I can see that coming down to 1/2x years, with an accelerated science, and, given the length of x, that shortening is likely to be a matter of years.