Journal: revolutions

We live in an accelerating culture. The difference between the change from 1901 to 2001 is far greater than the change from 1720 to 1820. If you imagine how confused someone living in during the turn of the (19 to 20th) century would feel if suddenly transported to today, you can be sure that it would be much more confusing to move somone from today to say.. 2101.

And if you don't believe that technology is accelerating, you might want to check out the number of patents issued in the past ten years versus the number of patents issued over say.. the 1960's. Even if you discount the fact that patents are arguably more often frivolous now, it still remains that invention is occuring on a much broader scale, at a faster rate.

A fundamental technology (like the electric motor, or the internet) provides a tremendous base for innovation. It seems to take a good number of years before the technology is sort of "taken for granted". There are many potential applications and adaptations of the Internet and its fundamental technologies that we haven't even begun to explore (and no, I don't know what possibilites are, else I would be on a path to big $$$).

Its also interesting to note, that the time for society to accept new technology on a widespread basis has also decreased. Example: Television took between 20 - 30 years before it could be considered a widespread technology. VCR's took 10 - 15 years. CD's 8 - 10. DVD's, while not quite widespread, are looking like they are going to be around 5 years or so (from the time that a large number of commericial players were offered to consumers, to their (relatively) widespread acceptance, and usage). It seems to me that it took people alot less time to get used to dvd's than cd's (I judge this from working at a library which didn't have cd's in its collection until the early 90's, but started offering dvd's in 1999).

So, change is not necessarily change, when you consider the fact that the amount of change taking place in a given period of time is increasing at a dramatic rate.