I think the spreading speed of technology and ideas is not the only factor to take into account. The quality of thinking is also important; math, and physics was needed to focus on things will work, not having to try many options. Also, effort: R&D was an invention too, government spending into education and science. Then you have retarded thinking, 'having' to do things like your father did might have been a strong factor. Some religious institutions have certainly held back things.
Also, how big an invention is is subjective, and many of them are implicit in these days, while they were revolutionary in the past. Current-day inventions are often sensationalized and overblown. (plenty of retarded science news around.)
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Originally Posted by e_james It also seems to me that humans tend to think in linear time i.e. the last project took 2 months to complete, so it will still take 2 months in 2012. Is this valid? |
Of course not. A century ago it would have taken months for me to calculate pi to n decimals, now i can write a program. QM computing might lead to similar things.