When Will This Low-Innovation Era End?

Looking at the comments, I find it kind of odd that this issue is polarizing. What exactly is the nature of the divide between the extremes of the people who think we've had no progress vs those who think we've had considerable progress?

I would hazard a guess that the "substantial-progress" crowd is assuming that physics and chemistry have been largely figured out and there's nothing else to do there except tidying up some loose ends and working with what we've got and the only place progress could possibly come from is through information technology manipulating what we have.

The no-progress crowd are waiting for the next big fundamental breakthrough like the discovery of the microbe, quantum physics, and electricity.

I still don't understand why the vitriol is thrown around on this one so hard by the "substantial progress" crowd. Maybe they think that the "no-progress" crowd are a bunch of lunatics for believing there are fundamental things that we could discover that could significantly increase our understanding of the fundamentals of physics, chemistry or biology.

The article just doesn't apply for the developing world. The China, and India of 1990 was completely different from what it is today.

Speaking from experience, 20 years ago most people in India did not have a phone and it was impossible to get a home phone without string-pulling and bribery. Now 50% of the population has a mobile phone; no bribes. 30 years ago, Sugar was rationed and you could buy a 1 kg of Sugar for a household per month. Now, there is plentiful Sugar.

Things that Developed countries take for granted - Fridges, Washing Machines, Microwaves, Dining tables, TVs, personal transport (cars, motorcycles), better access to health care, better access to education, simply did not exist or was out of reach for most. I'm not saying that they are now available to everyone, but the reach has expanded.

20 years the politicians made promises that Rice would be available at low rates, now they make promises that TVs would be available at low rates.

If that's not a revolution, I wonder what is. Heck even electricity is still a luxury in India.

What is innovation? The author seems to focus to much on the dramatic or thing that directly impact our lives. While there are a lot of things that don't directly make our lives more meaningful (Halo,etc.), there are amazing advances that have made living today so very exciting!!

Hand, face, arm, leg and ovarian transplants. (& others) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_transplantation#Timeline...

Better response to heart disease, (near) instant medical record sharing, targeted cancer treatments, human genome, anti-smoking research & bans in 27 states, functional MRI, robots performing surgery http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/PublicHealth/1...

snopes.com gave people accurate so that we don't have to rely on crap information- no matter how good it sounds.

Doctors can better diagnose patients thanks to information available on PDA.

GPS- now that's amazing. Google "GPS saves lives" seriously!

Cell Phones- also saves lives, makes contacting someone infinitely easier. How did truckers know to call home if there was an emergency at home? Much more difficult!

Ham Radios, Satellite Phones, hearing aids, pacemakers etc. Amazing devices that have done so much for us!

All of the tiny details made it possible to disseminate information, keep better contact perform incredible medical breakthroughs & decrease poverty worldwide. (Cell phones, internet, square, etc. facilitate economic development)

I'm an IT graduate. I look at the amazing inventions in my field. It feels like they all came less than 4 years ago. (when I graduated)

Oh, I forgot to mention the Nobel prizes. (many are very impressive!) Innovation is happening faster than it ever has before! In another 10 years, we may say- poverty & consumer debt is decreasing systemically worldwide, robots are plowing our fields & HIV has a vaccine! I enjoy the wonderful present and look forward to our bright future!

Here's a list of a few things I might do on an average day that I couldn't do when I was in high school.

* Call home from the grocery store to ask if we're out of Provolone.

* Check my shopping list and see that items have been added to it since I left the house.

* Find a new restaurant with good reviews and make a reservation in mere minutes.

* Take pictures that rival 35mm film and make them available to friends in minutes (with me, it's usually hours or more, but it could be minutes).

* Find my way home from a random location without asking for directions in a gas station.

* Carry weeks worth of music and years worth of reading in my pocket.

* Order a new coffee maker online and expect it the next day.

* Buy a movie online and watch it instantly.

* Get answers to random medical questions.

* Find documentation for damned near anything.

* Work from home with access to everything I would have at the office.

Yes, many of these are indeed life changing. Could I live without these things? Absolutely, but I could also live without cars, and without air conditioning, and without a lot of things that were revolutionary. Electricity, indoor plumbing, and wired telephones took decades to make their way into average people's homes. If anything, the "digital age" is permeating lives faster and more broadly than the major changes that preceded it.

The greatest innovation shall be human compassion and decency. The kind of discovery that doesn't let half of the world starve in a vain pursuit of tech gadgets. The kind of invention that will make it obvious that 47% of a population is not aspiring to live any less freely than the other 53%. The kind of transformation that will end all prejudices.

Alas, while we are great at opening Pandora's box, we totally fail at evolving as spiritual beings.