I rather like this wee graph that I found on Blue Matter here, not for the way it shows the adoption of new services and technology has speeded up.But because it lists the trappings of 21st century civilisation, and show's how the western world has spent a century developing these things, making them affordable to the massed, ubiquitous and available.
So in third world countries, for the poor populations, for all the abuse and exploitation that goes on by the west and by their own corrupt leaders, we can take them from the top left corner to the bottom right.
No need to re-invent the wheel.
Is the touchscreen smartphone the pinnacle of human civilsation? The iPhone, is that it? The moment when every member of the human race can have a touchscreen smartphone and the infrastructure is in place to support it, that's the peak of the machine-age.
**UPDATE**
Eep, I forgot about the multi-touch touchscreen smart phone, when that's ubiquitous, then we've won.
I think you could bias that image with careful selection of technological innovations.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting though that the uptake of older inventions hasn't increased in more recent decades. So, for example, more Americans now have a mobile, a colour TV, a microwave and aircon than have A WASHING MACHINE!!!11omg1!