Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Pace of change: never been slower.

On the radio today I heard something surprising: we think we live in a super-fast changing world, but we don't really. 50 or 100 years ago, technological changes were happening which had huge effects on how people lived and the possibilities of their world. The telegraph enabled near instant international communication, which was previously restricted by physical transport speed. Radio technology. Also the car. Air travel. Production line manufacturing. Plastic. etc etc etc. This stuff really changed people's lives. We think the world is changing quickly because a new and improved ipod is released every 3 months. That's not life-changing. The personal computer, maybe digital technology, and definitely the internet, are the significant tech life-changers in my lifetime.

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