Arguably, the 20 year period that saw the fastest rate of technological & scientific change was 1880-1900, when much of the Western world transitioned from pre-industrial to industrial.
We went from no skyscrapers to 300+m towers & 100+m buildings, from 0 cars to thousands, etc.
We went from no skyscrapers to 300+m towers & 100+m buildings, from 0 cars to thousands, etc.
Another strong contender would be 1940-1960. Nuclear technology, spaceflight, jet engines, computers, most electronics, etc.
As for the recent past -- do you feel like technological & scientific progress has been faster, slower, or about the same from 1980 to 2000 compared to 2000-2020?
1980-2000: personal computers, the Internet. 2000-2020: ubiquitous smartphones, wireless Internet, most things move from offline to online. You experienced 2000-2020, and a number of you also experienced 1980-2000. So this poll should be interesting.
And follow-up: do you expect science & technology to change more over the next 20 years compared to 2000-2020?
It is a general fact of human nature that on average people are more optimistic than warranted by their own experience, and expect more of the future than what has been happening in the past -- so I know where this is going
