I don't want innovations which improve my shopping experience or make smartphones a tiny bit better, I want innovations which eliminate world hunger, innovations which make it so people have more free time, innovations which help humans live in harmony with our ecosystem.
If you're a middle class westerner technology is already at a point where they're not going to be coming out with any new inventions that make your life significantly better. But there's a massive amount of room for innovation that can make life much better for people as a whole.
In terms of societal transformation technology still has the ability to radically improve the quality of human life. In terms of rugged individualism technology is just going to give the wealthiest humans more of the same kinds of toys that are already failing to make them happy.
The line of technological progress which depends on individuals purchasing new inventions for themselves has long passed its point of diminishing returns, and now those returns are functionally nil. We don't really need any more inventions for individual purchase and consumption.
What we need are collective-oriented innovations which change the way humans live on this planet. And it won't look like flying cars or fancier personal widgets, it will look like advancements which change and improve our ability to get food, shelter and resources to everyone.
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