[JulianMorrison]

But that's what technological growth is. A series of epiphanies, building on what came before.

[msbarnett]

Yes, but an epiphany is not evidence of an accelerating rate of epiphanies, nor evidence that such epiphanies will continue apace into the future.

[JulianMorrison]

You can look at the past for that, although obviously it doesn't predict the future. But it ought to be a priori obvious, at least, that the more you know (as a species), the more surface area of knowledge you have to synthesize into an extending step beyond the known.

[ska]

You could look at the past, but that isn't what the claim did.

In fact looking at the rate of change in applications over an "epiphany" period is probably the least useful estimate of progress & rate of change in progress.