[yeldarb]

It feels like there's been one truly transformational wave every decade or so... but it also feels like there are currently a lot of really important shifts going on.

Are we living in a unique time period where there are truly going to be multiple game-changers? Or will one end up vastly outshining the rest in retrospect? (Just like 3D printing and IoT seemed to fizzle last decade.)

1980s PCs 1990s Internet 2000s Web 2.0 & Social 2010s Mobile 2020s... {AI, Crypto, Metaverse, Synthetic Biology}

(I was going to add quantum computing & nuclear fusion on there as well but IMO their impact is more likely to be further out.)

[troygoode]

Did IoT really fizzle out though? In my mind it just became more mainstream expected. Yes, silly things like connected refrigerators / toasters / whatever were a gimmick but the watch I'm wearing, the earphones I'm wearing, the scale on my bathroom floor, the blood pressure cuff under my sink – so many of the things I use each day are now connected (sometimes indirectly) to the Internet and it really is just "normal."

(I do think the 3D printing craze was premature given the state of the tech then and now. I did just see a video of 3D printed full-size boat though so who knows...)

[akharris]

I agree that there's quite a lot going on now, but you could have said the same of many other periods. The 80s saw PCs, but also new kinds of music, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and more. That's always going to be true (hopefully), and each of those shifts creates opportunities.

But I do think you're right that the trend is accelerating and will most likely continue to do so. It's that compounding trick, applied to history.