[tbolse]

Some additional thoughts: Maybe Thiel is right with his thesis. But I think we don't see the impacts of the latest "technology" like Facebook and Twitter or any social network that might come as a successor clearly yet. I had the same opinions, because it doesn't really feal like rocket science or flying cars. A German professor called Peter Kruse, changed my mind. He has a really interesting perspective on todays interconectedness using a system theroetical view:

His thesis is (roughly): What we are currently doing is rapidly increasing the interconnectedness or the networking density of our society almost worldwide (e.g. social networks Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, you name it) and the devices we use (e.g. IoT), we have also increased spontaneous activities in these networks (e.g. web 2.0 services where people can be interactive), additionally we have implemented functions that enable circular stimulus in these networks (retweet and share functions). If these 3 effects come together there is the tendency that these systems will carry signals that resonate and amplify themselfs. It is almost impossible to forecast when and how this happens, because these networks are non-linear. If you post something that resonates with a lot of people you can be very powerful from one moment to another. Technology is only the enabler here and I have no doubt that this has a huge impact on society - see the revolution in Egypt for example. One outcome is a shift of power, because it is really hard to control these networks. Even though we have very sophisticated mass-surveilance most events happen very uncontrolled.