[dredmorbius]

A better breakdown of economic waves / technological transitions comes from Robert Ayres, see his "Technological Transformations and Long Waves", February 1989:

http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/RR-89-001....

Ayres defines five technological transformations. The period of most significant change came with the third, spanning roughly 1870-1890 (with further refinement of major inventions since). I'd argue that the rate of transformation has slowed since.

1. ~1775: cotton textiles, iron, and steam.

2. ~1825: railroads and steamships, telegraph.

3. 1870-1890: steel, coal-tar chemistry & dyes, petroleum, sewing machines & bicycles, internal combustion engines, electrical light & power, telephone, automobiles, photography & cinema.

4. 1930-1950: Petrochemicals, synthetics, plastics, pharmaceuticals, communications -- radio, TV, microwaves, solid-state electronics & computers, aircraft & transportation.

5. 1975-present: Ill-defined. Slowing innovation, growing economy, declining industrial activity in the US, growing prevalence of computers.

Note that Ayres was writing in 1989, immediately prior to the emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web. Though these have revolutionalized information access and communications, their overall influence on everyday life has been less profound.

[rjtavares]

> Note that Ayres was writing in 1989, immediately prior to the emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web. Though these have revolutionalized information access and communications, their overall influence on everyday life has been less profound.

Couldn't disagree more. The impact of computers was huge but it was mainly in making more efficient the stuff that we were already doing (that's why all the big players benefited from it). What we're witnessing with the Internet since the 2000s is a paradigm shift that can wipe out entire industries (for example with digital distribution, peer to peer and sharing economy).

[dredmorbius]

Yes, the scale at which _some_ industries are performed is changing, especially those based entirely on information access (e.g., travel agents).

But that's often even larger single-point monopoly point of control: Craigslist, Facebook, Amazon, etc. Banking would be another instance.

What's changed is that while there are still tremendous economies of scale, the holder of that control point has far less security in their tenancy.

Yes, the changes for those directly involved in these firms -- founders, financiers, and the relatively small numbers of employees -- are fairly large.

But at the level of everyday life, the benefits are still pretty slim.