I think if you think about the technological advancements of the past hundred and fifty year, two stand out as the key ones.
Faster, and stronger.
Faster: the ability to get from place a to place b faster. This impacts SO many things. Migration pattens. Spread of ideas and new technology. Think of the things you wouldn't have if all the goods which came to you had to travel at the speed of horses or sailling ships. Just look around your house and think how many of those things would be there in such a case. Not many.
Stronger: the invention basically of the steam engine, and with it the ability to replace muscle power, both human and animal, with mechanical power. We have, or course, moved forward from the steam engine to gasoline engines and electric motors, but the basic concept is the replacement of muscle power with non-muscle power. Again, look around you and see how much of your life would exist if everything still had to be made by muscle power. Not that great things can't be made by muscle power -- the pyramids, the cathedrals of Europe, castles, bridges, lots of things. But most of the things we take for granted (like pumped water, for starters, which along with central heat are the two things I most appreciate about modern living) wouldn't exist if we had to rely on muscle power.
I don't know which of those two is the more important. In some ways they're interlinked.
But I think we're unlikely to see the same percentage increase in either over the next few centuries that we saw in the last century and a half. |
