a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by verables
verables  ·  4375 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Future Is Now: What We Imagined for 2013 — 10 Years Ago

It's funny to see how revolutionary some things have been, the iPhone really was a huge change that no one really saw coming. Will we see something like that again in our lives?





steve  ·  4374 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I might be showing my age here... but yes... we will see more in our lifetimes. unless maybe you're already 102. Think back only 30 years: Home computers, mobile phones, the internet, mobile internet, tablet computers... and that says nothing of the VAST medical, dental, and other scientific advances we as consumers don't see.

we will see more.

verables  ·  4374 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I see that all as gradual changes, even the Internet took a couple years to really take hold. The day we saw the iPhone it instantly made all UI obsolete. I'm not even a big fan of Apple, but I just find how extreme and fast it changed everything to be really amazing.

steve  ·  4373 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I wonder also if the acceleration of acceleration is happening. It took, what... 15-20 years for home computers to be adopted in the mainstream? and maybe 5-10 for the internet, and then 1-2 for the iPhone? does that make sense? I'm just musing here... I could just be off my rocker.

verables  ·  4373 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah I definitely think that is part of it, but also the iPhone solved a problem so perfectly that you could tell it was the way to go. You're right though, I don't think it'll take 20 years (or even 10) for the next big thing to change the world.