This is definitely a neat question, especially as growth is sometimes hard to identify as it happens in front of you. I think there were a couple of really sign

This is definitely a neat question, especially as growth is sometimes hard to identify as it happens in front of you. I think there were a couple of really significant things that came about this year. 1. Gene editing in embryos 2. Orbital rocket makes a successful return and landing. 3. Self driving car technology becomes more commonplace, and becomes more feasible for people. I think the hard thing about your question is, "have we built new tools to build a cooler future in 2016?" and that can only be seen when tools today are actually building the future tomorrow. The other thing is that something like 2 or 3, have had people working on them for years prior, so it's not that anything become suddenly practical in 2015 -it's just that all the work now bared its fruit. Sources: [1]: http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-genetically-modify-human-embryos-1.17378 http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-genetically-mo... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_Flight_20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_Flight_20 [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9k5c_P-y-k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9k5c_P-y-k