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I think you're rather short-selling incremental improvements. Very few of the things that makes our lives so much better than those of our ancestors, are nearly
by mseebach 10y ago
I think you're rather short-selling incremental improvements. Very few of the things that makes our lives so much better than those of our ancestors, are nearly infinitely long strings of incremental improvements.
A present-day smartphone is obviously very, very different from Bell's first telephone, but on the other hand, there wasn't really a clear disruptive discontinuity anywhere along the string.
- Retric 10y agoUhh, hand-off between cell sites is clearly disruptive discontinuity. You can link this to the invention of radio well after telegraphs / telephones. But, radio is very much it's own thing. What makes it seem like a smooth transition is the length of time it takes to get to consumer products plus the need to seem like prior products. Internal combustion engines where around for a log time before being refined enough for portable power. But, heat engines are very much their own thing. Similarly battery's and capacitors are their own things. However, when you get a car it's got a huge range of such disruptions packaged into one thing.
- kragen 10y agoRadio, cellular handoff, NCP, TCP/IP, Mosaic, the Hiptop, and the iPhone were all clear disruptive discontinuities.