This was asked recently by Alan Kay: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/432922/significant-new-inventions-in-computing-since-1980 http://stackoverflow.com/ques

This was asked recently by Alan Kay: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/432922/significant-new-inventions-in-computing-since-1980 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/432922/significant-new-in... It turns out the answer is "nothing significant". Or more correctly "nothing that's been published."