I am only about halfway through the article, but the "failure of society to get big things done" thesis is falling flat. What about cell phones, and the commun

I am only about halfway through the article, but the "failure of society to get big things done" thesis is falling flat. What about cell phones, and the communication revolution in general? While I'm at the park in the US, I can call someone in Europe riding on a train. Or, I can take the same phone to Europe and call someone back home. That's pretty amazing, if you ask me. What about free/open source software? Someone can start a business with almost no capital at all, and get an operating system, an office suite, a web browser, and sophisticated database management software. And they don't even need to tell anyone that they are doing it. And when they need something better, they can fix it themselves or hire someone to fix it; they don't need to deal with the original vendor. That's just the business side of things -- the educational aspects of free/open source software are just as compelling. I guess the problem is that none of these things are as impressive to look at as a 500-ton rocket.