A yardstick that I like to use for the exponentially increasing pace of technological advancement is the transition from one lighting technology to the next. W

A yardstick that I like to use for the exponentially increasing pace of technological advancement is the transition from one lighting technology to the next. Wood fires were the only lighting we could muster for a few hundred thousand years. Wick-based lighting like candles and oil lamps for a few thousand. Incandescent electric lighting started about 150 years ago. Fluorescent lighting about 70 years ago. CFL lighting about 30 years ago. LED lighting about 15 years ago. OLED lighting about 7 years ago. There's talk now of direct EL nano-rod lighting, this photon recycling thing, and more. We'll reach a point where new lighting technology is developed faster than the previous lights reach their end-of-life!