Anyone who argues that innovation has stagnated in the last 50 years is ignoring the thing that has changed the innovation process the most. Computers aren't ju

Anyone who argues that innovation has stagnated in the last 50 years is ignoring the thing that has changed the innovation process the most. Computers aren't just an innovation in themselves, but also provide a tool for the design of new things which is completely unparalleled in the past. Maybe we haven't seen the step-change of the internal combustion engine (at least in physical designs), but that doesn't mean that innovation is stagnant. Pointing towards useless inventions as proof that we're not solving the big problems is utterly ridiculous. We may remember the 19th century for the industrial revolution, but the victorians were churning out countless useless inventions at the same time. Just as we don't remember the victorians for their moustache guards, it seems to me that this decade is far more likely to be remembered for the self driving car than the popcorn gun.