Maybe the low hanging fruit have been picked but I think there will be a steady stream of innovation in the near future - more efficient and cheaper renewables

Maybe the low hanging fruit have been picked but I think there will be a steady stream of innovation in the near future - more efficient and cheaper renewables, better battery tech, better cures to disease etc. I think the next big shift will happen when the remaining 4-5 billion people are empowered with high quality education and computing devices and the potential of the whole of humanity can be put to use. It's a numbers game, more brains working on innovation=more innovation. This global levelling of the playing field and equal access to technology and means of innovation is playing out slowly, maybe too slowly for it to feel like an "acceleration" to us who live through it. Give it another 10-20 years. Right now it's like we're running at 20% capacity when you look at the total number of people on the planet, at how much of that potential is not utilised. China will take the lead, already has started to in some cases (in the case of AI, Andrew Ng's jump to Baidu was interesting) - http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2014/08/28/interview-inside-google-brain-founder-andrew-ngs-plans-to-transform-baidu/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2014/08/28/interview-i...