That was a great event, and that discussion sparked quite a bit of debate between my two friends and me over dinner afterwards. (Actually, you can see the three of us sitting in the front-right-most seats in the photo!)

In my opinion, the notion of "radical innovation" depends on one's point of view: one could argue that, although the spectacular innovation during the space race, e.g, like landing a man on the moon, was indeed remarkable, it was, for all practical intents and purposes, little more than a political publicity stunt to the average individual, i.e., it did not have a profound effect on a personal level.

In contrast, the developments of the past 20 years -- internet, cell phone, facebook -- have profoundly changed individuals around the planet.

I don't think the question should be whether a thing is more or less innovative than another thing, but rather what effect the thing has had on a group of people on an individual level.