We can say we just invented quantum computers and AGI if the fax was supposedly invented in 1800.
In hundred years people are gonna argue with their AI that yeah, all that singularity is nice but it was actually invented 100 years ago, so stagnation all around.
A good portion of the things mentioned in the book (photography, radio (vacuum tube), telephone, television, cars, refrigerators (and AC generally), vaccines, washing machines, trains, trams, subways, automobiles, airplanes (piston and jet/turbine), rocketry and satellites, etc) were invented and available in the fifty years between 1870 and 1920, and completed mainstreaming/saturation in the fifty years between 1920 and 1970.
There were some things that were invented in the 1920-70 time period: penicillin, CT scan, MRI scans, notable car refinements (fuel injection, crumple zones, seat belts, ABS, airbags), computers, transistors, modems, microwaves, fax/photocopiers.
Besides the Internet and maybe smartphones, what new classes of device were created post-1970s that had a major technological, sociological, or medical effect on society? @cperciva mentioned Li-ion batteries in a comment as well.
Technological advancement in semi-conductors has enabled human-like AI models.
We'll see if AI helps in productivity (e.g., per capita GDP): the book shows data that says that computers and the Internet had effects, but they were done by 2004 (book was published in 2016, and had numbers until 2014).
Neodymium magnets and incredible power density motors they enable. Lithium ion batteries with carbonaceous anode.
As a result drones and other things.
Blue led, OLED. Insane pixel density screen manufacturing Technics.
GPUs
I'm not sure how you can get such blind spot that you don't see immense scientific progress that was made since the 1980s
Literally a better part of a day of average Westerner is spent by looking at things that weren't invented before 1980.
It’s like saying that modern healthcare was invented in the 1800s and therefore there was absolutely no meaningful progress since then. How does that sound?
> created post-1970s
Digital cameras?
Personal computers? Note that by your bizarre standards fridges were invented in the 1830s and microwave ovens in the 1930s so innovation stopped long before the 70s or 60s..
BTW would you also agree that computers were invented in the 1830s as well?
MRI was invented in the 70s but practical devices weren’t created till years later (due to advances in other fields)