It lists several events that caused large celebrations. However, you can notice a pattern: 2008 — Barack Obama wins the 2008 election, becoming the first African American President 2011 — Commandos conduct a raid in Pakistan, which ends with the killing of Osama bin Laden 2012 — The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars 2014 — Malala Yousafazi becomes the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize 2015 — Same-sex marriage is legalised across all fifty states in the USA
Almost all were political or nontechnical.
Personally, I think that most kinds of modern technology are highly incremental, and as of recent have been treated with suspicion.
I also could imagine that real technology change has slowed down a fair bit (especially outside of AI), as has been discussed extensively.
Agreed on tech change. We now expect a new generation of video game consoles every five years, a new version of Microsoft Office every three (but did NOT expect the name change to “Microsoft 365,” an increasingly ominous claim of ubiquity), and new phones every other year.
The only real technological surprise I’ve had in a good long while was yesterday when I suddenly realized Notepad.exe now has a “New Window” menu option, which simply spawns another instance of Notepad. To me, this is cause for celebration, and I find myself wondering why there wasn’t more fanfare for this superb productivity hack.
I found this article interesting:
https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/25-iconic-moments-that-define-the-21st-century-thus-far/
It lists several events that caused large celebrations. However, you can notice a pattern:
2008 — Barack Obama wins the 2008 election, becoming the first African American President
2011 — Commandos conduct a raid in Pakistan, which ends with the killing of Osama bin Laden
2012 — The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars
2014 — Malala Yousafazi becomes the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize
2015 — Same-sex marriage is legalised across all fifty states in the USA
Almost all were political or nontechnical.
Personally, I think that most kinds of modern technology are highly incremental, and as of recent have been treated with suspicion.
I also could imagine that real technology change has slowed down a fair bit (especially outside of AI), as has been discussed extensively.
Agreed on tech change. We now expect a new generation of video game consoles every five years, a new version of Microsoft Office every three (but did NOT expect the name change to “Microsoft 365,” an increasingly ominous claim of ubiquity), and new phones every other year.
The only real technological surprise I’ve had in a good long while was yesterday when I suddenly realized Notepad.exe now has a “New Window” menu option, which simply spawns another instance of Notepad. To me, this is cause for celebration, and I find myself wondering why there wasn’t more fanfare for this superb productivity hack.
Oh I hadn’t noticed that, thanks! No longer need to go through the Taskbar for that. :D