Re: How does this era in innovation measure up?

In previous eras, innovations came rarely, but when they did, they were big.  The ability to create fire, the wheel, melting bronze... those innovations were massive and they changes things in ways we, in the modern era, have trouble imagining.

 But in this era, changes come constantly.  And each change is very small.  There are 1,000,000 innovation-based changes happening right now!  And the weight of those 1,000,000 innovations a second is a much bigger deal than anything that has happened preivously.

Remember that the last 100 years is the first time in the history of the earth, that life on earth has the ability to destroy all life on earth.  That's a new innovation, and it's a pretty big deal if you ask me. 

 But a nuclear weapon is not 1 innovation.  It lives on the backs of all the innovations that came before it (fire, the wheel, bronze).  So in a way, innovation is a cumulative experience.  And in that way, the question itself starts to lose meaning.  The innovations of this era are just the next set of innovations in the discorvey of Life the Universe and Everything.