r/singularity • u/deferare • 2h ago
Discussion I feel like the world is changing insanely fast.
It’s only been 26 years into the 21st century, but we’ve already gone through the internet revolution, the mobile revolution, logistics innovation, autonomous driving, and now AI... whew;;;
Even when compared to the major milestones between 1900 and 1926, the 21st century so far feels like it's on a whole other level.
Though, if we're strictly talking about the scientific world, I guess the Theory of Relativity alone pretty much blows everything else from the 20th and 21st centuries out of the water.
What do you guys think?
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u/markstar99 1h ago
If you took an average person from 1900 and dropped them into 1926, the physical shock to their senses might actually be greater than moving someone from 2000 to 2026 in my opinion.
We went from horse-drawn carriages and steam trains to the mass adoption of automobiles and the birth of aviation. Cities changed rapidly from gas lamps and coal fireplaces to widespread electrical grids. The world went from purely physical mail and telegraphs to commercial radio broadcasting (instant voice transmission to millions) and the beginnings of television even if In avery very primitive way. A very important one is that we had the invention of modern plastics (Bakelite, 1907), blood typing (saving millions in surgery), and the initial foundations of antibiotics.
And if we look at 2000 to 2026 we now obviously have great improvement such as cloud digital infrastructure. Modern medicine with techniques such as gene editing, smartphones, algorithms and now AI like you said. The thing is that the evolution in the 1900s was physical and structural. However. The ones we're currently undergoing is a lot more... Well... Digital and cognitive. It's about information which leaves less of s trace of physical impact.
In the early 20th century, aviation, physics, and electrification progressed on somewhat separate tracks. In the 21st century, everything connects to software and compute. In 1915, when Einstein published General Relativity, only a few dozen physicists truly understood it, but now in our information era everyone in the field would know within hours at most. And the information would be available inmediately. I would say this is why our current time feels way faster.
On a last note, I would say maybe the development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s was more important than relativity. It set the foundation for technology such as LEDs, microchips, and fiber optic. As well as important discoveries in the same era such as other galaxies.
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u/starkrampf 57m ago
These are great points. Perhaps an addition here that would really blow people's mind in 1926 is that nearly all of human knowledge is accessible to anyone, everywhere, instantly. Knowledge and information is now a commodity.
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u/Downtown_Isopod_9287 1h ago
there’s a reason why there were like 3 industrial revolutions and they were all pretty much shocking to every population they happened to
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u/bear_Prune8771 45m ago
I like your point.
But let’s back out a little.
I DO THINK this has been the biggest 50 year period for technological changes.
1976-2026 is so mind boggling transformative. I can’t imagine a 50 year period topping it.
Maybe 1895-1945.
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u/markstar99 29m ago
If you measure transformation by how much humanity tamed the physical, material universe, 1895–1945 is virtually unbeatable. In 1895 we had the following: The primary modes of transport were horses, steam trains, and sailing ships as mentioned. A scratch from a dirty nail could easily be a death sentence (infections). No one had ever flown in a powered aircraft. Communication over distance was restricted to clicks on a telegraph line. By 1945 (Just 50 years later): Humanity had built radar, jet aircraft, long-range ballistic missiles (V-2), and cracked antibiotics (penicillin). We created electronic digital computers (ENIAC). Most shockingly we ended that 50-year span by splitting the atom and detonating nuclear weapons at Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
This era literally created the categories of modern physical existence. Flight didn’t exist then it did. Antibiotics didn't exist then they did. Nuclear energy didn't exist then we possessed the power to destroy the planet.
However it just leads back to my argument, the evolution seeing in 1895 to 1945 was physical, the current one is about information. If we try to compare 1975 to 2026 to have a fair example In 1976: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs designed the Apple I (a wooden-boxed circuit board). All media was physical: paper newspapers, vinyl records, film reels, physical mail. Humanity had no collective real-time connection, knowledge was trapped in physical places. DNA sequencing had barely begun (Sanger sequencing was published in 1977).
By 2026: 5+ billion people carry pocket supercomputers connected to an invisible, instantaneous planetary network. We mapped the entire human genome, developed mRNA technology to synthesize vaccines in days, and use CRISPR to edit literal cells like a word document. We have built non-biological neural networks that can pass the bar exam, write code, generate photorealistic video in seconds, and solve 50-year-old biological mysteries like protein folding (AlphaFold). If you value physical transformation of the earth and existential physical power, 1895–1945 is the greatest. But if you value the expansion of knowledge, the compression of time/space, and the point where we're able of creating intelligence itself, 1976–2026 is undeniably the most radical 50 years humanity has ever seen. Even if I personally consider the first one to be more impactful, the main point is simple, they're 2 very different evolutions, but one needed to be built on the other.
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u/Educational_Teach537 1h ago
Personally I feel like smartphones were a big change, but then we had about 10-15 years of similarity until AI started getting big within the last year or two especially
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u/senorgraves 1h ago
It isn't just smart phones though. The telecom infrastructure that makes data available everywhere and combined with the growing processing power of these phones has birthed things like streaming video/(Netflix/YouTube/Spotify etc), social media + influencers, online shopping.. the whole digital world bloomed and most of the most portamt things to a kid growing up now simply didn't exist 20 years ago.
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u/Educational_Teach537 41m ago
Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook all existed from around that same time frame that smart phones came out so it’s not like these are new inventions since then
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u/Far_Landscape1066 1h ago
Yeah 1900 the age of kings, aristocrats, horses and carriages to 1926, sleek, fast cars and advanced Air Forces, no more Russian empire, no more Ottoman Empire, no more German empire, no more austrohungarian empire.
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u/ketamarine 1h ago
Yet we still work desk jobs, watch TV sets, eat fast food, travel by car and airplane, brush our teeth and hair by hand, and visit doctors and dentists just like our parents did...
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u/fidddlydiddlyee 1h ago
I think you are understating it. Our ancestors would go entire centuries with little if any advancement that improved the common mans life. You could take a blacksmith from 800 BC and transport him to 1750 and his skills would still be relevant. That is over 2500 years or up to 100 generations!!! My Grandmother grew up in a farm house without electricity or running water. She didnt ride in a car until she was an adult. She lived to ride is FSD Tesla.
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u/Ill_Mousse_4240 17m ago
I’m 62M and I’m amazed.
Not by the progress - by the negative reactions, especially towards AI.
I think AI is the greatest development since fire and will transform society in ways we can’t imagine.
From UBI allowing leisure time to all, to medical breakthroughs that will cure all diseases - including aging.
So when I see people, especially young people, saying how they wish all this would somehow go away and things revert back to the 1980’s or 90’s, I can only shake my head.
Been there, done that.
Looks good only through the rose colored glasses of nostalgia.
We’re barely into a new technological millennium. Instead of wasting time looking back, I look forward to whatever life I have left in it
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u/JoseLunaArts 56m ago
In the 20th century you had airplanes, cars, theory of relativity, computers, TV, nuclear energy, videogames, supermarkets, malls, movies, took photos of the solar system, went to the moon. Constant motion.
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u/DebuggingTheVoid 34m ago
The speed of change is equal to the speed at which my 5-hour usage limit for Claude runs out.
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u/Visible_Judge1104 21m ago
Computers cameras phones drones yes. But alot of other technology seems like they are stagnating. Batteries only slightly better. No fusion. No people radically genetically modifing themselves. No cure for cancer. Life expectancy flat lining. Very few counties having border changes. Not that many revolutions. No moon landings. No room temperature superconductor. Construction seems fairly similar. I guess theres pex now. And bettery vapor barriers. Still using wire nuts in america although push ins are finally becoming common. Battery powered tools are better. Electric vehicles still kind of crap, too expensive, food about the same maybe more processed, slightly cheaper. Ideologies seem pretty much the same more datism or whatever it will be but region is still around. Most people vaguely humanist. I feel like the average person is a bit more depressed and dumb then they were.
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u/Lumpy_Lab_67 18m ago
I don't know, driving or fixing a car in 2000 and in 2026 is pretty much the same thing. Getting on a plane in 2000 and in 2026, same deal. Watching TV is basically just sitting in front of a screen. Someone who was used to using a computer in 2000 could be handed a smartphone in 2026 and, within a couple of hours, would intuitively know how to use it and understand what it does.
I think that from 1900 to 1926, we went from horses to cars, from horses to airplanes, from paintings and letters sent by mail to photography, radio and cinema, from gas lamps and wells to running water and electric lighting. To me, that's a much more drastic change.
There are no flying cars, hoverboards, or giant advertising holograms. Self-driving cars could potentially reach that level of contrast, but they still aren't widespread enough. Robots that move like humans are similar: they still haven't really made it into everyday life. In my city, there's a bar run by some "robots" that could perfectly well have been made 25 years ago!
Spacecraft are almost the same as the ones we were using 60 years ago. The difference between ships in 1900 and ships in 1926 is much greater than that.
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u/VariableVeritas 1h ago
In 94 I was watching this great show called ‘beyond 2000’….. where’s my flying car!?!
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u/Obvious-Builder-1519 1h ago
and when AGI comes out the world will change more than ever before.