I'm not sure how accurate the dot-graph is at the bottom of the Tree, but anyone notice that 1880 to 1980 has a huge density, and since about 1980 we seem to be stagnating?
Data collection bias? Goalpost/definition change maybe (many recent advances are in "better" software and hardware)? Less research/exploration investment vs. business/exploitation investment?
Interesting to think about "what if my whole life has actually been in a period of global exploratory slowdown?"
Possibly related to that period having two world wars and the Cold War? If I look a lot of the inventions in that timeline, they're related to or directly funded by warfare. Consider radio and radar, rocketry, space flight, the Internet and its related technologies, there's a very big list.
In the US, institutions like DARPA were directly funded for that purpose.
Data collection bias? Goalpost/definition change maybe (many recent advances are in "better" software and hardware)? Less research/exploration investment vs. business/exploitation investment?
Interesting to think about "what if my whole life has actually been in a period of global exploratory slowdown?"