... if, indeed, it is the establishment of a new technological channel, then twenty years from now, when it becomes clear what are the common features shared between those waves of innovation and later waves of innovation in the same technological channel, it seems highly likely that we can point to those waves of innovation and say, "this one was an important pre-cursor", and "this one is the critical breakthrough laying the foundation for our current economic regime".

Lots of waves of innovation are billed as the next really, really big deal. Far fewer are.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.