#technological-change

#technological-change

Three researchers who probed the process of business innovation won the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for explaining how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies in the dust. Their work was credited with helping economists better understand how ideas and technology succeed by disrupting established ways - a process as old as steam locomotives replacing horse-drawn wagons and as contemporary as e-commerce shuttering shopping malls.

Talk to a clear-head­ed 107-year-old today, and you could expect to hear sto­ries of ado­les­cence in the Great Depres­sion, or - if you're lucky - the Jazz Age seen through a child's eyes. It's no com­mon expe­ri­ence to have been formed by the age of radio and live deep into the age of the smart­phone, but arguably, Michael Fitz­patrick lived through even greater civ­i­liza­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion. Born in Ire­land in 1858, he sat for the inter­view above 107 years lat­er in 1965, which was broad­cast on tele­vi­sion.

It’s not just noise - it’s acceleration. Thanks to positive feedback loops like Wright's Law, the pace of technological change really is speeding up. Better tools lead to better tools.