The Second Age of Foundational Technologies | by Kevin Maney (Strategy + Business) The world is in nonstop turmoil. A pandemic has killed millions. A grinding war is underway in Europe. In many countries, there are deep political divides and public unrest. The global economy is facing stalling growth, and there’s a widespread sense of angst.
An observer could have penned these observations on the state of the world earlier this spring—or almost exactly a century ago. And that’s no accident. The root cause of all the current disruption is remarkably similar to the source of the convulsions that hit in the early 20th century: a rare and powerful 30-year burst of foundational, life-altering innovation.
Which is both good news and bad news. The opportunities to remake the world and develop innovations over the next decade will be abundant, but so, too, will turbulence and crisis.
About six years ago, I coauthored a book called Unscaled. Its premise rested on the historical arc of innovation over the past 130 years.
Between 1890 and 1920, the world experienced an unprecedented wave of technological innovation. In those 30 years, the United States saw the electrification of much of the country, the spread of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephones, the first radio broadcasts, the first powered flight by the Wright brothers, and, with the Ford Model T, the arrival of mass-market automobiles. These were all foundational technologies. That is, they didn’t do just one thing; they opened paths for all manner of innovation and change. For instance, electricity, transportation, and communication allowed factories to scale up and mass-produce goods, which made everything from food to furniture cheaper and more abundant.