NEWSWEEK.COM 29
SOCIETYtecHnOlOgy Has explOded Over tHe past 50 years, driven
by boomers. Electronics. Pharmaceuticals. Digitalization. Mate-
rials. Nanotech. In 1969, around 72,000 patents were granted. In
2018, almost five times as many were approved, roughly one every
90 seconds, day and night, weekends and holidays. According
to a brilliant 1997 essay by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm of
the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a century ago major inno-
vations like the car, electricity and the telephone took about
50 years to become mass market items. Midcentury, the time
to reach the mass market had dropped to about 25 years—for
example the radio, TV, VCR and microwave. The latest wave of
innovations—the PC, cellphone, antidepressants and the inter-
net—took 10 years or less. What that means is that we are the
first generation with “unrecognizable” technology. That is, if
we magically transported someone from 1919 to 1969, they’d
recognize every single device in a home except for the micro-
wave. But if we transported someone from 1969 to today, they
wouldn’t recognize half of our devices—laptop, Alexa, Kindle,
the cat’s laser pointer, DVD player, router, etc.It’s no small matter to handle that
much innovation. We consumers have
trouble keeping up—in little ways,
like having to replace still-functioning
devices, and in big ways, like falling
behind in workplace skills. Business
models become obsolete very quickly.
In 1998, a Motorola-backed company
called Iridium began launching satel-
lites into space with the idea of provid-
ing a worldwide communication ser-
vice for business people and travelers.
Problem was, by the time it finished
launching the 66 satellites three years
later, cellular technology had gotten
so good and was so widespread that it
made Iridium obsolete.
We boomers were the ones who
sped up technology, and we are the
ones who slowed it down. We realized
any technology powerful enough to
save the world is powerful enough to
destroy it. We questioned technology
and pushed for things like natural and
organic products, curbs on the use of
X-rays and radiation, new regulations
for chemical producers and chemicals,
and a hiatus in new nuclear plant con-
struction after the Three Mile Island
disaster in 1979, in which a nuclear re-
actor in Pennsylvania partially melted
down and leaked radiation.
Consumers in Europe and Califor-
nia are now moving to establish tight-
er rules around identity protection.
And we are keeping a wary eye on AI
and genetic modification. Sometimes
our boomer techno-skepticism goes
too far, as with the anti-vaxxing and
anti-genetically-modified-organism
movements. Still, it’s reasonable to
be at least somewhat paranoid. In
1938, X-ray machines were used to
measure children’s feet in shoe stores.
Technology is wonderful but danger-
ous. It could’ve destroyed our world
already in any number of ways—nu-
clear, chemical, genetic modifications.
But it hasn’t, because we haven’t let it.Technology
“We boomers were the ones who
sped technology up, and we are
the ones whoSLOWED IT DOWN.”FROM LEFT: SHANA NOVAK/GETTY; ANDRIY ONUFRIYENKO/GETTY