Three New Technologies

Futurist and Stanford Univ. professor Paul Saffo believes we are in an age similar to the period of development of many of great monotheistic religions between 800 BC and 200 BC. This was a time, he says, “shaped by innovations in government, transport and communications. Population growth created new challenges demanding political innovations. New sailing technology transformed the seas from barriers to highways for ideas that traveled with trade goods to new lands. The consequent intellectual ferment yielded new world views, new uncertainties—and new religions.

“Three technologies have brought us to the edge of another axial shift today.  Air travel has given entire populations unprecedented mobility. The intermodal container has delivered a cornucopia of products to every corner of the globe. And cyberspace has become a promiscuous, meme-spreading hotbed of ideas,” he said.

from Threes, Chapter 8, “Threes in Business and Technology”