آسمان

Writing a history of ideas over the past three years, I have been struck time and again by the fact that, contrary to what we tell ourselves all the time - on TV, in newspapers and magazines, in advertising and in government propaganda - our present world is nowhere near as interesting and innovative as it thinks it is, certainly in comparison with past ages.
.....
what great ideas or transformations have been introduced in the half-century since 1950? A measly two stand comparison with the quantum, the gene, the unconscious and all the other great innovations of the past. These are the pill and the internet. All the others you might name - the transistor, the structure of DNA, space travel, tranquillisers, beta-blockers, immunosuppressants, John Rawls' theory of justice, postmodernism, superstrings - are consolidations of existing ideas.