Technological progress mostly relies on discoveries made in physics. Things that will amaze a 1885 person in 1950 were mostly made possible with electricity and derivative technologies, plus nuclear physics, and a few other things. Even engines for our flying machines wouldn&#x27;t have been possible without electricity.<p>So the reason the leap between 1950 and today is not as noticeable in terms of the author&#x27;s time machine experiment, may be because there have been no more major, truly groundbreaking discoveries made in physics, as in, e.g. discovering a new force in nature not known before etc.<p>But the author is of course right in saying that the past 65 years were marked with a lot of hard work rather than earth shattering discoveries.