In 1885 people were flying in balloons. In 1950 radios were ordinarily furniture, portable radios were luggage, and radio operation was a military rating.  A mere twenty years ago, I accessed the internet with bauds, phone numbers, parity and gopher. A SVGA resolution picture [800x600 for anyone on my lawn] took about a cup of coffee to download and the idea of an online encyclopedia was the stuff of science fiction.<p>And science fiction is largely a cultural invention of the article&#x27;s second epoch. Around 1950 is when it went from a few authors to a literary genre and ideas about the technological details of the future went from projecting steam into the future as rockets and submarines to projecting computers and radios. We don&#x27;t have personal helicopters for two reasons: the laws of physics and the laws of information theory. I can order my potatoes and herring online. Strapping on a jetpack and flying to the Isle of Man for my fix, isn&#x27;t just impossible, it&#x27;s absurd.<p>I&#x27;ve got Hari Seldon&#x27;s prognostic pocket calculator prognosticating Wednesday&#x27;s weather and wending through the ether to an encyclopedia galactic. I can text you a photograph of it from a chair in the sky.<p>The article does not list irony among the cultural we got from ancient Egypt, and it is civilization which is not attributed a great sense of humor in the popular cannon. Yet certainly it had been invented by Socrates&#x27; day. Fortunately it thrives today. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZFsOUbZ0Lr0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ZFsOUbZ0Lr0</a>