Isn't that a result of relative stagnation in the 1800's? When things like better microscopes, advanced plumbing, higher speed trains, electricity, phone, radio and other staples of today's world were just being researched and used by a handful of people (with the others wondering why tf does it matter).
Right now, we're paving the way for much more powerful computers (quantum & "living" computers, HUD glasses), cheaper space travel (via privatization of space travel), effective transportation (electric cars, efficient airplanes), medicine (stem cells, man-machine interfaces), energy (nuclear fusion, efficient batteries) production (3D printers, robotics, faster prototyping and research), and other stuff.
And just like the radio, it will be at least another 50 years before we actually use it all on a larger scale, in my opinion...
Stagnation in the 1800's? Keep in mind this was the century that saw the invention and spread of the railroad, the invention and spread of a nearly instant global communication medium with the telegraph, the telephone, the moving picture, photography, the typewriter, large-scale mechanized factories with the spread of steam power, etc.
Right now, we're paving the way for much more powerful computers (quantum & "living" computers, HUD glasses), cheaper space travel (via privatization of space travel), effective transportation (electric cars, efficient airplanes), medicine (stem cells, man-machine interfaces), energy (nuclear fusion, efficient batteries) production (3D printers, robotics, faster prototyping and research), and other stuff.
And just like the radio, it will be at least another 50 years before we actually use it all on a larger scale, in my opinion...