The Promise of Innovation?

The current American economic boom can be att ributed in great part to the technological renaissance of the 1990’s. In fields ranging from communications to bio-technology, software and computer networking, America has again taken over technological leadership.

The result has improved the competitiveness of American business and created more-than-full emp loyment with low inflation. This bodes well for most Americans, but it comes wit h some cost.

As the pace of innovation accelerates globally, the avera ge Joe or Jane’s aversion to innovation increases in kind. Creation of new marke ts for technology, both business and personal, belies the potential new market f or the delivery of services that allow people to enjoy the fruits that innovatio n and technology have promised.

One of the selling points of innovation was always the prospect of having a “simpler” life with more free time for recr eation, family, etc. To date this promise remains undelivered.

The dawn ing and wide acceptance of e-mail and other web-based technologies has allowed f or faster communication and promises to allow instant collaboration between peop le at remote sites. While this would seem to provide an opportunity to accomplis h the same amount of work in less time, it has instead resulted in an expectatio n that more will be accomplished. While this increases efficiency, a positive re sult, there is as yet no evidence that it improves hourly earnings or the qualit y of life, two of its more prominent and salable promises.

This phenome non evidences the difficulty achieving all of the promises of technologically ba sed “progress”. Physical effects including the speed with which devices communic ate are eminently measurable, and to the extent that these effects represent pro gess, the world has jumped ahead geometrically. On the other hand, social and ps ychological effects are difficult to measure, involving as they do factors as va riable as personality and individual perception.

The movement towards simplification of daily life is a direct result of the pace of innovation, but it is not new. “New-fangled machines” was entered into the lexicon at the time of the industrial revolution and may, in fact, have a pre-cursor in the language of the Hittites. “Getting out of the rat race” certainly dates to the 60’s when the pace of innovation was glacial in comparison to current experience, and was a contributing concept in the development of Toffler’s “Future Shock”. The overwhelming impression left by the history of the simplification movement is that it has, at least until now, failed.

Perhaps the next few years will see the development of branches of psychology and sociology dedicated to teaching people to achieve true simplicity. Perhaps religion, especially taoism, will rise in the seach for simplicity. Or, perhaps, the search for simplicity will simply get more frenzied.

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