# Is there a specific name for this huge human advancement in the past 300 years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488 "2021-01-25T20:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/1 "2021-01-25T20:30:38Z")
Over the past 300 years or so, humans have undergone a drastic skyrocketing in technology, information, affluence, standard of living, science, etc. Far more than all previous millennia combined. (Whereas someone even just five hundred years ago didn’t live a lifestyle all that different from someone five thousand years ago.) Is there a specific sociological term or name for this period of history, or this ongoing trend? Not quite Industrial Revolution, since it’s much more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/2 "2021-01-25T20:31:35Z")
“Future shock” refers to that and our psychological reaction to it. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/3 "2021-01-25T21:17:58Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Not quite Industrial Revolution, since it’s much more than that. But it is one aspect of it. More of a Technological Revolution. > **[Technological revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_revolution#History)** > > A technological revolution is a period in which one or more technologies is replaced by another novel technology in a short amount of time. It is a time of accelerated technological progress characterized by innovations whose rapid application and diffusion typically cause an abrupt change in society. > A technological revolution may involve material or ideological changes caused by the introduction of a device or system. It may potentially impact business management, education, social interaction... ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/4 "2021-01-25T21:29:38Z")
> **[Information revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_revolution)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The term information revolution describes current economic, social and technological trends beyond the Industrial Revolution. > Many competing terms have been proposed that focus on different aspects of this societal development. > The British polymath crystallographer J. D. Bernal introduced the term "scientific and technical revolution" in his 1939 book The Social Function of Science to describe the new role that science and technology are coming ... [Information Revolution - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/information-revolution). ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/5 "2021-01-25T22:04:48Z")
The first part of that period is covered by the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolution and the rest is perhaps “post-Napoleonic” but that doesn’t really capture the accelerating pace of improvements as noted by the OP. The technological revolution and information revolution are both contained within that longer period but perhaps we can come up with a more all-encompassing term for it. “the great leap forward” would have been a good choice but that term has a somewhat murky reputation. Not sure it can be redeemed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/6 "2021-01-25T22:29:34Z")
The word is “history”. The same word is used for the huge advancement in the 300 years before that, and before that, and so on all the way back to the invention of language. And the same word will be used for the era of huge advancement to follow this one, that will make this one look completely insignificant. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/7 "2021-01-25T22:35:29Z")
Not quite what you’re asking for but some definitions of the proposed [Anthropocene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene) period coincide nicely with your time period, and its the part of the overall period where changes at global and regional landscape levels are most manifest. Archaeologists - who like to create names for periods of time - have struggled with a name for this. We use terms like ‘post-medieval’, ‘industrial’ and ‘historical archaeological’ in specific ways, none of which really fits comfortably with the popular way these terms are interpreted. Even so, we recognise that this change is a real thing, and its key characteristics are the increasing intensification and integration of the global economy. We’d date it from around the end 15th century - European explorers leading to conquest and economic control of distant parts of the globe, and everything that unfolded from that. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/8 "2021-01-26T01:38:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And the same word will be used for the era of huge advancement to follow this one, that will make this one look completely insignificant. That’s pretty optimistic. Another possibility is that civilization doesn’t complete the leap to sustainable energy and resource management. In that case, we run out of accessible resources in a couple of centuries, and what’s left of civilization descends to just above a subsistence level and loses the ability to produce advanced technologies. They can mine landfills for some materials, like aluminum, but others such as lithium or cobalt are too dilute or require too much reprocessing. Humanity finds it impossible to reach beyond a certain technological height because the naturally sustainable energy sources (like wood) aren’t enough to sustain a technological civilization. They stay that way essentially forever because there is no longer a cache of accessible petroleum to bootstrap it back to a high level. I don’t _think_ that’s a likely outcome, but I can’t rule it out, either. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/9 "2021-01-27T14:13:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The same word is used for the huge advancement in the 300 years before that … I disagree with this statement, which seems to assume that all technological advancements are linear through history and there were the same levels of tech advancements in any 300 year period. When my grandmother was a child, their home was lit by candles and lamps. They had to haul in wood and coal and then keep burning it in stoves to stay alive in winter. If they wanted to speak to a neighbour, they had to hitch up the horse and buggy and drive to the neighbouring farm. If they wanted to know what was happening in current events, they had to drive the buggy into town and get a newspaper, which might have the most recent news of what had happened in the country and the world a couple of weeks ago. If they wanted to communicate with relatives in the old country, they had to write a letter and post it. Immigration was a one way trip, because of the cost of travel - her parents never saw their old home and family again. By the time of her death, if she wanted light, she flipped a switch. Her house kept warm automatically - no labour required. If she wanted to speak to a friend or relative next door, or across town, or in another town, or province, or country, she just had to pick up the phone. If she wanted to know what was happening in the country or the world, she watched the news on tv in the evening and there it was, stuff happening in the province, the country, the world, THAT DAY. If she wanted to visit relatives in other provinces or across the ocean, she bought a ticket at a pretty affordable price, and FLEW there. I can’t think of any other hundred year period that had such a technological advance in one person’s lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/10 "2021-01-27T21:37:52Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I disagree with this statement, which seems to assume that all technological advancements are linear through history and there were the same levels of tech advancements in any 300 year period. No, the whole point is that it’s not linear. It’s exponential. Yes, you can look at the past n years and say that the amount of advancement in that amount of time is greater than all of history before that (the value of n can certainly be debated, but it’s fairly low). But that doesn’t mean that this time is special, because the same statement could have been made at any point in history. A graph of any exponential phenomenon, scaled to fit comfortably on a page, will look the same no matter what part of the curve you look at, with almost no change on the left, and a sudden growth on the right. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/11 "2021-01-31T15:17:34Z")
Yeah. My own maternal grandmother was born before the Wright brothers flew, and lived long past the Apollo landings and into the space shuttle era. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/12 "2021-02-01T13:02:25Z")
My favourite similar factoid is that Orville Wright lived long enough to see an airplane fly with a cargo hold longer than his initial flight. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/13 "2021-02-01T13:13:27Z")
I was going to post the same thought. That book was before its time because, in the intervening years, a strong social case has been made for its premise. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/14 "2021-02-01T13:22:17Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Orville Wright lived long enough to see an airplane fly with a cargo hold longer than his initial flight. That’s flippin’ amazing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-specific-name-for-this-huge-human-advancement-in-the-past-300-years/931488/15 "2021-02-02T02:38:20Z")
He also lived long enough to see a military jet fighter. And I can’t Google the damn picture. dammit.