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The author argues that most life-changing advances—from infant survival to indoor plumbing—happened before the digital era. He says smartphones, AI, and 3D baby scans feel novel but are refinements of century-old inventions, not signs of a new age of breakthroughs.
- Infant mortality dropped from ~100 per 1,000 births in 1900 to under 6 today, with nearly all the improvement occurring between 1870 and 1970, before digital technology existed.
- Smartphone features (cameras, GPS, telephony) are refinements of inventions 35-130 years old, not new breakthroughs.
- Post-war productivity gains have halved since 1970 despite the internet, and daily routines like cooking, housing, and travel look largely unchanged from 50 years ago.
- Modern innovations like streaming, digital payments, and AI chatbots are real but don't match the scale of past breakthroughs like electrification or sanitation.