Why are we seeing world-changing events during our lifetime?

Why are we seeing world-changing events during our lifetime? Is it because we live quite long, or because humanity develops and changes quite quickly?

It’s a mix of both human lifespan and the speed of change, but the biggest factor today is how fast the world now evolves.  Let’s break it down.

1. Human lifespan is long enough to see multiple eras

Humans today often live 70–90 years, which is long enough to witness several major shifts.

For example, someone born in 1950 might have seen:

  • The Cold War
  • The Fall of the Berlin Wall
  • The rise of the Apple Inc., Microsoft, and Google
  • The birth of the internet and smartphones
  • The COVID-19 pandemic
  • Artificial intelligence breakthroughs

That’s huge societal change within a single lifetime.

But even in earlier centuries, people sometimes lived long enough to see big transformations (wars, revolutions, new technologies). So lifespan alone doesn't explain everything.

2. The real difference: technological acceleration

Human progress now grows exponentially, not linearly.

For most of history:

  • Major technological changes might occur every few centuries.

Today:

  • Major shifts happen every decade or even faster.

Examples:

  • 1990s → internet spreads
  • 2000s → smartphones change daily life
  • 2010s → social media dominates information
  • 2020s → rapid development of AI

This rapid pace makes one lifetime feel like several historical eras.

3. Global connectivity amplifies change

Before modern communication, many events affected only local regions.

Now:

  • News spreads instantly
  • Technology spreads worldwide
  • Economic or political changes ripple globally

For instance, a breakthrough at a company like OpenAI or NVIDIA can affect industries worldwide within months.

So events feel bigger and faster because they reach everyone.

4. We are living during a particularly transformative era

Historians often compare our time to major turning points like:

  • The Industrial Revolution
  • The Scientific Revolution

But today’s transformation combines:

  • AI
  • biotechnology
  • global communication
  • automation
  • climate change

That convergence means multiple revolutions happening simultaneously.

 In short:

  • Humans live long enough to witness big change.
  • But today the speed of progress is unusually fast, so we see more world-changing events than most generations before us.

💡 A fascinating perspective:
Someone born in 1900 went from horse-drawn transport to the Moon landing (the Apollo 11 Moon Landing) within one lifetime.

A few centuries before that, a lifetime might see almost no technological change at all.

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With Chat GPT.