Oh how things haved changed

"Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they
worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably:
Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about
all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much
worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding
horses?

But of course, within a few years, nobody rode horses except for
sport. And in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy
source that was unknown in 1900. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and
Japan were getting more than 30% from this source, unknown in 1900.
Remember, people in 1900 didn't know what an atom was. They didn't
know its structure. They also didn't know what a radio was, or an
airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell
phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU,
IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet.
interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed
dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding,
heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape
recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars,
liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step
aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon,
fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal
transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS... None of this would have meant
anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn't know what you
are talking about."*


* From Crisis of Science by Michael Crichton