"...the information revolution. Almost everybody is sure ...that it is proceeding with unprecedented speed; and ...that its effects will be more radical than anything that has gone before. Wrong, and wrong again. Both in its speed and its impact, the information revolution uncannily resembles its two predecessors ...The first industrial revolution, triggered by James Watt's improved steam engine in the mid-1770s...did not produce many social and economic changes until the invention of the railroad in 1829 ...Similarly, the invention of the computer in the mid-1940s, ...it was not until 40 years later, with the spread of the Internet in the 1990s, that the information revolution began to bring about big economic and social changes. ...the same emergence of the “super-rich” of their day, characterized both the first and the second industrial revolutions. ...These parallels are close and striking enough to make it almost certain that, as in the earlier industrial revolutions, the main effects of the information revolution on the next society still lie ahead."
React to this quote
More by Peter Drucker
See allResonant Thoughts
"It is worth recalling that during the 1960s, and again in the 1970s, Britain's growth rate was the lowest of all the major European economies. By contrast, during the 1980s, our growth rate has been t…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"We are still very much annoyed by out-of-date notions of time. Please, would you throw away your watches! A…"
— Jean Tinguely"Sometimes the things we have to do are objectionable in the eyes of others."
— Richard Perle"Matthew is a complete pro. Everyday that we were shooting, we were getting great material."
— Matthew Perry (actor)"At this moment the doctrine of force bars the way to settlement and fills the world with envy, hatred, mali…"
— Edward Wood"Violence is not the monopoly of the exploiters and as such the exploited can use it too and, moreover, ough…"
— Che Guevara"Sometimes we walk into something that is not for us at all. We pretend it is. We think we can shrug it off …"
— Colum McCann