What is innovation? The author seems to focus to much on the dramatic or thing that directly impact our lives. While there are a lot of things that don't directly make our lives more meaningful (Halo,etc.), there are amazing advances that have made living today so very exciting!!
Hand, face, arm, leg and ovarian transplants. (& others) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_transplantation#Timeline...
Better response to heart disease, (near) instant medical record sharing, targeted cancer treatments, human genome, anti-smoking research & bans in 27 states, functional MRI, robots performing surgery http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/PublicHealth/1...
snopes.com gave people accurate so that we don't have to rely on crap information- no matter how good it sounds.
Doctors can better diagnose patients thanks to information available on PDA.
GPS- now that's amazing. Google "GPS saves lives" seriously!
Cell Phones- also saves lives, makes contacting someone infinitely easier. How did truckers know to call home if there was an emergency at home? Much more difficult!
Ham Radios, Satellite Phones, hearing aids, pacemakers etc. Amazing devices that have done so much for us!
All of the tiny details made it possible to disseminate information, keep better contact perform incredible medical breakthroughs & decrease poverty worldwide. (Cell phones, internet, square, etc. facilitate economic development)
I'm an IT graduate. I look at the amazing inventions in my field. It feels like they all came less than 4 years ago. (when I graduated)
Oh, I forgot to mention the Nobel prizes. (many are very impressive!) Innovation is happening faster than it ever has before! In another 10 years, we may say- poverty & consumer debt is decreasing systemically worldwide, robots are plowing our fields & HIV has a vaccine! I enjoy the wonderful present and look forward to our bright future!