The Victorian Era

[The Beatles]

Trying to launch a new debate here 'cause there's so many great historically-minded people around.

I contend that the Victorian Era represents the greatest confluence of progress, considering its short span, that the human race has ever seen. This is contrary to the popular belief that the most progress has been achieved in the last 60 years, and all the bollocks about an innovation singularity.

I won't start off by providing evidence for the claim as I am waiting for counterarguments before making a defence.

[Gen. Volkov]

Umm... I actually have no contention with that. The Victorian Era coincided with the Industrial Revolution, and every single bit of progress since than has basically just been the growth of that. The only time things progressed faster than during the Victorian Age/Industrial revolution ws during a time of war, and really it was just the refinement of things invented in the Victorian Age, e.g. the airplane. And while some things were not built until later, the first idea for them often occured during this time period, for example: the tank, and the gas turbine(jet) engine. The only really significant thing that has occurred since then was the invention of space flight, but Jules Verne was predicting that well before it happened, and rockets weren't new at all, we were just using them in novel ways. Well than the biological/medicine revolution, but most of the groundwork for that was laid in the Victorian Era. The entire electrical generation industry is still basically using the stuff that was invented back then. The incandescent light has changed very little, and a CD is just a phonograph that uses light instead of a wax tablet and needle. Really the only thing that was invented entirely on it's own after this period of time is the digital computer and it's corollary, the Internet. (Though several attempts were made to make mechanical computers in the Victorian Age, and the phone system is a primitive form of the internet).

[The Beatles]

Precisely. The way I like to put it is that the contributions of all periods after the Victorian Era were basically communications multicasting (TV, radio, computers, etc.), the genetic revolution, and the car. I know the ICE was invented in Victorian times, but it took until Edwardian times to make it a workable car in Germany and America.

Cool that we agree off the bat for once!

[edit] Forgot mechanized accounting.

[Gen. Volkov]

Indeed. Very cool.