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A most interesting piece Rory, it is always difficult to observe revolution whilst in the midst of one! It is interesting how the opportunity of hindsight yields clear Socio-Economic boundaries at 1770, 1850, 1930 and now 2010. It is also amazing how these clearly match the average living influence of around 80 years. Perhaps with the social, economic and political boundaries converging now as they did with the industrial and french/american revolutions in 1770, another paradigm shift is upon us? Additionally the new 'third' age must offer new revolutions that forge human development forward in a less environmentally damaging manor than the previous ones. 80 years from now, I wonder how the people of the day will reflect this period.....

Rory, think yourself lucky that your train carrage isn't prone to topling over on every turn and face the prospect of having to manualy push it back onto the tracks.

Trains, at least, have progressed a little over the years ;)

I don't think this supposed "credit crunch" will have much of an impact, if any, on technological advancement.

When you consider the fact that its companies like Sony, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Nokia (amoungst many others) that are primarily leading the technology charge, and who also happen to be amoungst the richest companies on the planet, added to the fact that much of technology's firsts come from the Universities which Governments surely would be insuring do not suffer from this, I think technology is far safer from the Stock Market Chronicals than in previous years.

Let me ask you - has these radical advances, this revolution made our life faster? Easier? Cheaper?

Nope. More complicated, certainly. Vastly more expensive. More energy consumption, more carbon emissions, more things to do before you can relax...

The internet revolution was meant to make business easier. It would allow people to work from home, businessmen would not have to travel but could connect through this amazing communication revolution.

And yet, business travel via plane and train has increased enourmously. People find it harder to escape work and relax, and society has become more materialistic and jealous.

And it has exposed the world to a side of life that rather than being an underworld has insinuated itself in our culture.

Following the article on Technology about the NSPCC research showing the amount of children seeing violent and disturbing images, You should do an article about Viral Videos and Free Forums.

I have been shocked at what young kids write about in forums that they set up using free services. One our eldest was a member of one set up by school friends. Some of the kids were slandering teachers, being anti Semitic, etc. These forums are un-moderated, publicly accessible and often unknown to parents. And there are MILLIONS of them.

One I was pointed too (relating to a company I deal with) had a large bunch of 14 to 19 year old kids describing how they were going to rape people.

Then there are the viral video sites. Beheadings, bestiality, rape, hard core porn - all with instruction on how to embed the vids on your forums. These sites get hundreds of thousands of visitors - and many of them are young teens.

This is not about a small minority of children - this is now the accepted culture. These are the links that they send to each other.

Anyone who moderates an online game will tell you the amount of vile rubbish they have to remove on a regular basis.

About time this was exposed fully

So Rory, I take it you were not standing up and packed in like sardines in said train.

I was like that on Friday evening. There were so many on the 6 carriage train that the train manager anounced the train would not leave until some people got off. Some of us did, putting hours on our journey.

Getting on point, what do you think will be the advancements made by all the 'mug punters' who put their money into CDS, CDO and SIV instruments?

I do not see anything good coming from it. It will be the Black Hole of Wealth.

Extremely interesting article.

But I think that the main question it raises is:- why the hell would you want to go to Wrexham?

Timely, well written piece. What goes up will come down. But a rolling stone continues. Technology, unlike the stock markets, is about making tangible, technical improvements while stock markets is about making intangible, (at times, "virtual") financial gains. One is built on foundations, the other on a bit of a foundation, but a generous amount of hope - and sometimes myth, or even deceit. So while the wall street crumbles, technology principles will stay...if anything, this crisis will separate the wheat from the chaff. Companies with genuinely sustainable technologies will see the eclipse through. Others will wait for the next bubble. Having said this, one really need to value technology with honesty because often there is a lot of hype and little substance. For example, what is the big value gained by being able to type out an essay on the train and upload it to a website using a 3G link ? While this is "cool", is this really "value" - in same sense as an asprin, when you need it, is value- or having an ATM in the highstreet is value. When we begin to mixup "cool" with "value", we need to be careful.

Sadly rail travel since denationalisation has actually got slower and more expensive ....

If the billons wasted on bailing out bankers, who have learn't no lessons (judging on the LloydsTSB decision to use some of the Govt money to pay 'bonuses' as usual), had been spent on finally getting the rail system working and cheap, I would be happier with technological advances bringing benefits.

As it is I spend more time than ever trav elling to and from work, with my boss being able to contact me via a 'dongle' anytime during the journey!

Gurubear,

You talk of all the negative sides of technical advance of the internet - the videos of beheadings, the porn, the fact that people find it hard to escape work even at home.

The invention of the printing press similarly made the distribution of disturbing ideas and images possible as never before. But it also enabled the spread of knowledge.

The internet is just a medium. It is one that gives me instant access to a library of knowledge that I could not have dreamed of 15 years ago. It enables me to discuss my opinions with others all around the world, and to listen to their different viewpoints. I'm able to practise my language skills by reading news in many different languages.

New technology will always lead to good and bad things. This has been the case since man discovered how to make fire and sharpen a stone.

Interesting article and interesting comments. I suppose there are similarities to the stock market crash of 1929 and the market problems today. But the technology situations may not be so parallel. It seems logical that the 20th century had a lot of technological advancement in every decade, not just in the 20s or 30s. Industries and infrastructure that was built the decade before was able to grow and prosper in the decade(s) after. But this was always true. Look at the automobile boom of the 1950s and 60s---fueled by the massive increase in roadbuilding and industrial machining in the 1940s.

I think the major event of the 20th century, and in the lives of everyone living in the western world today no matter when they were born, was World War II. That set the stage for massive industrial output and organization, the movement of people, and mass markets. It re-wove our social fabric. The thread was already there I suppose, but the particular form our societies took in terms of industry, economics, infrastructure and even family life and lifestyle was set by it.

There is no guarantee that anything equal in magnitude to mass electrification, the refrigerator or radio will emerge now. I see these technologies as a one-of-a-kind developments or a progression at best, where one invention begets another, rather than anything cyclical. Sure there were more patents in the 1930s than in the 1920s. Industry was developing then. Are there more patents now than in the 1990s? I don't know, but if there are then I bet that many of them are junk, or patents on "business methods", or one device split into twelve different patents whereas in the 1930s it would have been patented once.

The only lesson that may come from the 1920s/1930s is that fraudulent business models built on nothing but financial schemes, speculation and financial instruments (even if legal) may fail (and this of course includes banks); and that when money and investment are tight, existing products and infrastructure will serve as a foundation for new products. Just like electrification made refrigerators possible, wireless telephony will make it possible to type on a laptop while on a train. Okay, so they'll make and sell more wireless circuit boards. The stock market didn't cause this, it would have happened anyway.

Very interesting comment on 80-year cycles.

This is well thought out and refreshingly optimistic.We need to use technology for the benefit of mankind and nature rather than just creating instant landfill.Breed less!Give the planet breathing space.As for our railways,Andrew Marr's recent series showed how hard it is to expand the network and its capacity because of development around it.One thing about the Credit Crunch may be that people think more about how,why and who the economic system works for.

#3 "The internet revolution was meant to make business easier. It would allow people to work from home, businessmen would not have to travel but could connect through this amazing communication revolution.

And yet, business travel via plane and train has increased enourmously. People find it harder to escape work and relax, and society has become more materialistic and jealous."

Those are changes in society that have happened regardless of the internet. The internet has done most of my Xmas shopping so that this weekend I had my feet up rather than fight through shops and if I want to look up some information I can find it at a click of a mouse rather than walk to the local library to find the book I want is on loan.

Two changes to get from London to Wrexham? Why didn't you try Wrexham & Shropshire trains, who run direct from London Marylebone to Wrexham?

try going from wrexham to london is a horse and cart mate..
the recent credit crash was built on dodgy business practices based on mortgage and property assets..
the twenties crash was based on dodgy business practices based on 'new' technology stocks..
you'll find it has less to do with the technology and more to do with the business practices of whoever's get rich quick scheme is operating at the time.. the authorities ban it and bring in regulations .. the financial types find ways around it. a bubble starts to grow and bursts .. those who lost moan and groan .. the authorities bring in 'new' legislation and the cycle restarts..
its a business cycle not a technology cycle.. honestly some of you would have us living in caves.. this noble peasant thing seems to appeal to the middle classes.. weird, it appeals 'less' to the peasants i can tell you.

@Gurubear

"Then there are the viral video sites. Beheadings, bestiality, rape, hard core porn - all with instruction on how to embed the vids on your forums. These sites get hundreds of thousands of visitors - and many of them are young teens."

By the sounds of it you have no idea what "viral video" means.

Viral video I'm assuming you mean is videos that "infect" our youth with it's evilness. Viral video isn't that. It's a marketing term for a video that is produced that doesn't need to be advertised, as it passes on via word of mouth.

Viral videos would never contain the content you have mentioned, because it doesn't appeal to a large section of the audience. In fact, if any of them appears on services such as twitter, digg or indeed most forums, the chances are that moderators or indeed the collective group of people would hide it from view pretty quickly. As alluded to above this isn't the internet's fault, this is the individual's fault. Should you blame the inventor of the printing press because a child has seen pictures in Playboy Magazine?

Onto the article, and I completely agree, the technological sector is probably the best placed to weather the credit crunch, and be stronger for it at the other end. I see this myself with my day job (working as a computer programmer), and the company I work for is going from strength to strength, picking up a number of people who used to work for banks, guys with computer degrees, enticed by the fat paychecks. These people have now got out of the sector because they got let off. Sure they're not on mega money, but it's nice being able to do something infinitely more rewarding, creative & worthwhile.

The problem we have now, is that as technology improves, we never adjust our working hours. So we only get convience benefits. If you think about it, we are working as many hours as we were in the 1600s or even in the stone age. Hardly progress in my eyes. Can we not just all have one or two days off a week in return for our hard work with technological advances. It would reduce the amount of unemployment roughly to the same amount that it will rise. So we work 1 or 2 days less a week and no one is unemployed. I think I shall go for a 4 day weekend plus 3 days work. Let's all work part time, for the good of our country.

"Let me ask you - has these radical advances, this revolution made our life faster?"

Yes, I can do things on computers (calculations,graphics,presentations, anything really...) in minutes what would take me hours to do by hand.

"Easier?"

Yes, if I want to send someone a message or talk to them I need only email/IM them... rather than writing/phoning/walking round to their house. If I want to buy something obscure I need only look on ebay rather than hunting around shops all over the country.

"Cheaper?"

Yes, vastly so... aside from the money I've saved on stamps,phone bill etc mentioned above I now buy things of ebay for a fraction of the price I'd pay on the high street.

"Nope. More complicated, certainly."
That's simply a lack of education/understanding of the technologies

"Vastly more expensive."
Already addressed this

"More energy consumption, more carbon emissions,"
What does this have to do with advances in information technology?

"The internet revolution was meant to make business easier."
No it wasn't, if anything it was designed to improve communication between academics and the military. It has nothing to do with business.

"I have been shocked at what young kids write about in forums that they set up using free services...

One I was pointed too (relating to a company I deal with) had a large bunch of 14 to 19 year old kids describing how they were going to rape people...

This is not about a small minority of children - this is now the accepted culture. These are the links that they send to each other."

Children are not inherently rapists. As you admit this is now the accepted culture perhaps it should be your lack of understanding of this culture that needs to be addressed. You are taking what you see literally, they are only joking.

"Then there are the viral video sites. Beheadings, bestiality, rape, hard core porn - all with instruction on how to embed the vids on your forums. These sites get hundreds of thousands of visitors - and many of them are young teens."

What video sites are these? You certainly can't find that kind of stuff on youtube, livevideo, google video etc (the ones that receive hundreds of thousands of hits and are used by young people)

Whoever booked your ticket to Wrexham was a fool. You could have gone direct from Marylebone on Wrexham & Shropshire. I've used it now several times and it is far more pleasant experience than the other operators. And, generally, cheaper to boot.

#15 "I think I shall go for a 4 day weekend plus 3 days work. Let's all work part time, for the good of our country."

Great idea !! And your salary will be adjusted accordingly !!

#16 THese were the same arguements that were raised when steam was first used to power manufacturing !!

What can a steam loom do that one hundred workers cannot ?? Besides, if God wanted us to have steam, he'd have put us in kettles !!

The Luddites are with us always !!

I'm interested in the history of technology,. If you read old accounts of technology...people who thought that they were being abused by messages passed through telegraph wires above their houses...or little old ladies who were afraid of electricity 'leaking' out of the plug at night...

The Internet is the big new technology of my lifetime, and I see all the absurd old fears reappearing...

You cannot have checked your journey to Wrexham before leaving. You can do it in under 2hrs30 several times a day, and under 3hrs for a lot more. Use the internet!

Why change? Avoid vermin and the beardie smug one, and travel direct from Marylebone to Wrexham. It takes a wee bit longer than Virgin, but you get better accommodation, better food and drink.