This is part of a body of research pointing to the same things in different areas. Scientific and industrial progress is heterogeneous, incremental, and relentless. It's more like hordes of searchers noticing the same things simultaneously than lone geniuses in solitary labs.<p>One thing I wonder is how this might have changed or not over time. It seems important to know not just for historical understanding, but also to anticipate possible changes in the current regime.
"Robotics, for example, is improving at the rate of 18.5% a year". That is a prodigious rate of improvement. That means robots will be 100 times better than they are today in 25 years. Maybe a robot that can clean my house, do my dishes, and mow my lawn may not be so far away after all.