Start of the Steam Engine to Telegraph/Photography Innovation Era
(1782-1839) - Industrial Revolution

End of the Steam Engine to Telegraph/Photography Innovation Era
(1782-1839)

Circa 1860, American slaves were the largest capital asset of the United States, four million people worth at least $3 billion, more than all the capital invested in railroads and factories in the United States. See also: The economics of the Civil War and slavery, by Roger Ransom of the University of California, and Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist, and Why would an economic analysis of the U.S. in the 1800s ignore American slavery? (Mother Jones, May 2015). Another book, "The Half Has Never Been Told", by Edward Baptist, also well reviews this ignored economic aspect of American slavery, with book reviews at: New York Times, 03 Oct 2014, and Wall Street Journal, 05 Sep 2014, with a quote: "In the 1820s, slave owners held two million slaves worth $1 billion—a third of all U.S. wealth at the time." In 1865, Abraham Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation, and the U.S. Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. You will note that while "US" appears infrequently above and before these dates, it appears more and more frequently below and after these dates. Indeed, in his book, "Battle Cry of Freedom", James McPherson reports that of the 143 important inventions patented in the U.S. by 1860, 93 percent were from Northern "free" states.

Start of the Electromagnetics to Modern Physics Innovation Era
(1865-1905) - Science Revolution

End of the Electromagnetics to Modern Physics Innovation Era
(1865-1905)

Start of Integrated Circuit to Teletext/Personal Computer Innovation Era
(1958-1981) - Technology Revolution

1970 marked the year in U.S. history that Employee Compensation, as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, reached a maximum of 57%. Since 1970, it has steadily declined to about 53%, a level earlier seen in the 1940s, with the higher corporate profits benefitting capital, not labor. Technology most likely will prevent this maximum from ever being reached again.

End of Integrated Circuit to Teletext/Personal Computer Innovation Era
(1958-1981)

NOTE: we are curently focusing on completing these timetables up to 1981. In terms of fundamental innovation, one can argue that since the mid-1980s, it has mostly been evolution and aesthetics, not revolution.

Since the year 2000, innovators have spent over $30 billion acquiring 2.6 million U.S. patents. Since the year 2000, under Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush, the U.S. Federal government has spent over $800 billion on research and development, mostly through the DoD, DoE, NASA, and NIH. For this $800 billion (in light of these 2.6 million patents), U.S. taxpayers MAY have helped make contributions to the following fundamental post-1999 innovations:

Let us be blunt: unless civilization achieves cheap ground-to-LEO (Low Earth Orbit) transportation costs by mid-century, say 2050, civilization will choke on its own vomit, dead before its time is due. There are way too many people working so hard, and way too few political leaders leading. All other innovation is irrevelant for a better life (now, e.g., we can eat too much, can buy too much advertised crap on the Internet, can live long enough). We must expand off the planet. We need a "steam aerolocomotive" to raise us to Low Earth Orbit (with a cost which that has only dropped 50% in the last 30 years to plataeu around $11,000/pound). It won't be penis-shaped (such rockets only useful for inspiring David Bowie), and this "steam aerolocomotive" won't come out of Washington, Arlington or Silicon Valley. And it will be patented. In the words of The Animals, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.