How long each big technology took to reach most of humanity

All 26 general purpose technologies on Wikipedia's list: 11 with estimates, 3 not yet a majority, 12 with no estimate

source: Tech list: Lipsey, Carlaw & Bekar 2005 (24 GPTs) via Wikipedia, plus its later additions money and AI; Literacy, electricity, internet: Our World in Data (ITU, World Bank); phones: GSMA; air travel: Gossling & Humpe 2020; AI: Microsoft AI Diffusion Q2 2026; ancient dates: archaeology refs in the source list • transform: Teal = measured; amber = reasoned bracket (very rough). Boxes = ranges, dots = midpoints (log-midpoint of years). Pink = not yet a majority (lower bound, not in fits). No estimate possible for 12 of 26: money, water wheel, 3-masted ship, steam engine, factory system, railways, iron steamship, internal combustion engine, mass production, lean production, biotech, nanotech. Writing = most people literate. Fits: straight line in log(years) vs year. • drawn 2026-10-21 01:31 UTC