Does innovation arc toward decadence?

Three years ago, I posteda piecehere titled “The Hierarchy of Innovation,” which argued, speculatively, that the focus of innovation has followedAbraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, beginning withTechnologies of Survival and now concentrating onTechnologies of the Self. With The Glass Cage done, I’ve decided to return to this idea with hopes of fleshing it out. I’m republishing my original post below and am soliciting your comments about it. If you have thoughts you’d like to share, please po...