What revolutions have there been?

We are probably in the midst of one now! Trump IS a revolution.

I would say we have been living through the Internet Revolution.

I agree with the rest of your list, but I think representative government has been around just about as long as civilization. But I don’t know if it’s really revolutionized anything. Not arguing, just thinking out loud.

I’d add an education revolution, which may tie into how effectively we can spread information, but really is inclusive of the growth of education as a priority above many others. The amount of education and information the average person has today is beyond anything in history.

(just so I’m not accused of forgetting the scope of the world, I mean in the “first world” nations)

In the positive direction, I think the next revolution is either AI or significantly longer functioning lifespans for humans, whichever comes first.

Or, in the other direction, we find we’ve outgrown our environment at some point, and humans are forced to scale back in major ways, which I believe would be a first due to constraints rather than an event.

I’ve never understood the use of “revolution” as forcible overthrow of government or social order. A revolution is one instance of revolving – a single spin, rotation, or turn. Every day, the earth revolves on its axis and returns to daybreak.

Given that, shouldn’t “revolution” mean that a system is radically changed but then restored to what it had been?

The Integrated Circuit Revolution.

@Love_my_doggie i agree with the spirit of your comment, though I feel I should point out that the Earth revolves around the sun, but rotates on its axis – two different terms for two different types of motion. But yes, I agree with you that it is a strange analogy to make for an event that is not considered to be cyclical!

@Love_my_doggie – I always thought of it as related to “overturn”. Which also has nothing to do with actually flipping anything of substance.

@funkdaddy I really appreciate it when people think out loud. Thank you. You may have something there with the education revolution idea. I’m not completely sure we can predict where the possible revolution we’re in the middle of now is headed. AI is one way it could go. I wonder if the people in the early 19th century appreciated the change from an agricultural society to an industrial one.

@Love_my_doggie Revolve and revolution both share the same Latin root, but they are not by any stretch of the imagination synonymous.

@LuckyGuy Care to elaborate?

@all Here’s a notion worth exploring. Are we growing more peaceful? Are we as a species outgrowing our warring past? I do not have the data at my fingertips, but I have seen graphs that show deaths from war as a percentage of the global population plummeting in the past 100 years.

Knowledge revolution.

@RedDeerGuy1 Is the knowledge revolution something that has already happened, or are we experiencing it now?

@Hawaii_Jake We are starting to experience the knowledge revolution now.

Both “revolt” and “revolve” have the noun form “revolution,” but they don’t meant the same thing, even though they come from the same root. When we speak of revolting, we’re not just talking about turning in place.

@Hawaii_Jake – Are we growing more peaceful?

Maybe? I think mostly the nations capable of inflicting the largest losses of life have more to lose, so don’t tangle with the others. Maybe that’s a form of peace?

I think on the other side of that, the number of people one angry person can kill keeps going up. Our ability to defend against one person hasn’t kept pace, so even if diplomatic states never war again, we may find that individuals with little to lose may bring the effects of war without the large numbers of “soldiers” previously involved.

Right now nations don’t invade as often, they launch airstrikes and missiles from afar. What happens when that level of technology is cheap and plentiful? We’re not far away.

@Hawaii_Jake There is a huge difference in a “representative government” and one which actually represents the “will of the people aka our citizens.”

To me, it seems more like there is a desperation revolution. Countries like China and Russia are trying to grab what they can, now that there is a sort of agreed or shared notion that the Earth and it’s resources are finite. I’ve heard of the Chinese and Russian governments contemplating a claim to the moon, or parts of it.
This type of behavior will potentially lead to world war.

It has already led to anexation of Crimea and China’s claims in the South China Sea. Russia has been said to be taking steps to claim most of the Arctic Circle. As the world’s population grows, it’s about to get ugly.

@si3tech What is your point? How does that relate to the topic of the OP and the thread?

@MrGrimm888 Grabbing territory may indeed be an act of desperation, but it is certainly not a revolution by any definition.

@funkdaddy Regardless of how it is accomplished, is war outmoded as a mechanism for extending the will of a nation-state? You have a point when you tell us this may be true in the developed world but not true for the developing world.

@Love_my_doggie…should it be “revoltation?” ;)

With every major discovery, or breakthrough, back to the stone age, things revolved but came to rest in a different place.

It is information overload with so much data easily available over the web these days!!

As a deist I feel compelled to bring up the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment.

The agricultural revolution
The industrial revolution
The scientific revolution
The democratic revolution
The environmental revolution
The warfare revolution
The communications revolution
The artificial intelligence revolution.

We are living through about half of these at the present time.

It seems to me that what separates us from the animals is the external storing of information. It seems that every event or process mentioned is a revolutionary way of doing that.

The aforementioned Agricultural Revolution was a basic, simple way to externalize and organize the way we harvested food. It also led, IMHO, to the concept of ownership.

The Industrial Revolution, which included mass production and the printing press (IMHO the first true mass medium) helped user in the Age of Enlightment. The first movable type press was used in the Song Dynasty in china in the 11th century.

As part of the Industrial revolution the concept of interchangeable parts was vital for mass production, first of firearms and munitions, then to other items. This again was a result of a new way to reproduce information, in the form of parts.

Along with the Industrial Revolution came railroads and telegraphy, then telephony. There was also newspaper,magazines, radio and television, the “mass media”, so-called because each medium was used to disseminate information to “mass” audiences.

Eventually the technologies of radio (including television) and telephony merged, and information was broadcast, first through the air, then through high capacity coaxial cables. (Interesting side note: the coaxial cable that attaches your TV monitor to your cable or satellite box uses technology that is over 100 years old!)

The military and space programs were significant in developing miniaturization and satellite communication, adding to the potpourri of technology we use everyday to complain that there’s nothing on my 200+ cable television package!

I think the next revolution will continue our externalization of information. In much the same way we can access the internet with pocket devices leads me to believe there will soon be some sort of wireless access to the human brain. Something like, but different from, Kurzweil’s Singularity.

@stanleybmanly Trump IS a revolution. I don’t consider him a revolution, although I do find many of his antics revolting!”

I would single out for attention the scientific revolution mentioned by @flutherother . We are so used to the notion of science that it is easy to lose sight of what a major change in thinking that it represents. It is an ongoing revolution and it is not at all clear what its ultimate impact will be, particularly as it relates to the technology related to biology and computers.

Everyone here forgot about the Dance Dance Revolution.

Wasn’t there also some sort of philosophical revolution?

The Age of Enlightenment? That was more of a scientific revolution.