I have been saying something of this sort for a while, but not as articulately. We in the technology end of things are likely to think of our impact as being highly "advanced". The example I like quote is that of my grandfather, who was born in 1888 and lived for 94 years. During his lifetime, he saw the popularization of the automobile, the application of radio, then television, the deployment of air travel, and men walking on the moon. I have argued that we are not likely to see changes of that magnitude over our lifetime.

Another perspective is the impact of technology on rural life. During his lifetime, we saw technology increase the productivity of the american farmer by two orders of magnitude. No other segment of daily life experienced that form of amplification. The impact of today's technology on say a clerk's life is not as great.

As we work in this field, we see amazing things (one poster here quotes the impact of Google), but few things have improved lives the way that the technology of the sewer has.