Comment by pigpop

Maybe you meant 1900s to 2000s but if you meant the year 1900 to the year 2000 then that century of difference saw a lot more innovation than just the "candle to lightbulb" change of 1800 to 1900.

I'll interpret it as meaning 1800s to 1900s to 2000s. I'd argue that we haven't yet seen the same step change as 1800s to 1900s this century because we're only just beginning the ramp up on the new technology that will drive progress this century similar to how in 1926 they were still ramping up on the use of electricity and internal combustion engines.

Let's take electricity as the primary example though since it's the one you mentioned and it's probably more similar to our current situation with AI. The similarities include the need for central generating stations to supply raw power to end users as well as the need for products designed to make use of that power and provide some utility to the consumer. Efficiency of generation is also a primary concern for both as it's a major cost driver. Both of those required significant investment and effort to solve in the early days of electrification.

We're now solving similar problems with AI, instead of power plants we're building datacenters, instead of lightbulbs and washing machines we're developing chat bot integrations and agents, instead of improving dynamos we're improving GPUs and TPUs. I fully expect we'll follow a similar curve for deployment as we find new uses, improve existing ones and integrate this new power source into an increasing number of domains.

We do have one major advantage though, we've already built The Grid for distribution which saves a massive amount of effort.

This article is a good read on the permeation of electricity through the economy

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-birth-of-the-grid