Put simply, a licensed driver in 1955 could step into my 2025 Honda Accord, and figure out how to drive it within about 30 seconds, probably less. It has a few features that might surprise the driver, but he or she could easily operate it.
But they wouldn't know what to make of my phone and all the information it conveys. It would blow their minds.
I think in 1996 we were aware of the potential disruption that the internet and mobile communications might bring, but the internet boom of the late 90s followed by the advent of the smart phone exceeded most of our imaginations (that's why people got rich on those events!). Parts of it, of course, have been the subject of science fiction for decades, but the scale and penetration of the change is enormous. And I think I'm agreeing with CD (maybe?): electricity to the masses is really the dividing line from a technology standpoint. You could call this the electricity age, and all that came before it the fire age, i.e., man relied on fire to manipulate his environment; now it is electricity.
