How transformative technologies actually spread

Years from invention to widespread adoption — compared to the singularity's assumed timeline

Actual adoption curve Singularity premise (overnight change)
Bar chart showing adoption timelines for three major technologies versus the singularity premise.

Electricity was demonstrated in the 1880s; most US households had it by the late 1920s. The internet was functional in the 1970s; mass adoption took until the mid-1990s. Penicillin was discovered in 1928; widespread clinical use arrived in the late 1940s. The singularity assumes a fundamentally different relationship between capability and impact.