For a real glimpse into the wondrous times in which we live, check out this presentation - paying special attention to the response from the crowd - by the tech pioneer Jeff Han, at the TED conference in 2006. He is demonstrating something considered outrageously futuristic at the time - a multi-touch computer screen.

The TED conference is known as being a breeding ground for big ideas and new trends. Some of the world's smartest people give gasp-worthy presentations of their thinking to a pretty clued-in crowd - including, last year, Dubai's own James Piecowye, who has been twittering about it madly ever since.

The crowd literally shriek and laugh with amazement as he manipulates objects on the screen, stretching and shrinking them with two fingers, rotating them with his thumb and forefinger. That is: he does something that tens of millions of people now do with routine boredom every single day of their lives on their iPhone. But to some of the world's sharpest people, it was the most amazing thing they had ever seen, just a couple of years ago. Things change fast. What makes us shriek like giddy schoolgirls today won't even raise an eyebrow in 2011.