“Radically new technological ideas, from antibiotics to nuclear power to telegraphy, have emerged time again despite the systemic inertia from which the technological system seems to be suffering. The dynamic may be similar: a complex system which struggle to change against built-in inertia is more likely to change in sudden bursts than in slow, continuous fashion.”
Joel Mokyr, 1997, The political economy of technological change: resistance and innovation in economic history.