There was a book called "Future shock" by Alvin Toffler that spoke of this. In a way everyone on earth is now facing "Future Shock" of a world changing faster than any one of us can respond to. You might say it was always this way. But, there are just so many various changes happening at once there is no way to get a consensus about what to do about it. In the past, people often had time to get ready for change. For example, in the 1880s the gasoline engine started being built. But, it took 20 years or so or more for oil drillers to drill for oil to process enough gas and diesel to start powering the world. So, things really didn't get going even in the U.S. where there were paved roads even between large cities mostly until the early 1930s and 1940s. This is why cars often had wooden spoke wheels which did better at slower speeds (under 25) on autos before 1930. All metal wheels couldn't be put on wheels until there was enough pavement to warrant that.
However, now changes can sweep the world in 10 or 20 years. For example, even though I likely didn't own a cell phone in the 1990s by 9-11 I likely did. But, now there are more cell phones than there are toilets on earth. There are many more cell phones now than there are people on earth. This is only in the last 15 years! Think about how fast things are changing now.
And one child with a smartphone in Africa (any child) has more access to more information now than President Clinton did at any time during his presidency.
This shows how breakneck the change is at least in knowledge now worldwide.
For example, what is one of the single most important things a Syrian or other refugee has now in europe while on foot or on a bus or on a train?
That's right. A Cellphone to tell friends and relatives if they are still alive while traveling in Europe. Things have changed a lot just from 2000 AD already.
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