What’s an example of a culture and a period for which there was too much innovation?
Some possibilities.
1. None. It has never happened.
2. Europe from 1880-1940. That is, if we can blame the two world wars and the Communist revolution on instability caused by innovation. That is debatable.
3. The U.S., 1990-present. That is, if we can blame the decline in respect for government and leaders on innovations in communications technology (see Martin Gurri’s The Revolt of the Public) and if we view this decline as more of a bug than a feature.
If (3) then you’d have to say the invention and adoption of the printing press, leading to a breakdown of religious authority in medieval Europe, the rise of science, literacy for all those uppity peasants, and centuries of religious war as the old order was overthrown.
Which leaves, where will be the next war?
Silly question. Some innovations do more harm than good, of course. Always been true.
How about the 1970/1980s Japan Inc? That economy both beat US manufacturing and created such a competitive system that families stopped having more than 1 child. That economy grew a bubble much larger than the US Dotcom or Housing Bubble and it appears Japan has never recovered. That whole society was geared for innovative growth and then ~1991 their economy has never quite recovered because:
1) They are the canary of the demographic spiral and the economy could not grow AD without a trade surplus or lack of access to cheap labor. (I did have a Macro professor saying this 1993.)
2) China and Other Asian nation cheap labor model hit their economy first basically using the same 1970 Japan Inc. growth.
3) The information age was taking off and manufacturing was not the growth.
Otherwise, I would say the late 1996 – 2000 Dotcom bubble innovation was on the right track but lead to massive over-investment. Everybody was right but there were long term society changes we were not ready for.
I throw in one more if Obamacare is repealed and abortion ended…Which is the innovative of having a baby. The US and developed world has continued lowering infant morality by innovating healthcare but accelerating cost. However, if poor families without insurance, they can not afford the cost of quality birth costs. (Or in most cases wasting money on things 98% they won’t need.) So it appears the more innovative birth is, the less we can afford to have babies.
Communism certainly seems like a reaction to industrialization. Domestically, I think a lot of people were alienated by the unpleasantness of life in industrial cities and the inequality all that wealth created. Abroad, it was a bit of a different story because communism became bound up with decolonization, hating on the west in general, etc.
The slaughter of the Great War, anyway, was based on the fact that technological innovation had outpaced tactical innovation. Generals on both sides were still fighting the last war. Perhaps there is a generalizable point in there about innovation.