Martin Gilbert: 'Impatience is a virtue'

Investors can play an important part in recognising innovations and accelerating their adoption

Fifty years ago this month, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) opened in California. It went on to develop numerous important technologies, including the first computer with a mouse and graphical user interface (GUI). These innovations transformed our lives.

I was still at school back then. Today, our teachers' blackboard and chalk look like relics of a bygone age. But that is a very recent shift. It is only because of the Covid-19 pandemic that traditional classroom teaching has given way to iPads and Microsoft Teams. Parents may hope that this will be temporary, but the best aspects of distance learning are likely to persist. Education is just one area in which the pandemic has accelerated technological change. Others are videoconferencing and working from home. The technologies and opportunities have been there for years  - but in the pas...