I have heard one definition of “a sudden change that makes something once niche and seldom-seen become ubiquitous”, such as the sudden reduction in price of consumer computing in the 1990s
I have heard one definition of “a sudden change that makes something once niche and seldom-seen become ubiquitous”, such as the sudden reduction in price of consumer computing in the 1990s
The “paradigm shift” in personal computing was the way computers changed from jealously guarded, centrally controlled, elite resources, to uncontrolled, delegate-able appliances that showed up at the outer edges of networks and organizations, where they could be applied to tasks that hadn’t been computerized before. Computers had been a part of systems of control, but they looked like they were becoming agents of chaos, for a while.
The change in cost was the mechanism, the driver of the change, but it wasn’t the paradigm shift itself.
The post-COVID work-from-home boom is a paradigm shift. Gig-economy work is a paradigm shift, but you could argue it’s not a positive one. Vaccination was a paradigm shift. Small-scale solar power can be a paradigm shift.