Forget Rockefeller, what about Edison, or the Wright Brothers?

Actually, half of the things in your house probably didn't exist 100 years ago, there's been massive invention, especially since WW2.

And how may Da Vinci's were actually knocking around in his time?

But I generally agree with your enthusiasm for the future, ironic that it depends on 2 major 20th century inventions: the computer and internet :)

Technologies just build upon each other at an accelerating rate, and that really started in the industrial revolution