Without trying to sound snarky, i find that definition of 'big' to be small. 'Big' is about leaps to new things that we don't even have words to describe. Rockets are 60s science, computer vision is an 80s problem and both are advancing at incremental pace mostly because advances in hardware make it easier. Plus i think it has more to do pushing the frontiers of what is possible forward rather than bringing the whole planet up to speed with the developed world.
There are plenty of ways to define 'big', I'm just saying it's worth defining more clearly before you make a sweeping judgement that it isn't being done.
I'm not trying to posit a 'good' definition. I'm just pointing out that the one on offer is a bit hand-wavey for use in judging society.
