The Wrights' first flight didn't change the world. Nor did photovoltaic cells in 1876; nor did 3D printing in 1989. And none of these inventions could change the world at the time, because they were little more than proofs of principle: They showed that something was possible, but they were not in fact usable.
Photovoltaic cells aren't becoming popular now because people are suddenly realizing that they exist; they're becoming popular because the technology has reached the point where the cells are cheap enough and efficient enough to be practical. The same goes for 3D printing, and the same went for the Wrights' aircraft: They received plenty of attention once they moved from the realm of curiosities to being useful inventions.
The title of this article should be "when you don't change the world and no one notices".
That may be one factor, but it seems like there's new technology for 3d printing announced every few months; I'm sure there is innovation happening and it's not just people sitting on their hands and waiting for the patents to expire.
Again i am not intimately familiar with 3d printing technology, but the timing of at least some of those announcements might be due to expiration of relevant patents, rather than the invention of new technology.
Photovoltaic cells aren't becoming popular now because people are suddenly realizing that they exist; they're becoming popular because the technology has reached the point where the cells are cheap enough and efficient enough to be practical. The same goes for 3D printing, and the same went for the Wrights' aircraft: They received plenty of attention once they moved from the realm of curiosities to being useful inventions.
The title of this article should be "when you don't change the world and no one notices".