Amara's law says that people tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate it in the long run. The idea is named after Roy Amara, an American futurist and president of the Institute for the Future, who coined it. Early hype promises dramatic change within a few years, which rarely arrives on schedule and leads to disappointment. Meanwhile the slower, quieter changes that accumulate over decades, reshaping habits, industries and infrastructure, are easy to miss. Amara held degrees in management, the arts and sciences and systems engineering, and worked at the Stanford Research Institute.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.