By viewing history as a series of techno-economic waves with accompanying socio-political responses it is possible to begin to understand how new technologies impact society. 

Techno-economic waves are driven by the development of a new low-cost input like the microchip.  A single new low cost product with a continuously declining price and wide availability can ignite entirely new industries, solving what previously were believed to be intractable problems. Moreover, the new technological systems built upon the new inputs shift competitive behavior across the economy, as older sectors reinterpret how they create value. 

New low cost inputs become driving sectors in their own right (e.g. canals, coal, electricity, oil, microchips).  When combined with complementary technologies, each new low cost input also stimulates the development of new sectors (e.g. cotton textiles, railroads, electric products, automobiles, computers).  Technological waves, because they embody a major jump up in productivity, open up an unusually wide range of investment and profit opportunities, leading to sustained rates of economic growth.

So how might neurotechnology fit in this picture?