One theory that I have heard a few times is that the abolition of slavery (not just in the U.S. but in several western countries) led to the industrial revolution. The timing may not be coincidental, the concept is that if you can enslave people that is cheaper than designing and developing technology to solve problems, like making cloth or other goods. The driver for the industrial revolution was cost of labor is the thinking.

If that is the case, then the next revolution could be sparked by perhaps some new version of abolition, maybe a universal minimum standard of living or something like that? I think the lack of imagination may not be on the technical front, that will logically follow and be spurned on by a societal policy shift perhaps.