What is something that's crazier than the wildest dreams of any ~1970s nerd, but exists today? I'll start with an easy one:

Blue LEDs. We had red and green since the '60s, but blue took until the '90s to figure out and the guy who did so got a Nobel prize for it because that finally meant we could use them for white lights and full-color displays.

so that’s the guy I can blame for blinding LED vehicle headlights?

No, that would be the assholes who lift their trucks, or perhaps your optometrist. Properly aimed LEDs don’t blind for shit. They blind me less than oldschool projectorless halogens even.