Technologies That Shaped the Last Century? 283
ChrisGB writes "I was watching a TV discussion in the UK this morning about people's views of what technologies have shaped the way the 20th century developed. Suggestions from the panel included atomic theory, the microprocessor and genetics. Most interesting were the reasons they made their choices. What are other people's choices for the most important technologies of the 1900s and your reasons for choosing them?" I think that the large push in communications technology in the last century were critical in getting us things we've come to depend on today...from the TV to Slashdot. What technologies developed in the last century do you think are important?
Re:I'm sorry! (Score:1)
Re:Atuomobiles for the masses (Score:1)
But I got mugged two blocks from my house. I got tired of the traffic noise at 2 in the morning, the scream of young women out on the sidewalk, etc.
I now pay about the same amount of money towards my mortgage as I did to rent a one bedroom apartment in the city. Now I have an entire second bedroom for computers and software and related books, and an entire lab downstairs for my workbench, oscilloscopes, more computers, etc. And an attached two-car garage.
In hindsight the city sucked. I only walked in to those used bookstores once a week or so, and I can drive into the 'hood if I want to visit those stores now. And there are friend ma and pa shops everywhere you go, not just in the city.
Re:Theres several... (Score:1)
Re:The men's movement and the feminist angle (Score:1)
Needless to say, there is a small electric motor with an eccentric weight attached to the shaft inside the plastic housing of all vibrators.
>>
... which, if the feminist applies at the right angle, eliminates the need for the man's movement.
what about Viagra? (Score:1)
(yeah yeah, I know, this is a bit silly)
Re:Communications (Score:1)
Actually the telegraph reshaped the world's communications in the 19th century. Once the telegraph network was in place it was possible to pass a message around the world in seconds.
Until then the fastest way send a message was by horse at maybe 100 miles/day. Think about that paradigm shift.
The internet is just improved on telegraph.
Re:Or the washing machine. (Score:1)
The washing machine and other home appliances liberated women to study, to work, to go out. And that shaped democracies and economics.
Of course, it wouldn't work without electricity.
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The Condom. (or birth control in general) (Score:1)
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UNIX isn't dead, it just smells funny...
Hmmmm... (Score:1)
"Sir, I'd stake my reputation on it."
"Kryten, you haven't got a reputation."
A an actual list (Score:1)
Internal combustion engines (gas *and* diesel)
These run not only cars, but trucks, and
(*sigh* these days, locomotives), and
generate electricity
Flight
Refrigeration (refrigerators, air conditioning - and if y'all don't think the latter is important, *you* think about going to school in TX in June...)
Antibacterials (esp. TB and polio vaccines)
Aspirin (invented in the 1890's) besides a painkiller, a febrifuge.
anaesthetics
electronic communication (radio, tv, phones)
radar and lasers
computers (of course) in particular, and electronics in general
nuclear physics (the bomb, x-ray machines, etc)
biochemistry - plastics, glues
birth control medications
medical technology (repairs and replacement)
reinforced concrete
photography (incl. films)
I think that covers it...
Re:Hmm... (Score:1)
Before 1900 you would most likely have been born, grown up, married the girl next door, had your kids and died without ever leaving home. (This is a broad generalization) The important part of that last sentence is "married the girl next door" She would be carrying the same basic genetic info as you (genes for almnd shaped eyes if you were both asian etc...)
Now, however most people have the ability to live anywhere on the planet they choose. And many did migrate to new lands (America being the most obvious example) and interbred with people not from next door, but from the other side of the world.
Hooptie
Re:You are mistaken. (Score:1)
Vacuum tubes work, though....
Re:Or the washing machine. (Score:1)
Yup! Turbo washing machines in 1904...
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" It's a ligne Maginot [maginot.org]-in-the-sky "
Railroads. (Score:1)
By enabling cheap large-scale overland transportation of people and goods, the secular patterns of stagnating civilization that were the norm since the dawn of Humanity were irretrieavably shattered, leading to unprecedented wealth and freedom from the old demons of famin and isolation.
What? No, we're still in the XXth century, so the last century HAS to be the XIXth...
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" It's a ligne Maginot [maginot.org]-in-the-sky "
Re:Here's my four (Score:1)
The first automobile was invented in 1769 (Yup! 6 years before the US Revolution) by Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot [britannica.com] who built a crude front-wheel drive steam-powered tractor, primarly intended to haul cannons.
Unfortunately, the limitations of the technology of the times did not enable him to address the problems inherent in developping a compact-enough steam engines.
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" It's a ligne Maginot [maginot.org]-in-the-sky "
Re:Transistor? ( maybe == valve but != relay) (Score:1)
The idea was to have a constant voltage out of a variable one coming from the axle-driven generator. This was cool: by pushing the solenoid by hand, you could have all the lights in the car fluctuating wildly...
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" It's a ligne Maginot [maginot.org]-in-the-sky "
Re:Three strikes, you're out. (Score:1)
Re:Theres several... (Score:1)
While Newton figured out the conservation of momentum thingie, he knew nothing of turbo pumps, or cooling technologies, or combustion. For that matter, neither did Goddard. I think the man is getting WAY too much credit for never having gotten one of his designs to work decently. Probably an American coping mechanism for the fact that rocket propulsion is the OTHER propulsion technology they missed.
While Goddard is supposed to have inspired a lot of the people that went on to develop successful designs, it was they that solved the vexing engineering problems of how to build a reliable turbo pump, how to keep the nozzle cool, and the whole guidance thing. These engineering problems can't be dismissed as mere details--a lot of people had correct notions of how to build a rocket, but very few could translate these notions into metal that flew.
But yes, in the end we're all here because we're standing on the shoulders of giants, just to keep some perspective.
Re:Three-phase electricity distribution (Score:1)
Re:Technologies... (Score:1)
DUH
LK
The atomic bomb (Score:2)
For the first time in history, humans had aquired the ability to destroy themselves utterly. Since a war between nuclear powers would destroy both of them, they could not afford war any more. I think that's the main reason that we didn't have WW III yet. Instead we had the cold war, which lead to a massive increase in technology research for military reasons. In the end, the public profited of a lot of these new technologies, but it is important to remember that quite a lot of the fancy gadgeds we have today come of the arms race.
And no, I don't like atomic waepons. In fact, I'm quite a pacifist.
Re:Transistor? ( maybe == valve but != relay) (Score:2)
Re:Transistor? ( maybe == valve but != relay) (Score:2)
Re:The men's movement and the feminist angle (Score:2)
This was something I really hadn't considered before and seeing your post I thought I'd share. I'm not advocating the use of servants instead of machines or anything of the like but this man's idea was just one I thought had relevance to what you're talking about.
Nice suggestion by the way, most people just leap to big things like TV or airplanes and don't consider the "little" things that also make big changes.
Technological Innovation of the Millennium @ Ars (Score:2)
The print press won, but plastics (woohoo!) is mentioned.
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Re:Oh no. (Score:2)
Re:An Obvious Parallel and and Unlikely Choice (Score:2)
Bottom line: Most of the establishment of this country wanted to see Clinton burn, but half of population of this country has divorced their spouses while the other half is either too young to screw or old enough to cheat.
It doesn't matter how you twisted the polls--the support just wasn't there. Period. Polls can be twisted, but at some level people in high levels of power actually have an accurate picture of what the populace wants and what the populace can be made--through twisting the words--to want.
I'm not saying that the effect of this has been necessarily positive, only that it is likely far more pervasively influential than anyone has really imagined.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
here's a few missed - sm510501430? (Score:2)
production line - Henry ford changed the way goods are manufactured. Instead of using craftsmen he harnessed the power of machines to mass produce cars.
penicillin - flory's [almaz.com](forget flemming) discovery revolutionised healthcare, saving millions during the war and after.
electronic computer - enabled for the first time grunt calculations to be undertaken accurately
atomic power (mentioned) - changed the way wars are fought and power can be generated, opened up nuclear medicine.
transisitor - birth of electronics.
manned space flight - forever changed mans view of earth.
personal computer - birth of home computing and brought computing power to everday mans desktop.
try 1000AD - sm510501430? (Score:2)
Birth Control Pill (Score:2)
The birth control pill has changed, and is still changing, the basic way human beings relate to each other. It has allowed society to restructure away from child birth and child rearing and allowed half of the society to take a much more active role. The future effects of this invention will undoubtly be large as well.
The birth control pill is the first in a hopefully long line of advances that allow us to change who we are and reshape the human condition. Not merely get sick less or age slower actually change who we are as a species.
my vote goes to... (Score:2)
MoNsTeR
Re:Transistor? (Score:2)
-sufficiently miniaturized componentry and a low enough cost to enable much smaller and cheaper electronic equipment (remember transistor radios?)
-the microprocessor - not to mention Moore's law!
Ultimately, electronics existed before the transistor did, but it took the invention of the transistor to enable all the revolutions that followed. Imagine if my slick new Palm Vx used vacuum tubes!
- -Josh Turiel
Hmm... (Score:2)
Why did people evolve so slowly until the 1800's? It's because information could not be shared. It took days, if not weeks or even months, for informatino to travel from one place to another. Why did Linux and OSS evolve so quickly? (OK, I should've come up with a better example. Space exploration? Medicine?) Because information was shared, and things grew together.
If one wizard creates something really cool but can't share it, his creation never sees light, because others always have to build on to it. In order for progress to exist, information has to be shared and exchanged. Without this, nothing else can happen. There is no progress whatsoever without the sharing of information.
Another huge accomplishment, and sort of invention? Public education. I'll let you come up with your own explanations and reasons, since I'm tired of typing and I really should go to bed.
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Re:Last century? You mean the 19th century? (Score:2)
Most people don't know that a lot of motorcycle development was to set bicycle records. Bicyclists were the initial impetus for paved roads, and bicycles were possibly the first mass liberator of women and the poor.
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Plastics--no contest (Score:2)
Think about it: the modern computer would NOT exist if it weren't for plastics (the motherboard, small capacitors, small resistors, and IC packaging are all done in plastic). Look at your car--even the most expensive models--how much of the car is using plastic parts (the interior of most cars ARE done in plastic). Plastics has made is possible to develop food packaging so good that outbreaks of food poisoning from e.coli, salmonella and botulism are very rare events, despite what the news says. And finally, without plastics, we couldn't have lightened the weight of airplanes to the point that today's Airbus A320 jetliner burns nearly 40% less fuel per passenger mile than the Boeing 727-200, which had the same seating capacity.
Overpopulation (Score:2)
The Big Picture. (Score:2)
Waldo by Robert Heinlein (Score:2)
Audion (Triode Vacuum Tube) (Score:2)
Technologies... (Score:2)
Even though they have their roots in the 19th century I think that the self-loading firearm heavily shaped the century.
The transistor, for obvious reasons.
Telephone, allowed for high speed accurate comunication to take place over greater distances than ever possible before.
Radio and television as forms of entertainment and education have shaped the century as well.
E=MC2, nuclear energy helped to end the mose destructive conflice that the planet ever saw and was an imposing spectre as it relates to being the tool used in the next war which surpasses all others.
LK
Re:You are mistaken. (Score:2)
I am aware of the fact that it was as choice between AC and DC. At the time Edison had organized at least one district to be run on DC, but it was horribly inefficient, caused fires, and had incredible maintance fees to keep it working.
At the time, Tesla's original 3-phase, 60hz AC system was exactly what was needed. Where the industry and science went wrong was stopping its research. It would not have been as difficult then to keep up with Tesla's progressing research findings as might be thought. Additionally, if power companies and corporations had seen the merit in his research, he could have been well supplied with the funds and staff necessary to go even further than he did, virtually on his own.
Many of Tesla's later experiments used current which was definately powerful enough to be deadly, like the lightning generator he made out in Colorado.
This is a bad example, the reason that it was dangerous is because it was wired into faulty systems, and Tesla overlooked the high-frequency feedback problems, starting fires at Colorado Power(not quite right?), because of improper grounding. Another thing to not forget is that he was basically unleashing all of that electricity in the open, it was entirely unguarded. In a controlled enviroment things would not have been so bad.
Thirdly, broadcast power DIDN'T WORK. What Tesla ended up inventing was radio, though that's not what he was trying for. It won't EVER work, because the power of the broadcast signal drops off exponentially as the distance from the transmitter increases. Basically, the same energy gets spread over an ever-increasing area.
Using a grid of 'boosters' a feild could be sustained over a large area. Theoretical models, where each home would have a booster, likewise, each block would have a bigger one, have been attempted on a small scale, and theoretically could work.
Lastly, even if the laws of physics didn't make broadcast power impossible, it would have been economically infeasible precisely because it couldn't be billed for in proportion to its use. Do you think kilowatt-hours grow on trees?
Actually alot of his later research was spent getting close to discovering how to use the earth as a power source I believe. This would make the production of electricity automatic in a sense. The "power companies" would simply be responsible for distributing something that already was freely available. ie. Keeping the feild equipment operational.
Hey, this is all theoretical stuff, and alot of his research was lost. We have reason to believe that he was alot closer to answering some of the problems you have raised. Unfortunatly they were all for the most part lost in the 'accidental' fire that destroyed his work.
Let me ask you this, since we can assume with for the most part little doubt, that the fire was intentionally set. Why did the arsonists go through all of that risk and trouble just to destroy a little science fiction, as you seem to think it to be? I think he had alot more going for him than we realize.
Everyone sees... (Score:2)
Re:Nobody likes a math geek, Scully! (Score:2)
The last century. (Score:2)
The telephone.
It was developed in the 19th century. In the last century.
Because the 20th century isn't over yet, Cliff. We still have a full year ahead.
(I'm sorry, but I just had to say it.)
I vote for the automobile (Score:2)
of the automobile-
The industrial revolution was revised/perfected
because of the automobile. Union labor was realized as a formidable force in both the legislature and organized crime. Goodyear bought
railroads along the coast of California, ultimately destroying them, forcing people to buy cars for lack of available transportation.
Think about all the laws made as a result of automobiles in todays society, and how they restrict a persons liberty, when compared to a person who used a horse and carriage for transportation 100 years ago.
Indeed, it seems that 'The Man(TM)' found the perfect vehicle (apologies for the bad pun) to keep us in line, make us not even question being stopped, questioned and searched in the name of 'the common good'.
If you look at my statement (or maybe squint at it from an odd angle), you might see how the high-tech and networking industries are following this same model, and how someone may fear what this new technological freedom known as the internet may put the powerful automotive 'revolution' to shame.
I love ridding myself of bile like that. It makes me seem like less of an angry person if I vent on slashdot before going to work.
Thanks for lettin' me get my ya-ya's out.
Airconditioning (Score:2)
on NPR a while ago and although they mentioned a number or things already discussed here, including the telephone and radio, the one that most struck me was *air conditioning*.
Re:You are mistaken. (Score:2)
Re:Qwerty keyboards (Score:2)
It'll certainly sound familiar to anyone schooled in endlessly recycled urban legends!
Re:Refrigeration (Score:2)
Re:Refrigeration (Score:2)
Actual refrigeration is another matter. Refrigeration units (from dorm fridges to air conditioners) play some tricks with the pressure of the coolant, sending it from liquid to gas and back (you may be able to do this with Prestone, but it isn't easy...). What this allows you do to is to make heat "flow uphill", from a cooler spot to a warmer spot.
No radiator technology alone will make a room cooler than 95 Farenheit when it is 95 Farenheit outdoors; it takes refrigeration to do that. In contrast, you only need radiators to handle engines, because the internal temperature of an engine is several hundred degrees, warmer than any ambient weather.
Re:Three-phase electricity distribution (Score:2)
IIRC, it was at one of the funfairs near New York. The elephant in question had killed a couple of keepers, and so had to be put down. So they made a spectacle out of it and called in Edison to tell them how to do it. There is a gruesome bit of B&W film of the electrocution. The elephant was connected up by leg irons. You see smoke from its feet, it sways, and collapses.
Its fairly high on my list of things I rather wish I hadn't seen.
Paul.
Re:Why not look forwards? (Score:2)
While having unified file formats is a good thing, is there a way to specify the actual semantics of the markup and not just the syntax? That is, how does a XML user read $4711 and know anything else that it's syntactically valid and matches the string of symbols "price"?
Sure, you can write your own DTD, and others can parse and validate it, but can they understand it?
In my opinion, the kiss of death of XML is the "support" for XML file formats in Office 2000, which I've heard are just the bastardized incompatible embrace-and-extend jobs we'd come to expect from Redmond. The promise of XML was that anyone could read an XML word document and reconstruct Word's intentions from it - obviously this is not happening.
Please understand that is is just my look at things, and that I may be wrong in any number of the above assertions. These questions are not rethorical.
Definately radar (Score:2)
Originally it was just designed to track aircraft but then some bright psark discovered that if you help your hand in front of the radar it got hot - leading to the development of the microwave.
Research into microwaves lead to the satellite bands that are used today to bring me over 200 channels of digital TV and radio and similar bands are used in mobile phones.
So the same technology that keeps my flight on holiday away from other flights on holiday also heats my food, brings me TV and lets me check my email in the middle of a field with nothing more than a phone and a PalmIII - thats progress :O)
Re:The Big Picture. (Score:2)
I've heard it suggested (and am tempted to agree with) that the development of nuclear weapons has effectively prevented any large wars from taking place. That the reason that, say, the US and USSR never got into any actual war was because each country knew that it would likely lead to nuclear war, and that nobody really wanted to destroy most of civilization.
It's interesting to think that the same devices that caused so many people to live in fear for so long may have been the same ones that helped to keep people from getting killed.
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Re:Why not look forwards? (Score:2)
I think the problem with this is the increasing rate of technological development is leading to the future becoming more and more opaque. From what I understand, even many Science Fiction authors are upset by this, as they're realizing that it's getting to be too hard to put together both a believable future world and situations and characters peopel can understand and relate to.
Nanotechnology is one area which is going to create this obscurity. Zyvex and MIT are both predicting assemblers in the 10-15 year range now, due to the fact that progress is being made faster than anyone expected. If that alone happens, the rate at which it will mature makes it quite possible that by 2100 the world could be quite unrecognizable. And that's ignoring all the other technologies that will be developed.
Anyways, it always seems to be the tehnologies that are unexpected that make the most difference. Who in 1900 could have predicted the transistor/semiconductors would do so much to change things?
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My own little list (Score:2)
In no particular order:
[1] which is a pretty cool invention, BTW :)
Plastics and males (Score:2)
Check these links for some beginning info.
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/4_3_99/fob3
http://www.scitec.auckland.ac.nz/~king/Preprint
Antibiotics, clean water (Score:2)
(Read this article [jsonline.com] for more details. While the life expectancy improvements are partially due to a reduction in infant deaths, there's a demonstrable improvement in disease treatment affecting all age groups whose magnitude you can see by looking at the raw data of life expectancy by age [infoplease.com] in the US. Of course other factors did help besides antibiotics, such as nutrition and pollution reduction.)
--LP
Theres several... (Score:2)
The development of jet propulsion led to rocket design with lead to geosynchronous satelittes, and in turn to the communications world we know today.
Re:Theres several... (Score:2)
Re:You are mistaken. (Score:2)
Seeing as the distribution is in three dimensions, shouldn't that be R^3 in the above equation?
-Jordan Henderson
Re:Why not look forwards? (Score:2)
No, I don't think that's true at all. XML formats for all Office 2000 documents does show that Microsoft is finally serious about Open Document Formats. You will be able to reconstruct documents from their XML.
The tension among the various XML supporting organizations (MS vs. the Rest Of The World) arises due to the fact that MS poured massive resources into developing their own set of DTDs and then implementing them into their products while everybody else pretty much talked about XML.
The IBMs and Suns are concerned that while XML provides an Open Document format, MS will be the the first and best to implement their formats. They are concerned that it will appear that only MS has their act together wrt XML. You see, at the same time MS was defining DTDs for a bunch of Office 2000 documents, they were also defining DTDs and schemas for a huge set of other documents, like those used for EDI. These other vendors don't want to be in the position of having to support "standards" created by MS. I'm not sure if this is embrace-and-extend, it seems like embrace-and-outcompete to me. I feel that if the other vendors really are serious about XML, they should define their own documents and start using them in products like MS. Working code beats standards body wrangling any day.
Now, a disclaimer. I am far from an expert in these areas, and I've not been privy to any XML standards bodies discussions or anything, this is my interpretation of what I've seen in the news.
Sun is a frequent detractor of MS's XML strategy, waving their hands around saying that really you don't want to be doing XML at all unless it's in Java. To hear Sun talk about it you'd think that Java was designed to work with XML. It seems to be more of the standard Sun line. They support standards only insofar as those standards are seen by the industry as being best run on Sun Hardware and Operating Systems. That's what the SCSL and Java is all about, Open Standards for the community! Especially those Open Standards that Sun controls completely.
-Jordan Henderson
Three strikes, you're out. (Score:2)
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Re:Three-phase electricity distribution (Score:2)
Eddison was adamant that the AC system was far too dangerous to use in a distribution system. He attempted to demonstrate this by publicly electrocuting and elephant in (I believe) New York using AC current (an act that eventually led to the invention of the electric chair). The fact that DC poses no less a danger apparently slipped past him.
This is an early (and desperately innefective) example of FUD.
If someone wants to fill in the gaps here, I'd be grateful.
Oh no. (Score:2)
That thread turned quite off topic, with people claiming that "painting, the expression of humans using art..." was a gadget. WTF?
Anyhow, this discussion has already been done on
"No! No! The Philips Screwdriver was far more important than the microwave" etc. etc. ad infiniatum.
Re:Why not look forwards? (Score:2)
I'll start. New(ish) technology that will be successful this year:
Or the washing machine. (Score:2)
M$ paper clip? (Score:2)
Re:I'm sorry! (Score:2)
RF (aka: high-frequency "electricity") can shock you. RF can burn you. Ask any broadcast engineer.
RF burns are real nasty, too. It doesn't just burn the skin. It travels right down to the marrow in your bones, dissapating large amounts of heat. You feel it for the rest of your life.
The only positive point to higher frequency AC is the ability to use smaller transformers at a similar current capability. Like the Navy does. (They run at 400Hz)
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Childhood immunizations (Score:2)
1923 Diphtheria
1926 Pertussis
1927 Tuberculosis (BCG)
1927 Tetanus
1935 Yellow Fever
1955 Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV)
1962 Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)
1964 Measles
1967 Mumps
1970 Rubella
1981 Hepatitis B
Taken from:
http://www.who.int/gpv-dvacc/history/history.ht
Two reasons... (Score:2)
I assumed this was because of some sort of deep-seated fear of the future
I think it's more that people are a) afraid of change and b) people are sentimental. I don't think people are so much afraid of the future as they are afraid of how things will change and what this will mean for them - will they have to dig themselves out of their happy little rut :) How many times have you seen a program from 20-30 years ago talking about the "house of the future" or whatever, and instead nothing's changed.
Also, never underestimate the human ability to view the past through rose-tinted glasses. As we get older the things in our past which we didn't like get submerged beneath memories of the good times. Think of the popularity of old music and films - I can't remember how many 60s and 70s nights they had whilst I was at university :)
The pill and education (Score:2)
It is so easy to think of all the marvelous technical gadgets, that changes the way we *do* stuff. The pill (and education) changes the way we live our *lives*. The pill (and other contraceptives) made children something you actively decided to have as opposed to something that "just happened". Nowadays most of us get a couple of years with no obligation to our parents, no children to care for and full physical health. That is 20-30 year old men and women are living a kind of life previously only enjoyed by the old.
How many geeks would there be if you had to put food on the table for your kids everyday? Perhaps the choice between coding for fun and working the grindstone would come out different then n'est ce pas?
Re:Communications (Score:2)
Actually, Napolean, around 1800, stationed soldiers every few hundred yards between Paris and Rome, and was able to send messages via visual semaphores between the two cities in a matter of hours! True.
and as a quibble to some of the other posts here: the technology did not have to be invented in the 20th century to qualify. Might be a good rule, but that's not what it says.
and, while it's fun to think about all the impacts that various technologies have, the most significant one is always going to be energy harnessing, electric or internal combustion or whatever. At the beginning of the 20th century, the vast majority of Westerners were farmers, and we still would have to be, like the Third World, if we did not have labor saving devices. Everything else will always pale in comparison to that.
Atuomobiles for the masses (Score:2)
Just think of America where the introduction of automobiles for the masses changed social behavior. The whole process of dating changed with ypung people having a place where they weren't constantly under the scrutiny of their parents.
On the other side the government of many a country has gone to great lengths insuring cheap individual transport for their citicens. Until today the struggle for control of the worlds oil reserves is linked to this.
A few other Points may be:
- One can live far away of his working place.
- Massive destruction of natural resources and environmental Pollution. I'm sure i could go one with this list, but i'll keep this short. Thomas
Open Source(TM) Power? (Score:2)
Assuming your story is true, does it suggest that an Open Source(TM) Power Delivery System would be possible?
Not easy or cheap, I figure.
But, if the AC@60Hz and similar systems are more expensive to run and more dangerous, and have, as their only fundamental advantage over some higher-frequency AC system, the ability to be more easily and reliably metered so as to charge for their use...
The other advantages of AC@60Hz (and AC@50Hz) are that there's a huge installed base of power generation, transmission, measuring, and consumption equipment (e.g. desktop computers). But those aren't fundamental advantages -- they might outweigh the appropriateness of changing now, not of having chosen the higher-frequency system in the first place.
So, would a higher-frequency-AC system be worth researching, designing, engineering, etc. within the OSS framework, with deployment initially targeted for areas with little or no installed base (such as third-world countries)?
(And, dontcha just love how I use all those cute TM's? ;-)
Re: NitPick - Tesla (Score:2)
The reason you don't feel electrical shock at the local Science Museum "Tessla Coil" demonstration has nothing to do with the "speed" of the electrons "passing directly through your body before the neurons in your system can even react."
Yes the frequency is an issue, but the effect that prevents you from that "I'm being electrocuted" feeling, is the behavior of the electrons which travel on the surface of the conductor (you) instead of through the conductor (you and your easily excited nerve endings).
The science museum selected the demo and took the risk of presenting it in our highly litigous society to:
Indoor Plumbing (Score:2)
Who knows how many people it has saved from tragic cases of frostbite and puma attack.
Before indoor plumbing your choices were:
1)go outside
2)go in a bucket in the house
Neither are exactly conducive to a clear, uninterupted train of thought.
-corvalin
I HAVE A BOMB SHELTER AND YOU CAN'T USE IT! (Score:2)
The jet engine. (Score:2)
The jet engine will also continue to play a role in how pandemics evolve; as a disease vector, the airliner has no equal.
Re:Transistors (Score:2)
I agree that semi tech has been the greatest 'enabling' technology of the century. We had computers before we had semis, but it's because of semis that we can each have one. And the use of semis to make sensors and DSPs give computers something usefull to do. Imagine how poorly even a lowly phone line would work today if it weren't for semis. And modems would be non-existent, or at least as expensive as the computers themselves, so that only the military could afford them. Anybody else remember when you tried to use a credit card, your number had to be looked up in a "black-list book" that hung by the side of the cash register? And try to imagine what modern medicine would be like without current sensor technology and CPU power? The list goes on.
Second place would have to go to Materials Engineering, which would include plastics, teflon, unleaded gasoline, and the post-it note. I have to make this field second since it wouldn't have evolved as far as it has without Semi technology. I haven't been able to come up with a solid third place that DOESN'T rely on the first two for it's existence.
Refrigeration (Score:2)
Without adequate refrigeration technologies, many of the things we take for granted would not exist, or they function in a much less dimuted fashion. With air conditioning, man can populate areas previously thought too inhospitable (at least by Western standards.) The engine would be choking on its own heat and fumes. We can transport perishable goods across thousands of miles, feeding those who may not have access to such goods. Processors could not only not be cooled - they couldn't be created. And, perhaps most importantly, our beverage of choice comes to us in a frosty mug, or brimming with ice on a hot summer day.
Refrigeration: It's not just for the kitchen anymore.
Um theres that 1000 000 volt DC line in CA (Score:2)
Here's my four (Score:3)
1: The Telephone. I know the telephone was actually invented earlier (in fact, Bell gave his first public demo here in my town, in what is today a chi-chi restaurant), but it was in this century that telephones became ubiquitous. Automated switching was the other breakthrough that made telephones something everyone had and used. Telephones changed the nature of business by allowing practical real-time communications.
2: The automobile. Again, the first cars were introduced in the late 1800's, but they didn't become widely adopted until the Model T. The automobile made much of today's mobile society possible, by no longer requiring people to live close to their work. This helped make white-collar work more viable (by enabling companies to attract workers from a wider area) and this change directly helped create our modern economy. In the 19th century, most workers were engaged in the direct, hands-on work of making things, rather than services. White collar workers were relatively small in number. The automobile also made the suburb possible, and now most people in this country live in them.
3: The airplane: Aircraft made simple, high-speed travel between continents and within larger nations (like this one) practical for the first time. It also revolutionized the freight industry.
4: The transistor. Duh.
- -Josh Turiel
Last century? You mean the 19th century? (Score:3)
Electricity
Telegraph
Telephone
Cotton gin
Bessamer (sp?) process for steel
Camera
Safety bicycle
--
You are mistaken. (Score:3)
Secondly, the reason many of Tesla's experiments were safe to be around is because he was working with very low voltage (amperage?). The frequency isn't what you have to look out for. Many of Tesla's later experiments used current which was definately powerful enough to be deadly, like the lightning generator he made out in Colorado.
Thirdly, broadcast power DIDN'T WORK. What Tesla ended up inventing was radio, though that's not what he was trying for. It won't EVER work, because the power of the broadcast signal drops off exponentially as the distance from the transmitter increases. Basically, the same energy gets spread over an ever-increasing area. This is why the major radio stations in a city have to have 50,000 watt transmitters in order to send a fairly weak signal out to the suburbs.
Lastly, even if the laws of physics didn't make broadcast power impossible, it would have been economically infeasible precisely because it couldn't be billed for in proportion to its use. Do you think kilowatt-hours grow on trees?
Jon Acheson
I'm sorry! (Score:3)
Tesla went on to research high-frequency electricity that could be distributed -without- wiring, and most importantly, without risk to living matter. Have you ever seen what fluorescent lights do in a Tesla feild? They glow nicely, now...take the light out of the socket. Wow, it still glows and it isn't even plugged in! Now get this, take an old tube that is burned out and try the same thing...it -still- glows.
Now, try to zap yourself with this electrical source. It isn't going to happen. Why? Because the frequency rate is so high that the current passes directly through your body before the neurons in your system can even react.
Why wasn't this adopted? Because the corporations were afraid of something they could not charge for. They saw BIG bucks in metered power. Having feild generators and house boosters would be impossible to meter. They could only charge a flat rate for the equipment loans at best.
You are right, Edison had it all backwards with DC, but stopping with the current AC implimentation we have today was a huge mistake. All of the lives lost to electricution, all of the power lost because of line waste, all of the light bulbs you have ever bought in your life are just a few of the reasons why this was a -blunder- not a great acheivement.
Re:You are mistaken. (Score:3)
Specifically, it drops off following the formula:
1/(4 * PI * R^2), where R is the distance from the source. There's some other constants in there too, but they're not that important.
(to be honest, neither is the 4*PI bit).
There's a more important reason why "Tesla field" energy distribution wouldn't work though - namely interference. I don't think many computers could be happily powered off it...
Simon
Antibiotics (Score:3)
Their development has lead to the lengthening of the average human lifespan.
We could even go as far as to speculate whether a few of the great minds of our time would have been killed in childhood by diseases like strep.
The zinc bucket ....? (Score:3)
The zinc bucket was a revolution ... carrying water in wooden buckets was a pain because the bucket was so heavy !!!
So the answer to your question depends on your point of view (and your age) ....
What I think is a big thing (Score:3)
//rdj
Radar, and what it brought (Score:3)
Communications (Score:3)
To the extent that they facilitate dissemination of the same information to a large body of people, communication technologies have been a homogenizing force. They have brought the same ideas, in the same language, to a larger audience than would have seen them otherwise.
To the extent that they facilitate one-on-one discussion, they have allowed varied interests to endure. What might have been the ideas or hobbies of isolated individuals or groups can be made more widely available.
And to the extent that they have protected communication from ourside observation or censorship, they have encouraged dissenting opinion to flourish. That protects us from tyrany from any source. I have never feared what people of good will would do with power over my communication. I have feared whose hands that power would eventually reside in.
Why not look forwards? (Score:3)
I found it very perplexing in the last couple of years that people were looking back all the time (top people of our century, top technologies of the last millennium). I assumed this was because of some sort of deep-seated fear of the future, with the momentous occasion of the calendar shift coming up. Now we're actually in the new millennium why don't we look forward?
Use the wisdom of the past by all means (those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat the mistakes...) but let's spend time creating a fair and wonderful future rather than mythologising the past...
Transistors (Score:3)
In my opinion one of the most important ones is the transistor. It allowed an unprecedented miniaturization, with that it was the basis of alot of new technologies and services, like Slashdot.
just my 2 cents.
Re:Three-phase electricity distribution (Score:3)
Continental electricity grids are only possible because of transformers to step up the voltage for long distance transmission, and tansformers in turn only work with AC.
Just a comment on this... not all long distance distribution is done with AC. I think the biggest example we have is here in Brazil. OK, it does need AC in some point of the line, but most of the transmission is done with DC.
What happens here is that we have a huge hydroelectrical plant (Itaipu, the biggest in the world AFAIK) that is shared between Brazil and Paraguay. As our neighbours do not use all their energy, Brazil buys it back from them. The problem is that they use 50 Hz, and we use 60. So, what they do?
They could have transformed the AC from 50 to 60 and transmitted it as usual... but after many calculations, they found out it was more cost-effective to transmit this energy in DC (as it is a very long distance line, the added costs of having the conversion stations are covered by the savings you get from using less cables and thus having less maintenance in the transmission lines).
Alright, that doesn't cut the need for AC transformers (within cities, for example), but I think this was worth a comment. =)
--
Marcelo Vanzin
The men's movement and the feminist angle (Score:4)
At the turn of the century, running a family household required two full-time adults. One to earn the money, the other to perform household tasks. As a child of the sixties, I can remember life without a refridgerator (shopping for fresh poduce daily), using primitive washing machines (wash day was Friday - all day. One adult in attendance at all times) and with no microwave or convenience foods (cooking times measured in hours, from fresh ingredients). we now have a state where one adult plus several devices is required to run a household. This has ontributed to female emancipation, allowing women to follow careers more easily. Since one compelling reason for staying together as a couple has been removed, it has also contributed to divorce, and the break-up of the 'nuclear family' and the increase of single parent families.
The liberating technologies for men have come much later in the century. In the early part of the century, conscription and advancing technology in war meant that men were massacred in millions. The first breakthrough (and some will hate me for this) was the atom bomb. This was a technology that made armies of massed numbers, and the evil , state enslavement of males called conscription, an irrelevance. Smart weapons at the end of the twentieth century mean that conscription is dead, and an army of tens can pack a devastating punch, This will be an influence in the early part of the 21st century. Metal (and silicon) will be better than meat.
An Obvious Parallel and and Unlikely Choice (Score:5)
Plastics.
C'mon, people. The ability to generate arbitrarily shaped substanced with (seemingly) arbitrary properties changed the shape of *everything*, from medicine to packaging to war.
The net's exciting, but imagine touching something that literally just couldn't have existed.
I find it extraordinarily interesting that nobody compares the historical excitement over plastic products has never been linked to the present Net crazes. Last I checked, of course, the Dow just had the last of the great plastic giants summarily removed in favor of some tech company(Was it Intel?). And you wonder why the Dow is raging...
That might just have something to do with it. Someone who was actually around when plastics were really huge would be really nice to reply right about now.
As for some unlikely but interesting choices...lets go beyond mass communications for a second and look at Instapolling. The effects of immediate, semi(or pseudo) unfiltered feedback has *got* to be powerful. Suddenly "the public" no longer thought whatever major newspapers reported. "The public" now thought what major newspapers asked...and what the party asked...and what the other party asked...and ya know what? Somewhere in that mass was an actual democratically representative opinion.
Representation was invented because the public was considered too unweildy to come to quick decisions. Pollsters have changed that, and it's very likely that much of their influence is utterly invisible--and would make great reading.
Something to think about.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Y2K and we're still using the wheel?! (Score:5)
"I don't understand at all," said Jim Groznatz, a 20-year-old Silicon Valley multimillionaire. "I mean, we've got the internet, we've got the dotcoms, and people are still using the wheel?" Groznatz suggested that the widespread use of fire may represent "retro chic, perhaps even marketable retro chic."
In Washington, several congressional committees are now studying the disturbing technological backwardness evidenced by the continuing popularity of the wheel. "We need to let newer technologies progress to the front," said Vice President Al Gore. "The wheel is yesterday's technology; we need to look ahead to tomorrow's technology. I'm thinking fiber optics, probably."
In homes and families across America and the world, however, the wheel continues to occupy a central place. "I just put the TV table on castors last night," commented Wisconsen homeowner Jorg Ericcson. "I mean I guess the wheel is thousands of years old and all, but it still seems to work."
Mr. Ericcson may be in for a change, though. Microsoft recently announced the acquisition of Goodyear -- well known manufacturer of wheel accessories -- to produce a "new, user-friendly, proprietary wheel." The new "MS Wheels!" will feature multiple colors, a patented backing-up mechanism, and will be fully integrated into the popular Windows operating system. "We were concerned about 'Wheel piracy' initially," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, "but we re-watched Road Warrior last night and we're working on some sort of technical solution to control our intellectual property."
In the mean time, AOL and Time Warner have united to produce a new "Fire 2000" and Apple is reportedly working on a secret "eBronze" and "Opposable iThumbs" in its research labs. It's going to be an exciting century!
Three-phase electricity distribution (Score:5)
The key invention was the three-phase AC system by Tesla. Edison promoted the alternative DC system, with huge banks of lead-acid batteries at substations. Urgh. Continental electricity grids are only possible because of transformers to step up the voltage for long distance transmission, and transformers in turn only work with AC. If you use AC then the a three phase configuration is the most efficient.
Paul.
Here's one no-one's mentioned. (Score:5)
Also on the social side, state funded education for all, and state funded healthcare for all are pretty big, at least on this side of the pond.
Of the previous suggestions though, I certainly have to go with plastics and antibiotics.