It is nothing unusual that new centuries bring new ways of living based on the development of science and technology. Who could predict what will come into existence in 100 years from now? Well, maybe some sci-fi writers and scientists can, but common people are unlikely to be so perceptive. Here we have some things which used to be seen just in science fiction movies back in the 1980s to 1990s, but today, we couldn’t imagine our lives without them.
Invention No. 1 – The Internet
Today, no one questions this revolutionary product of technology, but back in 1980 everyone was laughing when Bill Gates said his dream was: ”A computer on every desk in every home.’’
It all began back in 1969 when US military invented a network of all networks called the ARPANET. Its purpose was to enable communication and data transfer between military officers. About twenty years later (in 1989, to be more precise) the world wide web (better known as just: www) was created by Tim Berners-Lee. Nothing is the same since then and the world is constantly been changing because of the internet. Remember how you feel when it happens that you don’t have the internet connection for some time. Feeling lost and isolated?
Invention No. 2 – Global positioning system (GPS)
Do you remember the times when it was possible to get lost in the world? Well, no more of that thanks to this piece of technology called Global Positioning System, or simply GPS. This device was also created by US military for the war purposes back in 1973. The first experimental GPS satellite was launched in 1978 and not until 1983 was it available to public use. This happened after President Ronald Reagan required it to be available for others out of the military. It was successfully launched on mobile phones in 2004. Today, we all have it on our smartphones automatically installed by the manufacturers. This technology has a wide variety of usages and many things couldn’t exist without it, for example, an automated vehicle or autopilot systems.
Invention No. 3 – Touchscreen
Now, when we are mentioning smartphones, do you remember that old mobile phones without the touch screen? The touchscreen technology was invented by E.A. Johnson back in 1969. It was used for British Air Traffic Control and it wasn’t so complex as today.
Apple came up with its first smartphone with touch screen (or iPhone) in 2007, base on Samuel Hurst’s the resistive touch technology from 1975. Today, many devices have touchscreens – even washing machines, TVs etc.
Invention No. 4 – The electric vehicle
It is well known that the fossil fuels are to be exhausted in a near future, so scientists came up with this innovative idea to create the electric vehicle. Robert Anderson invented it in the 1830s. It was not considered to be something significant since the manufacturing costs were high and also the top speed of the vehicle was low. The first electric vehicle was produced back in 1884 by Thomas Parker. Because some people realized its significance, today we have the actual production of such vehicles. There are some different manufacturers, but Elon Musk‘s Tesla is considered to be the best. Even Formula E was created – driven by battery-powered cars. Today, we are starting to see hybrid cars which use both fuel and battery as a source of power.
Invention No. 5 – Optical Fiber
Narinder Kapany and Harold Hopkins invented optical fiber in the 1950s. These days, it has many different usages, for example in long distance telecommunications delivering high-quality images and sounds. It is small, but it transfers a huge amount of data.
Optical fibers are also used in medicine and mechanics. Doctors use this technology in endoscopy to see the inside of a human’s body and operate it. On the other hand, mechanics use it to see the inside of a vehicle without taking its parts out. Isn’t that amazing?
Invention No. 6 – The artificial intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence was created by Newell and Simon back in 1955 and it was initially called The Logic Theorist. Afterward, John McCarthy renamed it Artificial Intelligence, and it was later edited by Alan Turing in his theory of computation.
AI is based on the functioning of a human brain, but is far simpler than a human brain, since the scientists still haven’t discovered all the functions of a human brain itself.
Back in 1997, an AI-based computer named Deep Blue won a chess match over a world champion, Garry Kasparov. Isn’t this a bit scary – a computer as smart as a man? Now we can take all of those movies about robots capturing the world a bit more seriously, can’t we?