The world we live in…is anything but normal.
It’s become so natural and expected to be able to predict the weather for weeks at a time. To speak with someone on the other side of the world, buy things without physical exchanges; record every sound and image of everyday.
It’s no longer an exciting event to hear or see a massive machine fly overhead or for a watch to read your fingerprint and connect you to all the information that the human race has access to.
For us, living in this day and age, these devices, tools, machines, are nothing more than mainstream. But take a step back, barely 2 decades ago, and it is blatantly clear how unusual an age we live in.
When I was a child, I could easily recall my Aunt using a wall phone, complete with an endlessly long coiled line connecting it to the base. I recall going outside to learn how to use a Polaroid camera and how exciting it was to shake the picture and wait to see the image. Nowadays I could snap 30 pictures have them instantly in less time.
In middle school, I (had to write a paper and it had to be typed in order to it to be turned in. Well, we did have a computer (if you can still call those 50lbs hunk of beige parts a computer) but did not have a printer. So my Aunt gave me a typewriter and I got to it. Now, 10 years later, I could speak my essay into my phone, have it converted to text, edit it, print a copy via Bluetooth, and still instantly send it to my teacher and peers via an online dropbox. It’s a bit head spinning to say the least and truly a testament to our generation for being able to rapidly adapt to these changes. Yes, humankind always changes for “change is the only constant in life” and there have been many amazing inventions our species has created to revolutionize the world.
The wheel, the plow, the printing press, the clock, and more recently, the plane, telegraphs, light bulbs, and even the transistor. There are so many things being created that the United States Patent Office indicates that 589,410 patents were submitted in 2015 (with 51.1% being from overseas) versus the 85,869 in 1693 (with 23% being overseas).
#evolution #technology #ai #progress #humanity
