Invention, inventions, inventions
Love this quote heard at the recent Apple Educators Summit in Hong Kong- “Technology is only technology to those born before the technology”.
Then yesterday we had friends for lunch and we started to talk about the tools we used at school- both Howard and I (being older) used slide rules and logarithm tables, whereas Juanita and Philip had the luxury of calculators. Now we are equipping our children with a far more powerful tool by encouraging different learning strategies to look at the best ways of doing mental arithmetic. It was interesting discovering how each person differed in how they would add up a series of numbers.
Anyway after they had gone I started to muse on that technology quote and looked up things invented since the 1960s (my birth decade). When I look at the list I realise I grew up in a very different world!
DECADE: 1960-1970
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1960: halogen lamp invented
1961: valium invented
1962: audio cassettes developed
1963: pop-top cans
1964: BASIC computer language; permanent-press materials
1965: Astroturf; Kevlar; soft contact lenses
1966: electronic fuel injection developed for cars
1967: first handheld calculator
1968: Douglas Englebert invents the computer mouse
1969: ATM machine invented; Arpanet also appears and bar code scanners
developed
DECADE: 1970-1980
——————
1970: Alan Shugart (chairman of hard drive supplier Seagate) invents
the floppy disk
1971: Intel’s 4004 is first microprocessor design; dot-matrix printer,
VCR and LCD displays also invented
1972: first video game — Pong — invented
1973: gene splicing invented; Ethernet networking invented at Xerox;
BIC develops disposable lighter; Black-Scholes pricing model developed
for options
1974: Post-it Notes and liposuction invented
1975: laser printer developed
1976: ink jet printing invented
1977: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) invented
1978: Visicalc spreadsheet introduced for PCs; first PC models appear
from Heathkit, Apple, Radio Shack
1979: Walkman invented by Sony; roller blades developed; Seymour Cray
designs the supercomputer
DECADE: 1980-1990
——————
1980: vaccine for hepatitis-B invented
1981: IBM introduces the PC and MS-DOS appears for the first time
1982: human growth hormones genetically engineered
1983: soft bifocal contact lenses introduced
1984: Apple Macintosh popularizes the graphical interface; CD-ROMs
invented
1985: Microsoft brings out Windows 1.0
1986: Microsoft’s initial public offering (IPO); first disposable
camera introduced
1987: disposable contact lenses invented
1988: Doppler radar invented; first patent issued for
genetically-engineered animal issued
1989: first HDTV broadcasts in Japan
DECADE: 1990-2000
——————
1990: Tim Berners-Lee develops protocol for both World-wide web (WWW)
and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
1991: first digital answering machine
1992: smart pill invented
1993: Intel introduces Pentium family of 32-bit microprocessors
1994: first Internet audio broadcast from Interop
1995: DVD invented; Java language launched by Sun Microsystems;
RealAudio broadcasting introduced
1996: WebTV introduced
1997: gas-powered fuel cells developed
1998: Viagra developed
1999: Google.com is formed and the search engine goes into beta test
publicly
2000: mapping of human DNA completed
May 11th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Hi Ali
The 1950’s (My birth decade) looks an even more different world. Some nostalgia for the things you mention, but I don’t miss the slide rule one bit. Never used it since school
September 24th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting!
August 20th, 2010 at 2:51 am
That is a very interesting and impressive list. Another list that would be interesting is what things have been invented and then superseded by a more advance invention, ie, the 8 track tape, etc. Alan