New year, new decade, new technology, right? I believe that in Back to the Future Part II there were hover cars and self-lacing boots by 2015. Chop-chop!
To know where you’re going, you always have to know where you’ve been. So let’s take a look back over the last decade at 10 major technological phenomena that developed and that we now take for granted.
Broadband internet. Remember those dial-up glory days? It could take minutes to download a simple image, yet somehow we still managed to game online.
Wireless-fidelity networking. Yes indeed, kids, there was a time when your laptop actually required you to be tethered to both a wall outlet, a phone jack or a router. And nowadays, with Wireless-N, it’s even faster than the standard ethernet speeds.
Operating systems. Yes, the ’90s were not kind to operating systems. In the late ’90s, we were pretty much stuck on Windows 95, 98 or NT. Mac OS had Systems 8 and 9. (Macs had a dearth of software available and weren’t a viable platform for most end-users.) Bill Gates had to heavily invest in non-voting shares of Apple to keep it afloat and Microsoft out of anti-trust waters, which is another thing we have now: modern anti-trust laws that govern our software conglomerates.
Social networking. There was a time when you had to build your own Web page and manually add people to an instant messenger client to have your own Web presence. You know, I remember having to code uphill in the snow both ways while fighting off a legion of the undead just to talk to my mother over the Internet. Now Facebook is bugging me because I’m avoiding talking to her.
File-sharing. There was the file-sharing revolution and then the insane crackdowns. Remember the child in New York whose parents got arrested because she downloaded a Sesame Street song? I mean, you can’t get that kind of Big Brother just anywhere, except, well, 1984.
YouTube. There was an Internet before YouTube. It was dark; there were no women; and trading videos consisted of “uploading” VHS cassettes to the post office. YouTube, an amazing piece of technology and Internet culture, has been around for only five years. I’ve even had instructors request assignments be uploaded to it. Just close your eyes, lean back and try to imagine what life was like without easy access to Guitar Hero: Metallica clips on expert mode and Joe Cocker.
Blogs. The idea of the Web log, oh so many years ago, was essentially an online journal. Now people use them for everything under the sun, from posting news to keeping track of their families. It has integrated graphics and video in a wholly unpredicted way and kept many a viral video alive before YouTube.
Cheap digital cameras. Who develops on film anymore? Ten years ago you would still be running the 35mm film of your cousin’s birthday party down to the drug store and waiting an hour to get it done. This perhaps is the biggest inconvenience we no longer remember.
Wikipedia. I cannot tell you the number of times in my youth that I purposefully planted incorrect information in Wikipedia that sounded believable. People like me are the reason Wikipedia doesn’t work. The site has a fleet of modern editors now who keep an ever-vigilant eye on things, but I still find small factual errors or opinion and conjecture passed off as fact.
Gamer points. I’m generally not a fan of consoles or the rise of Xbox Live and PSN. I mean, you pay for Internet; you pay to play your console online; and on top of that, you buy these arbitrary points if you want an expansion pack to your favorite game. Is the USD no longer a valid trading commodity?
Looking forward to the future, it’s hard to predict what technology will take hold in the same way things have this decade. Virtual reality has been touted for decades now, and I think we’re still unlikely to see any significant version of that in the home. As A.I. makes advances this decade, I think we’re likely to see much more interesting robots. As far as the medical field goes, the idea of the digital doctor will come to pass.
We may get trampled all over and enjoy a new Big Brother, but the more likely scenario is a more fair and balanced group of legislation will come to pass that still respects the American ideal of freedom. This legislation will be thanks to a younger and more Internet-savvy group of people coming into government, while ensuring the fat cats get their share of the pie. The Wild West days of the Internet will be gone forever.
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