Sometimes,
while waiting for quantum computers to become a thing, or complaining that your
stupid laptop keeps dying on 5 percent battery, it's easy to forget just how
far technology has come over the past 50 years.
Sure, we can
all list off a whole bunch of innovations that have changed the way the world
works - the Internet, smartphones, radio telescopes - but it's hard to really
put that kind of change into perspective.
Thankfully,
pictures often speak louder than words, and so below are nine photos that'll
make you stop and raise your *praise hand* emojis to the sky in honor of the
scientists and engineers that have got us where we are today.
Because
living in a world where you can have your food delivered, relive the entire
history of the Universe, and search for new particles all using a device in
your pocket is really awesome.
9. Where are
my vacuum tubes? I was promised vacuum tubes!
This is the
PDP-7 minicoputer, produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation back in 1965.
At the time, it was thought of as extremely powerful, and cost a relatively
cheap US$72,000. It had a 9 kb memory, but could be upgraded to 144 kb.
8. Bill,
I'mma let you finish, but today's researcher can fit 1,000 terabytes on a CD.
Speaking of,
remember when we still all used floppy disks?
7. "One
minute" has a very different meaning than it used to.
It's no
wonder time seems to be passing so much more quickly these days.
6. And space
is so much bigger than it was 30 years ago.
It's pretty
mind-blowing that virtually every single day, we're learning new things about
how vast our Universe is.
Case in
point: our Solar System might have a new moon and a planet we've never seen
before - oh and a huge galaxy orbiting our own just appeared seemingly out of
nowhere. Hi space, we love you!
5. Fact: the
computer that landed Apollo 11 on the Moon had less processing power than a
TI-83 calculator.
Seriously,
the Apollo engineers did some masterful wwork with the limited technology
theyhad.
4. Speaking
of space, we see things a lot more clearly now. 3. 1993 vs 2013 - all this can
fit in your pocket.
Soon we
might be able to replace our phone's video with the blink of an eye, and its
display with our own skin.
2. And
things have gotten a lot smaller, too.
Even the
future of space travel is miniature.
1. And this
happened in just 9 years...
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