1985-2005: Not So Fast!

For the past twenty years I have been hearing the same old rumour that technology is advancing faster than ever. Perhaps this was the case between 1965-85 (or between 1945-65). I could be missing something, but I can hardly think of any major breakthroughs in the last twenty years that were not merely refinements and adaptations of earlier technological advances. For example the mid-1990s gave us digital mobile phones and digital TV (but how revolutionary are these advances over their analogue predecessors?) and there's the World Wide Web which was initially created back in 1989 (didn't really get going until 1994) and was made out of existing technology (the Internet is much older--some computer users were already communicating via modem across networks of computers). Of course the main thing I can think of is the advancements made in storing and retrieving large amounts of digital information as is the case with DVD (and recordable DVD). But the first commercial Compact Disc Player was actually produced back in 1982 and the first portable CD player dates to 1985, so how much "faster" an advancement can we claim to have made from 80s to 90s here really? When I think about significant technological advancements, I think of the printing press (1450s), the telephone (1870s), the radio (beginning 1906), television (1929), washing machines (1930s), discovery of nuclear fission (1938), computers, synthesizers, space travel (1960s) and microwave ovens (invented 1955 and domestic range first produced 1967). Even if we begin with the early period of the twentieth-century we see that the first 30 years of the twentieth century brought huge technological advances: We get the first powered aircraft flight and the invention of the vacuum tube (valve) and the triode which allowed for electronic circuits to be produced (hence electric lighting and transmission of radio waves). We get the first picture film recording, disc recording, and tape recording. And if we consider the period 1940s-1950s we see the Iconoscope and kinescopes ("picture tubes") produced which allowed for television picture transmission. Magnetic tape, semiconductors, transistors, digital computers, the beam maser, lasers, the atomic bomb, atomic clocks, nuclear power, communication satellites and the cathode-ray tubes all arrived before the end of the 1960s. The 1950-60s also brought us remote controls, electronic hearing-aids, semiconductors, silicon transistors with the advancement of the transistor and integrated circuit being an almost unquantifiable technological advance for electronic technology, with the silicon chip (1961) being perhaps the most significant invention in its field to date. Another huge technological leap was the microprocessor (1971). It was the middle of the twentieth-century that first saw humans first travelling into space, the first floppy disk, and the first appearance of solar cell and fiber optic technology. The world's first video-phone was produced in 1970. Colour television was first developed in 1971. Things certainly get smaller, faster and cheaper from the 1970s-1980s with faster, smaller computers getting within closer reach of the masses. We also see the first digital watches, digital pocket calculators and pocket TV's arriving in the 1970s and video recorders becoming more affordable. 1979 brings to the world the first walkman and mobile phones. 1980 brings further significant breakthroughs. In 1980 we have the first digital multitrack recorders introduced. In 1980 CD is invented. Home computers are mass-produced for personal use at this time. In 1980 we also have the first commercially produced pocket computer. Commodore releases the Vic-20 in 1980. In 1981 we see IBM join the home microcomputer industry. The Commodore-64 is released

in 1982. More revolutionary was perhaps the Apple-Mac released in 1984 as a huge advancement over the previous Apple computers. Unfortunately IBM is seen to be the more 'serious' machine (i.e. not a hobbyist's machine) regardless of initially offering an inferior yet expandable product. Other computers were already running a 'windows' system by the mid-1980s. The first multimedia computer was designed by Amiga and released in 1985 and was quite advanced in its capacity to run sound and graphics and it ran on a multitasking operating system. It could even emulate other operating systems. Until graphics workstations began to become available at the end of the 1980s, many broadcasting professionals used the Amiga. A decade later other home computers were still not offering many of the features of the Amiga. DNA was also first discovered in 1985. Do advancements in technology really continue to out-pace what was ealier seen (after the advancements made between 1965-85)? The convergence of technologies and their affordability and adaptability has indeed opened new opportunities for the masses. But as far as the 'speed' of technological advancement and breakthroughs, I cant see it. I have concluded that technology has not continued in advancing as fast as people have still been assuming-certainly no where near the rate occurring the twenty years from 1965-85. Most technology utilizes technological breakthroughs appearing between 19551980! After the mid 1980s we basically see the same sort of technology adapted, refined, improved, reshaped, resized and mass marketed, getting cheaper, smaller, more efficient and more widely available. These are smaller advances compared to the outrageous pace set by earlier decades.
--