For the first 10,000 or so years of human history, we more or less lived the same way our parents always had. Most people never traveled beyond 25 miles from where they were born. Life was hard and brutal, survival of the fittest was the order of the day.
Then in the 19th Century things started to change, the Industrial revolution started to change how people lived. When the Unites States of America was formed, 80% of the population lived on farms, most of whom grew enough food only for themselves. Today, fewer than 1% of the population lives on a farm (about 1 million), yet they can provide enough food to feed about 1,000 times their number, or nearly 1 billion people.
There were many innovations in the 19th century, the Cotton Gin for example, the Internal Combustion engine for another... but it was the 20th Century that really changed the world.
In the year 2000, the National Academy of Engineering put together a list of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th Century. This is not a list of the most important events or people, but rather of the 20 things that most changed how we live, work, and play. As a footnote, I have to completely agree with Time Magazine in naming Albert Einstein the Person of the Century. More than anyone else, he changed our fundamental understanding of the universe itself.
1. Electrification
In the 20th century, widespread electrification gave us power for our cities, factories, farms, and homes - and forever changed our lives. Thousands of engineers made it happen, with innovative work in fuel sources, power generating techniques, and transmission grids. From street lights to supercomputers, electric power makes our lives safer, healthier, and more convenient.
2. Automobile
The automobile may be the ultimate symbol of personal freedom. It's also the world's major transporter of people and goods, and a strong source of economic growth and stability. From early Tin Lizzies to today's sleek sedans, the automobile is a showcase of 20th century engineering ingenuity, with countless innovations made in design, production, and safety.
3. Airplane
Today you can go from Europe to America in 4 hours on the Concorde. In 1900, the same trip took 7 to 10 days by boat. Modern air travel transports goods and people quickly around the globe, facilitating our personal, cultural, and commercial interaction. Engineering innovation - from the Wright brothers to supersonic jets - have made it all possible.
4. Water Supply and Distribution
Today, a simple turn of the tap provides clean water - a precious resource. Engineering advances in managing this resource - with water treatment, supply, and distribution systems - changed life profoundly in the 20th century, virtually eliminating waterborne diseases in developed nations, and providing clean and abundant water for communities, farms, and industries.
5. Electronics
Electronics provide the basis for countless innovations - CD players, TVs, and computers, to name a few. From vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits, engineers have made electronics smaller, more powerful, and more efficient, paving the way for products that have improved the quality and convenience of modern life.
6. Radio and Television
Radio and television were major agents of social change in the 20th century, opening windows to other lives, to remote areas of the world, and to history in the making. From the wireless telegraph to today's advanced satellite systems, engineers have developed remarkable technologies that inform and entertain millions every day.
7. Agricultural Mechanization
The machinery of farms - tractors, cultivators, combines, and hundreds of others - dramatically increased farm efficiency and productivity in the 20th century. At the start of the century, four U.S. farmers could feed about 10 people. By the end, with the help of engineering innovation, a single farmer could feed more than 100.
8. Computers
The computer is a defining symbol of 20th century technology - a tool that has transformed businesses and lives around the world, increased productivity, and opened access to vast amounts of knowledge. Computers relieved the drudgery of simple tasks, and brought new capabilities to complex ones. Engineering ingenuity fueled this revolution, and continues to make computers faster, more powerful, and more affordable.
9. Telephone
The telephone is a cornerstone of modern life. Nearly instant connections - between friends, families, businesses, and nations - enable communications that enhance our lives, industries, and economies. With remarkable innovations, engineers have brought us from copper wire to fiber optics, from switchboards to satellites, and from party lines to the Internet. Truly, the telephone has brought the human family together.
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
Air conditioning and refrigeration changed life immensely in the 20th century. Dozens of engineering innovations made it possible to transport and store fresh foods, and to adapt the environment to human needs. Once luxuries, air conditioning and refrigeration are now common necessities which greatly enhance our quality of life.
11. Highways
Highways provide one of our most cherished assets - the freedom of personal mobility. The story of their construction is one of the most remarkable of the 20th century. Thousands of engineers built the roads, bridges, and tunnels that connect our communities, enable goods and services to reach remote areas, encourage growth, and facilitate commerce.
12. Spacecraft
From early test rockets to sophisticated satellites, the human expansion into space is perhaps the most amazing engineering feat of the 20th century. The development of spacecraft has thrilled the world, expanded our knowledge base, and improved our capabilities. Thousands of useful products and services have resulted from the space program, including medical devices, improved weather forecasting, and wireless communications.
13. Internet
Initially a tool to link research center computers, the Internet has become a vital instrument of social change. Created via a series of engineering innovations, the Internet is changing business practices, educational pursuits, and personal communications. By providing global access to news, commerce, and vast stores of information, the Internet brings us together and adds convenience and efficiency to our lives.
14. Imaging
From tiny atoms to distant galaxies, 20th century imaging technologies have expanded the reach of our vision. Probing the human body, mapping ocean floors, tracking weather patterns - all are the result of engineering advances. Coupled with the computer, imaging gives us incredible new views, both within and beyond the human body and environment.
15. Household Appliances
Household appliances dramatically changed the 20th century lifestyle by eliminating much of the labor of everyday tasks. Engineering innovation produced a wide variety of devices, including electric ranges, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and dryers. These and other products give us more free time, enable more people to work outside the home, and contribute significantly to our economy.
16. Health Technologies
Advances in 20th century medical technology have been astounding. Armed with only a few instruments in 1900, medical professionals now have an arsenal of diagnostic and treatment equipment at their disposal. Artificial organs, replacement joints, imaging technologies, and biomaterials are but a few of the engineered products that improve the quality of life for millions.
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
Petroleum has been a critical component of 20th century life, providing fuel for cars, homes, and industries. Also critical, petrochemicals are used in products ranging from aspirin to zippers. Spurred on by engineering advances in oil exploration and processing, petroleum products have had an enormous impact on world economies, peoples, and politics.
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
Pulses of light from lasers are used in industrial tools, surgical devices, satellites, and other products. In communications, highly pure glass fibers now provide the infrastructure to carry information via laser-produced light - a revolutionary technical achievement. Today, a single fiber-optic cable can transmit tens of millions of phone calls, data files, and video images.
19. Nuclear Technologies
The harnessing of the atom changed the nature of war forever and astounded the world with its awesome power. Nuclear technologies also gave us a new source of electric power and new capabilities in medical research and imaging. Though controversial, the engineering achievements related to nuclear technologies remain among the most important of the 20th century.
20. High-performance Materials
From the building blocks of iron and steel to the latest advances in polymers, ceramics, and composites, the 20th century has seen a revolution in materials. Engineers have tailored and enhanced material properties for uses in thousands of applications. In aircraft, medical devices, computers, and other products, high-performance materials have a great impact on our quality of life.
Long list to be sure, but if you think about what has really changed our lives, everything on that list belongs there.
One of the newest on that list is the Internet. We're just starting to see how that is changing the world. Just 10 years ago almost no one had an Internet connection, the World Wide Web didn't exist, and e-mail was something large corporations used. Today, kids have their own e-mail accounts on their Internet connected wireless phones, more than half the people in the United States have a connection to the Internet, and there are now more e-mail accounts than phone lines. If you ask the average office worker today what he most needs, his answer is just as likely to be his computer as it is his telephone.
May the 21st Century hold bold, new challenges and great new wonders to be discovered. Four of them that I personally think will change everything and arrive sometime in the next 100 years:
1. AI - Artificial Intelligence
This has been predicted to be "just around the corner" so many times, some people are starting to wonder if it will ever arrive. Like so many things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. It won't arrive all at once, but it will sneak up on us when we're least expecting it to. It won't happen in 10 years, but it won't take 100 either. If computers continue to double in power every 18 months for the next 40 years as they have for the past 40 years, then I expect this to arrive by the middle of the century. Like the computer, this will again change our lives, it will provide an intelligent assistant to everyone who can afford one, perhaps everyone period if computers continue to drop in price as they double in power.
2. Energy
The discovery and development of new energy technologies will define the 21st Century. Fission is a messy and dangerous power source, Fusion is not. I fully expect fusion power reactors to be developed some time in the next 100 years. Once that happens, there would be no further reason to develop electricity in any other fashion. The discovery and development of anti-matter brings fourth another possible energy source an order of magnitude again higher than fusion. At that power level it is probably too dangerous to use on our planet, but we could build anti-matter reactors on the Moon or in space and beam the power back via microwaves. It could also be used as the next great space ship (or perhaps even star ship) propulsion technology.
3. Robotics
This was the great hope and fear of the 20th Century. As in movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", robots were both admired and feared. What happened in reality was robots looked nothing like humans, they were (by our standards) dumb, and could only do basic tasks. But do them they could, at a speed and precision level unmatchable by humans. Today robots build our cars, appliances, and even office buildings. They work bomb disposal, sweep city streets, and cleanup hazardous waste dumps. Tomorrow we'll see more robots like Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot. They will walk and talk just like us, they will be able to perform many of the tasks that we perform. I see a time when all garbage is picked up by robots, food is prepared by them, children are entertained by them, wars are fought by them, and labor is performed by them. The risk here is that we may become even more lazy than we already are, but the solution to that lies elsewhere. Robots should bring the cost of producing things down to a point where the next item on my list might come true.
4. Money
Yes, I know money already exists, but maybe it won't for too much longer. As computers get more and more powerful, as robots become ever more capable, at some point intelligent robots will be able to produce additional intelligent robots without the need for human assistance. With a basically unlimited supply of robots, their cost should drop to zero which would destroy our current economic system. If the robots can mine the raw materials, refine them, then build more robots, then repair those that are damaged, they cease to have any value as they are infinitely replaceable. Things would also lose their value because robots could make an unlimited number of everything from toaster ovens to clothes to whatever. The powers that be may never allow this to happen, but I can see no reason why it isn't theoretically possible. Yes, I know this last one is way out there and a hundred and one things can get in the way, but it also is technically possible, so it is worth considering.
Then in the 19th Century things started to change, the Industrial revolution started to change how people lived. When the Unites States of America was formed, 80% of the population lived on farms, most of whom grew enough food only for themselves. Today, fewer than 1% of the population lives on a farm (about 1 million), yet they can provide enough food to feed about 1,000 times their number, or nearly 1 billion people.
There were many innovations in the 19th century, the Cotton Gin for example, the Internal Combustion engine for another... but it was the 20th Century that really changed the world.
In the year 2000, the National Academy of Engineering put together a list of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th Century. This is not a list of the most important events or people, but rather of the 20 things that most changed how we live, work, and play. As a footnote, I have to completely agree with Time Magazine in naming Albert Einstein the Person of the Century. More than anyone else, he changed our fundamental understanding of the universe itself.
1. Electrification
In the 20th century, widespread electrification gave us power for our cities, factories, farms, and homes - and forever changed our lives. Thousands of engineers made it happen, with innovative work in fuel sources, power generating techniques, and transmission grids. From street lights to supercomputers, electric power makes our lives safer, healthier, and more convenient.
2. Automobile
The automobile may be the ultimate symbol of personal freedom. It's also the world's major transporter of people and goods, and a strong source of economic growth and stability. From early Tin Lizzies to today's sleek sedans, the automobile is a showcase of 20th century engineering ingenuity, with countless innovations made in design, production, and safety.
3. Airplane
Today you can go from Europe to America in 4 hours on the Concorde. In 1900, the same trip took 7 to 10 days by boat. Modern air travel transports goods and people quickly around the globe, facilitating our personal, cultural, and commercial interaction. Engineering innovation - from the Wright brothers to supersonic jets - have made it all possible.
4. Water Supply and Distribution
Today, a simple turn of the tap provides clean water - a precious resource. Engineering advances in managing this resource - with water treatment, supply, and distribution systems - changed life profoundly in the 20th century, virtually eliminating waterborne diseases in developed nations, and providing clean and abundant water for communities, farms, and industries.
5. Electronics
Electronics provide the basis for countless innovations - CD players, TVs, and computers, to name a few. From vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits, engineers have made electronics smaller, more powerful, and more efficient, paving the way for products that have improved the quality and convenience of modern life.
6. Radio and Television
Radio and television were major agents of social change in the 20th century, opening windows to other lives, to remote areas of the world, and to history in the making. From the wireless telegraph to today's advanced satellite systems, engineers have developed remarkable technologies that inform and entertain millions every day.
7. Agricultural Mechanization
The machinery of farms - tractors, cultivators, combines, and hundreds of others - dramatically increased farm efficiency and productivity in the 20th century. At the start of the century, four U.S. farmers could feed about 10 people. By the end, with the help of engineering innovation, a single farmer could feed more than 100.
8. Computers
The computer is a defining symbol of 20th century technology - a tool that has transformed businesses and lives around the world, increased productivity, and opened access to vast amounts of knowledge. Computers relieved the drudgery of simple tasks, and brought new capabilities to complex ones. Engineering ingenuity fueled this revolution, and continues to make computers faster, more powerful, and more affordable.
9. Telephone
The telephone is a cornerstone of modern life. Nearly instant connections - between friends, families, businesses, and nations - enable communications that enhance our lives, industries, and economies. With remarkable innovations, engineers have brought us from copper wire to fiber optics, from switchboards to satellites, and from party lines to the Internet. Truly, the telephone has brought the human family together.
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
Air conditioning and refrigeration changed life immensely in the 20th century. Dozens of engineering innovations made it possible to transport and store fresh foods, and to adapt the environment to human needs. Once luxuries, air conditioning and refrigeration are now common necessities which greatly enhance our quality of life.
11. Highways
Highways provide one of our most cherished assets - the freedom of personal mobility. The story of their construction is one of the most remarkable of the 20th century. Thousands of engineers built the roads, bridges, and tunnels that connect our communities, enable goods and services to reach remote areas, encourage growth, and facilitate commerce.
12. Spacecraft
From early test rockets to sophisticated satellites, the human expansion into space is perhaps the most amazing engineering feat of the 20th century. The development of spacecraft has thrilled the world, expanded our knowledge base, and improved our capabilities. Thousands of useful products and services have resulted from the space program, including medical devices, improved weather forecasting, and wireless communications.
13. Internet
Initially a tool to link research center computers, the Internet has become a vital instrument of social change. Created via a series of engineering innovations, the Internet is changing business practices, educational pursuits, and personal communications. By providing global access to news, commerce, and vast stores of information, the Internet brings us together and adds convenience and efficiency to our lives.
14. Imaging
From tiny atoms to distant galaxies, 20th century imaging technologies have expanded the reach of our vision. Probing the human body, mapping ocean floors, tracking weather patterns - all are the result of engineering advances. Coupled with the computer, imaging gives us incredible new views, both within and beyond the human body and environment.
15. Household Appliances
Household appliances dramatically changed the 20th century lifestyle by eliminating much of the labor of everyday tasks. Engineering innovation produced a wide variety of devices, including electric ranges, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and dryers. These and other products give us more free time, enable more people to work outside the home, and contribute significantly to our economy.
16. Health Technologies
Advances in 20th century medical technology have been astounding. Armed with only a few instruments in 1900, medical professionals now have an arsenal of diagnostic and treatment equipment at their disposal. Artificial organs, replacement joints, imaging technologies, and biomaterials are but a few of the engineered products that improve the quality of life for millions.
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
Petroleum has been a critical component of 20th century life, providing fuel for cars, homes, and industries. Also critical, petrochemicals are used in products ranging from aspirin to zippers. Spurred on by engineering advances in oil exploration and processing, petroleum products have had an enormous impact on world economies, peoples, and politics.
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
Pulses of light from lasers are used in industrial tools, surgical devices, satellites, and other products. In communications, highly pure glass fibers now provide the infrastructure to carry information via laser-produced light - a revolutionary technical achievement. Today, a single fiber-optic cable can transmit tens of millions of phone calls, data files, and video images.
19. Nuclear Technologies
The harnessing of the atom changed the nature of war forever and astounded the world with its awesome power. Nuclear technologies also gave us a new source of electric power and new capabilities in medical research and imaging. Though controversial, the engineering achievements related to nuclear technologies remain among the most important of the 20th century.
20. High-performance Materials
From the building blocks of iron and steel to the latest advances in polymers, ceramics, and composites, the 20th century has seen a revolution in materials. Engineers have tailored and enhanced material properties for uses in thousands of applications. In aircraft, medical devices, computers, and other products, high-performance materials have a great impact on our quality of life.
Long list to be sure, but if you think about what has really changed our lives, everything on that list belongs there.
One of the newest on that list is the Internet. We're just starting to see how that is changing the world. Just 10 years ago almost no one had an Internet connection, the World Wide Web didn't exist, and e-mail was something large corporations used. Today, kids have their own e-mail accounts on their Internet connected wireless phones, more than half the people in the United States have a connection to the Internet, and there are now more e-mail accounts than phone lines. If you ask the average office worker today what he most needs, his answer is just as likely to be his computer as it is his telephone.
May the 21st Century hold bold, new challenges and great new wonders to be discovered. Four of them that I personally think will change everything and arrive sometime in the next 100 years:
1. AI - Artificial Intelligence
This has been predicted to be "just around the corner" so many times, some people are starting to wonder if it will ever arrive. Like so many things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. It won't arrive all at once, but it will sneak up on us when we're least expecting it to. It won't happen in 10 years, but it won't take 100 either. If computers continue to double in power every 18 months for the next 40 years as they have for the past 40 years, then I expect this to arrive by the middle of the century. Like the computer, this will again change our lives, it will provide an intelligent assistant to everyone who can afford one, perhaps everyone period if computers continue to drop in price as they double in power.
2. Energy
The discovery and development of new energy technologies will define the 21st Century. Fission is a messy and dangerous power source, Fusion is not. I fully expect fusion power reactors to be developed some time in the next 100 years. Once that happens, there would be no further reason to develop electricity in any other fashion. The discovery and development of anti-matter brings fourth another possible energy source an order of magnitude again higher than fusion. At that power level it is probably too dangerous to use on our planet, but we could build anti-matter reactors on the Moon or in space and beam the power back via microwaves. It could also be used as the next great space ship (or perhaps even star ship) propulsion technology.
3. Robotics
This was the great hope and fear of the 20th Century. As in movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", robots were both admired and feared. What happened in reality was robots looked nothing like humans, they were (by our standards) dumb, and could only do basic tasks. But do them they could, at a speed and precision level unmatchable by humans. Today robots build our cars, appliances, and even office buildings. They work bomb disposal, sweep city streets, and cleanup hazardous waste dumps. Tomorrow we'll see more robots like Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot. They will walk and talk just like us, they will be able to perform many of the tasks that we perform. I see a time when all garbage is picked up by robots, food is prepared by them, children are entertained by them, wars are fought by them, and labor is performed by them. The risk here is that we may become even more lazy than we already are, but the solution to that lies elsewhere. Robots should bring the cost of producing things down to a point where the next item on my list might come true.
4. Money
Yes, I know money already exists, but maybe it won't for too much longer. As computers get more and more powerful, as robots become ever more capable, at some point intelligent robots will be able to produce additional intelligent robots without the need for human assistance. With a basically unlimited supply of robots, their cost should drop to zero which would destroy our current economic system. If the robots can mine the raw materials, refine them, then build more robots, then repair those that are damaged, they cease to have any value as they are infinitely replaceable. Things would also lose their value because robots could make an unlimited number of everything from toaster ovens to clothes to whatever. The powers that be may never allow this to happen, but I can see no reason why it isn't theoretically possible. Yes, I know this last one is way out there and a hundred and one things can get in the way, but it also is technically possible, so it is worth considering.
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