The world looked so markedly different 100 years ago that one can’t help but marvel at the rapidity with which society has evolved during this relatively short period of time. Plenty of things have changed over the last century, and we owe it all to the numerous inventions that have brought notable improvements in all areas and aspects of life, demonstrating the incredible creativity and progress that humans are capable of.
Many of the modern luxuries that we enjoy and take for granted today didn’t exist back then. Some weren’t even an idea, let alone a reality. Who would have thought, just a few decades ago, that we’d be engaging in face-to-face communication with people from all corners of the world via small portable devices, learning how to buy Bitcoin to transfer intangible cash that’s out of the banks’ control, or employing AI solutions to solve real-world problems? None of this was conceivable, but here we are now, with AI, smartphones, and digital currencies being a normal part of our existence.
This list, which is by no means exhaustive, takes us back in time to some of the most remarkable innovations that have marked and changed our world in the past century, highlighting the accelerating pace of global transformation.
Television
A famous pop song talks about how video killed the radio star, and although this might not be historically accurate since artists’ tunes are still played on the radio, it does have some truth to it in the sense that the arrival of video and television ended the golden age of the radio, which served as the main venue for musical artists to perform their hits, taking away some of the glamour and mystique that surrounded them until then.
If we were to play into the metaphor, it was a slow and gradual death that started with the invention of the first electronic television in 1927 by Philo T. Farnsworth and ended with television taking over as the most widespread broadcasting medium in the ‘50s. TV ushered in a new era of mass communication and entertainment, having a massive influence on pop culture and shaping perceptions and behaviors.
Penicillin
1928 brought a major breakthrough in the medical field with the discovery of penicillin by British chemist and biologist Sir Alexander Fleming. It was a chance event that led Fleming to learn about this substance that would change the course of medicine. Returning to his laboratory after a holiday, he noticed that the mold growing in a petri dish that he forgot to put in the incubator was killing the culture of staphylococci bacteria it contained.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t diminish his contribution, as the fortunate accident set the scientific wheels in motion, ultimately leading to the development of antibiotics almost 20 years later. This allowed physicians to treat life-threatening illnesses and greatly reduced mortality from infectious diseases.
The jet engine
In the early ‘30s, the aviation industry was going through a period of stagnation as propellers could only do so much in the way of increasing airplane speed. All that changed when two engineers, Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain, pioneered the first jet engines.
Although they worked independently and had no connection to one another, they developed similar designs almost at the same time. It wasn’t until 1939 that the first airplane powered entirely by jet engines would see the light of day. Despite the slow progress, jet engines revolutionized air travel, enabling manufacturers to build faster, bigger and more efficient planes that could cover much larger distances.
Personal computers
The ‘70s don’t seem like such a long time ago until you realize that’s when the first personal computer was invented. The Altair 8800 was developed by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1974 and didn’t look anything like the modern computers we use right now. There was no monitor, keyboard or mouse – just a bulky box with a led panel that could only perform one basic task at a time.
However, this invention represented a major milestone as it laid the groundwork for what would later become one of the most widely used tech devices of all time. It was the invention that inspired Bill Gates to launch Microsoft, and we all know where things went from there.
The Internet
The invention of the internet cannot be pinpointed to a certain date in time, given that the developments that led to its emergence in the form we know it today stretch across several years. First, there was the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in 1969, a public packet-switching computer network used by the U.S. Defense Department to transfer electronic data.
In 1973, the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) entered the scene, facilitating the flow and communication of data packets across a large-scale network. Things went one step further in 1983 with the introduction of the Domain Name System (DNS), and in 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. Two years later, the first website was published, and since then, the internet has grown into an unstoppable force.
Smartphones
IMB was the first company to produce a smartphone or at least something that comes close to the ubiquitous mobile devices we all use today. Although many have forgotten or never knew about the existence of this obscure smartphone precursor launched in 1994, it represented a move in the right direction. In 1999, the BlackBerry was released, marking the official start of the smartphone era.
Cryptocurrencies
The idea of creating a digital type of money that would require no central control had been theorized for years, but it wasn’t until 2009 that this concept would finally materialize in the form of Bitcoin, the forerunner of the trailblazing and controversial asset class known as cryptocurrency. These virtual coins have taken the world by storm, evolving into highly coveted assets that continue to gain more ground in the financial scene.
As you can see, modern history is filled with examples of amazing inventions and advancements that have pushed the boundaries of what is possible, and the future is surely going to bring many more great ideas and innovations to the forefront.
