Preface

Between 1970 and 2016, I participated in the technical development of communications networks, computer, Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) technologies. During that time I did not see technology influencing how I thought of myself and my influence on the society around me. I did not see technology influencing society or the environment as a whole. Nor did I foresee what these technologies would become or how they would influence the future. Neither did my colleagues, and we never bothered to ask or even think about the consequences of our creations. We created quite simply because we could. 

Today our society and environment are being driven more and more by influences of fast changing technologies. Age-old barriers of culture, geography, language and limits to access of knowledge are disappearing. As our technology increases, human creativity and potential are also increasing. We have put humanity at a point where we cannot stop the influence of technology on our present and future. 

That makes knowing our technical heritage as important as the technology itself. Heritage refers not only to our creations and events of the past; but is also an in-depth record of the collective knowledge of past customs, traditions, practices, characteristics, research, experience and social memory of our creations. We need to study our heritage to gain access to the laboratory of human experience and library of human knowledge. By studying our heritage we acquire basic data about customs, traditions, ideas, products, rules and regulations that affect our lives and influence our future. 

Knowing our technology heritage helps us to understand the impact new technologies might have on society, culture, and our environment. Knowing the how and why behind technology and its effect on local and world wide society, better prepares our engineers, scientists, technicians and humanity in general to meet new technological challenges, and give in-site to what challenges new technologies may pose to our future. 

Human ingenuity is not something born of today. Down through the ages, humans are and have been ceaseless borrowers and copiers; and yet we have also been ceaseless inventors. We combine existing ideas, physical artifacts and newly discovered knowledge in new ways or place them in new surroundings or circumstances and suddenly the old becomes new, in the wonderful alchemy of the human mind. 

The past intrigues me. When I look to the past I try to put myself in the moment, but I can't quit get there. There seems to be some secret or underhanded scheme involved. It has taken the here and now moments of the first electric light bulb, first radio, first television, first computer and set them behind a frosted glass. I can see their blurry outline as they race back in time, getting smaller and smaller, further and further out of reach, racing to a vanishing point in time. But they never completely vanish. A part of the past lives on in the present through a never ending renewal, reorganization, reassessment of knowledge, circumstances, and remembered experience. As ideas, knowledge and machines of the past race to that vanishing point, bits of old ideas and knowledge get passed on through documentation, experience and recollections. Previous ideas, speculations and knowledge get added to present thought, present thought becomes embedded in the ideas, knowledge, circumstances and products of the future. We cannot stop the past from influencing present and future technology. 

This study is my belated look back at the technologies that influenced my life, culture and society. I’m taking this on as a personal learning exercise, not a formal or official study for any collage, university, academic entity or commercial business. It is not being done for a grade, degree, certificate, badge, money or goods of any kind. it’s just for fun, something I want to do. I’m sharing my research and reflections because I believe in the continuing promise of learning and collaboration through the openness of international educational resources over the internet.