Select a technological innovation of this century, and discuss its effect on your family, local community, or nation.


Without doubt the computer enhances today’s society more than any other technological innovation this last century. 60 years ago a computer sped information processing it incredibly, but they consumed whole rooms worth of space. Today computers that are in phones, GPS units, and cars are small hand size objects that can process at a high rate of speed. It makes you ponder, if computers continue to make strides for another 60 years, what will they be able to do? Computers where costly, slow, and could only process one task at a time. In the past, the government normally put the computers behind a very secure door, in which only certain people with special powers and advantages had free access.

Then inventors began making more improvements on the computer in the 1970’s. It wasn’t anything drastic. They could fit in a room, even on a desk with ease. Civilians could now own a computer if they chose to purchase one, but they were in low supply. The crazy thing is that people went bonkers over them. When people came across one, they would probably think, “what the heck does this contraption do?” This small box, which consisted of a few switches, knobs, and bright lights, could calculate mathematical problems, and derive equations by flipping the switches and turning knobs for about 30 straight minutes. In someway a light would flash if the answer came out correct or incorrect. If you failed to enter the problem correctly you would have to restate this long agitating process from the beginning. For some odd reason this did not stop people from wanting one. People must’ve believed computers where the future because most never even came within 500 feet of one.

In the early 1980’s, a company called Intel came along and invented a gizmo called a micro-processing chip, which would change the computer and society forever. At first, the chips would run in items such as streetlights, and microwaves. Then a man who most Americans know, Bill Gates, brought up the idea that these computer chips made by Intel would work very effectively in his new idea of a computer; the prototype of the one we use today. He did whatever in his power to prove it, and ended up buying the idea. In order to do that he had to prove his idea actually works, but he was worried that his idea could malfunction in his presentation. It was a success, and Bill Gates bought the micro-processing chips for 50,000 dollars. Now you may think that 50,000 dollars is a great deal of money, but when you put it in prospective, he is the CEO of a company called Microsoft. Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar business, and that is why Bill Gates is known as one of the richest men in the world today.

If you process all this information about computers into your brain you will be accomplishing what today’s computers do in less than a second. Think about how much the computer has improved in its processing abilities, its capabilities to accomplish tasks, and how many tasks worldwide it achieves. The price of a computer hasn’t decreased much, but consider that the old ones used to solve one simple math problem in about 30 minutes. Computers are everywhere and they are depended on by many other objects and types of technology we used all over the world today. Most companies use computers in someway to run or organize their business. Schools use them to teach faster and more efficiently. If teachers can teach more efficiently then the students can learn more efficiently and successfully! The students then use the computers in their future, making whatever they do more efficient and benefiting the world in someway.

Honestly, what would the world do without the use of computers? New types of technology are discovered much quicker because of the computer. I believe if all the computers in the world were to crash it would be more devastating then 6 nuclear bombs blowing up at once all over the world. There would be mass chaos because we depend so much on computers today. If computers continue to improve I feel that maybe this generation will see the first flying car, or talking robot. Computers are the key to the world technological advancements and a successful future.