Can you believe how much these innovations changed technology?
On the outside, technology and life may appear as two parallel lines, but in reality, they share the trait of being flexible and co-dependent. Look at the events that shaped a decade, and you won’t believe how much everything changed since 2014. Oh, boy! 2014 was ten years ago…? We’ve been through so much since then, but not everything was bad.
Thus far, the 2000s have been a time of social networking and mobile computers that have impacted our social, political, and cultural landscape. Even though many people argue that technology is bad for humanity, there are still a lot of things we can do easier with the help of technological innovations. In this article, we’re going to explore how the force behind innovation in technology has produced progress over the past ten years.
Smart home and voice assistants
Alexa, please play “George Michael.” Because why bother to look for your favorite song when you live in a world full of technological innovations, and voice assistants are one of them? Back in the day, we were dreaming of a house that we could control with a remote. Well, now it seems like we are finally living the dream.
By the 2000s, almost everything was connected to the Internet: you could buy video cameras for each room of your home and doorbells with Internet access. With so many robberies, these came in handy!
They were also controlled by speakers and microphones that you could install throughout your home. However, a lot of folks are concerned about this and the fact that Google and Amazon are the main producers of these smart gadgets and voluntarily allow them to “put microphones in our houses,” and you never know when a hacker can break the codes and easily enter the so-called safe smart home.
Piracy vs streaming services
Who knew that we would jump from piracy to streaming? If you go back in time, around 2014, for example, and tell those people that in 2024 they will pay a monthly subscription to watch their movies instead of just stealing them from Pirate Bay, they would have laughed so hard thinking you’re joking.
The advancement of technology in 2019 has made it possible for people to enjoy their favorite shows and movies without any technical restrictions. Applications like Netflix and Hulu make it simple to do so.
Additionally, some apps stream content from multiple channels. Did you miss your favorite show’s episode? Don’t worry! The video streaming service allows you to watch them whenever you’d like. As technology innovations continue to advance in the blink of an eye, you can anticipate much more in the future.
VR and AR
Back in 1832, Charles Wheatstone invented a tool thing called a stereoscope, and it was huge for that time. In 3D, they helped people view the two images independently and with relaxed eyes. But this gadget had to be improved, and that’s exactly what happened more in recent years.
It appeared the so-called virtual reality (VR) idea was in the world’s biggest companies for a long while, and we are happy to have it now and enjoy its features as much as possible. But the latest trend when it comes to technological innovations is augmented reality, which is kind of the opposite of virtual reality. AR allows the user to integrate digital information into the real world.
Social media
Let’s see, how old are you? Do you remember mIRC? How much fun we used to have with it. The fact that you went completely blind into talking with random people from a local channel was insane. How many friendships started that way?
Now if mIRC sounds like an old memory, who remembers Six Degrees from 1997? Although it had features like friend lists and profiles that were popular with later versions of the form, it never really took off. Then MySpace and Friend’s Reunited, which were also very cool and popular at the time, and every single one of us had a profile on them.
Now we have a ton of apps for dating, friendships, pictures, videos, and so on, and every cool kid has them. We millennials and boomers, not so much, but to see how much social media has evolved since the 90s is crazy!
With so many innovations in technology, people tend to forget that times used to be simpler and funnier, and we didn’t need social media to connect with friends and family. One single call and all our friends were invited over to play card games and video games, but not online; face-to-face gathered around our parent’s television. What a time to be alive!
If you’re a bit nostalgic and you feel like all these newly acquired gadgets are a bit overwhelming and you feel the need to revive all those teenage years, check out these splendid brick game consoles available at Amazon for just a couple of bucks. Dare to be a kid again!
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
At the beginning of this century, not many people were discussing the total reinvention of the economic system. Then came the financial crisis of 2007-2008, and slowly people started to question whether there might be a better way as mortgages went into default, businesses failed, and governments provided trillions of dollars in bank bailouts.
In 2009, we heard for the first time the word bitcoin, and it was supposed to be a new electronic cash system. We are only ten years into the great cryptocurrency experiment, and Bitcoin has yet to become a widely accepted form of payment or revolutionize the world economy as it may have promised.
Thousands of copycats have been influenced by it, including those China and Facebook are now creating, and it might take another ten years before its full potential is realized.
Reusable rockets
Now this may sound a bit unusual, but in the absence of a better word, this is what it is. Space is hard, awesome to discover, and so on, but it’s very expensive to create everything you need. For example, rockets.
Over a decade, because private companies like SpaceX wanted to keep the cost of space equipment, particularly rockets, low, they were working on creating rockets that could be used and then reused for a long time, much like planes, which would transport people into the air and then descend again for the flight.
Electric (and hybrid) cars
It took almost 50 years for the automobile to overtake the horse and cart as the primary mode of transportation, but with the introduction of two new vehicle revolutions in the early 21st century—electric-powered cars and self-driving technology—the next major shift in road transportation may be only a few years away. If electric cars are a thing now, who knows maybe soon we will have flying cars like The Jetsons!
Artificial intelligence
According to renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil, the technological singularity—the point at which computers surpass human intelligence and continue to advance at an uncontrollable rate, marking the end of the human era—will occur somewhere around 2045.
We don’t know if this is one of the technological innovations that will be the end of us as humans or not. These are just speculations. However, we should also acknowledge the fact that AI can be pretty useful if we know how to use it.
What do you think about these innovations? Are they improving our lives, or do you think all these technological changes will be the end of our civilization as we know it? Tell us in the comments section below.
You may also like to read about the Huge Challenges We’ll Face by 2050.
