Technology
When I consider the week 12 prompt, it’s easy for me to recognize the impact technology has had in my life. After all, during my professional life I was an engineer at a major technology company. What would my ancestors make of the technology we use on a daily basis: air travel, television, and computers? And the everyday comforts most of us enjoy: air conditioning, kitchen and laundry appliances, and cellphones. The immediate access to information using the internet would be unimaginable to my ancestors, it was the stuff of science fiction just 40 years ago.
Farming and Technology
Nearly all my ancestors were farmers prior to 1900. A few, of the men, had additional skills with which they earned a living, but farming was their principle livelihood. I wrote about this for the week 6 prompt “Earning a Living.” From estate records I know these ancestors did not possess equipment that I would classify as technical. So what role did tech play in the lives of my farming ancestors? It caused them, and their descendants, to leave the farming life. When tractors began to replace animals and men, it meant one farmer could till more ground. As my farming ancestors sold their land, they took up other careers, and so did their children. None of my grandparents were farmers, despite the fact three of four were raised on farms. That is a big impact, an entire way of life, gone in a single generation.
My Grandparents View
My paternal grandparents, Earl and Pearl, were born in 1888 and 1893. My maternal grandparents, Graves and Edith, were born in 1901 and 1903, respectively. Earl died in 1928, but the other three all lived to see automobiles, airplanes, telephones, radios, television, home appliances, and indoor plumbing become a regular part of American life. Can you imagine? Most of these things did not exist, or were even possible, when my grandparents were born, and yet were common by the end of their lives. Prior to my grandparents generation, most of my ancestors exited life in much the same condition that they entered.
In My Lifetime
Although three of my grandparents experienced the convenience of modern living made possible by technology, none of them were technologists. But, my father, myself, my sisters, my uncle, and many of my cousins, were or are actively involved in creating technical products: from aerospace, automotive, and telecom systems, to microprocessors, and software programming. In just three generations my family has gone from tilling soil behind a mule to solving complex problems using artificial intelligence. What would my 17th, 18th, or even 19th century ancestors make of their descendants? After they got over the shock that half of us doing these things are women…
Conclusion
In my life, I have witnessed Moore’s Law [2] up close. For that matter, I met Dr. Moore at a time when microprocessor’s were becoming a big part of everyday life. What Dr. Moore proposed more than 60 years ago about the advance of microprocessors, I think the same can be said of the evolution of technology in general. It seems everyday there is some new technological achievement, much is thanks to the recent advancements in artificial intelligence. I now imagine a life and world VERY different from that of my ancestors. But isn’t this why they immigrated? The promised opportunity for their descendants to thrive.
Above is my father at the console of an IBM650 [1] computer in 1955. This is ONLY the console, the computing portion was MUCH larger and used analog technology, such as vacuum tubes, and magnetic drums.
SOURCES:
- Website, Wikipedia entry for IBM 650, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_650
- Website, Wikipedia entry for Moore’s Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
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