Things That Once Amazed Us but We Now Take for Granted

[GB]

Everything listed so far has been great.

I will add remote controls. I remember sitting in my grandparents TV room when they had their remote control. It was attached to the TV with a thick wire. We thought it was the most amazing thing ever. It was the size of a box of tissues.

Computers would top my list. My father has been in the computer business for my entire life. When I was in nursery school in the early 70's I remember my entire class taking a field trip to my house to see our computer. It was this huge thing with a screen that could hold about 3 words of text at a time. You took your phone receiver and plugged it into the suction cups on top to get it to work. We used to play a game on it called Animal. It was a 20 questions type game where the computer would guess what kind of animal you were. Everyone was amazed at this machine and what it could do.

 

[Andy M.]

GB That had to be the coolest. Having your class come to your house for a field trip!

 

[GB]

We lived just a 5 minute walk from the school so everyone just walked down to my house. It really was cool. I was proud as a peacock.

 

[Jeekinz]

I will add remote controls. I remember sitting in my grandparents TV room when they had their remote control. It was attached to the TV with a thick wire. We thought it was the most amazing thing ever. It was the size of a box of tissues.

My first thoughts. LOL

We had that cable TV remote with the 15 foot wire. It had 12 or so buttons and the side control to select higher channels. No matter what, someone would walk by and catch the cable on their foot ripping it clean from your grasp. LOL ROTF

 

[suziquzie]

My brother and I got in a little trouble once,
we were caught using the remote to play jump-rope.....

 

[GB]

Here are a few more...

Garage door openers
keyless entry for cars
Cable TV

 

[Wart]

Can you imagine what is going to happen in the next 50 years?

I hope to live to see it (I'm 49).

Take for granted ... thats a rough one.


Electronic Fuel Injection. When the truck or car is very VERY cold and I turn the key and it starts without having to play gas pedal games ... That still brings a smile. And no carb ice.

2 gig SD card. Wife got into eBay. I took pictures with the SLR I got in '80 or the one she got in '77, had the pictures developed, scanned and used them in the auctions at a cost of about 25 cents per graphic. This started getting expensive and time consuming so in '99 we got a Sony Mavica that wrote to floppy. I was thrilled. I could take a mess of pictures and have auctions posted in the time it took to get the pictures back from the developer (if we waited for them). But as time went on listening to the Ca Chunk Ca Chunk of the floppy drive got taxing. Plus the writing to and retrieval of data from the floppies more than once started getting iffy. Plus Disks are getting hard to find.

Last November we got a Nikon DSLR. Last week I got a 2 gig memory chip for it (had been using a 512 meg chip). Last weekend I was at Relay for Life and filled the chips. Twice. I put a stop watch on the transfer from the chip to computer, transferring 2 gigs of 600+ Raw format and high res JPG graphics (RAW + B) took 5 minutes 30 seconds. Slow card. If I used this card once cost per picture would have been just over 6 cents a picture. But it can be used many times ... this all Makes me smile.

 

[Andy M.]

...2 gig SD card. Wife got into eBay...

I have to say that digital photography is one advancement that continues to amaze me. My first camera was an Eastman Kodak Brownie.

Now I can take pictures, load them onto my computer, mail them around the world and print them in the time it used to take to laod a new roll of film into the Brownie.

 

[Barbara L]

All the responses are great--keep 'em coming!

One of our dearest friends lived to be either 104 or 105 (her daughter-in-law didn't bother to let us know she had died, so I'm not sure which) and died around 1987. I loved to listen to her tell about her early days. It always amazed me because she was alive during the inventions of so many amazing things.

Did you know that the head of the U.S. Patent Office wanted to close it down in 1899 because, "Everything that can be invented has been invented?" Pretty amazing considering most of the things that have been invented have been invented since he said that.

Barbara

 

[Wart]

If someone has a history do they really ever take things for granted?

Can you imagine a 16th century cook ever taking a gas range for granted? Ok, so that's a bit far fetched.

I take the telephone for granted. But then it was there when I was born.

And last night I'm fast forwarding through Paula Abdul and commercials with the DVR and the thought crosses my mind: Wow, you know what this would do to a video tape?

Last weekend I'm taking loads of pictures and marveling at the lack of cost and instant feedback on the LCD.

I putter in woodwork. And I've been to Williamsburg numerous times. Quite often when I'm running the 50's jointer or the 60's and 80's table saws I think of what was needed to make a board in the 17th and 18th centuries. One person gets in a pit, another straddles the log, push and pull the saw between them. Ouch.


Something I have noticed in my short history of coming up on 50 years is advances in technology allow more people to do more things but they just don't seem able to do these things as well.

No simple explanation for this. Mayhaps because things are becoming easier people don't pay as much attention to what their doing. Other times I think it has something to do with safety nets.

I think it also has something to do with what was written well over 100 years ago, their taking the talent and skill out of the craftsman and putting it in the machine (paraphrase). Machines really don't have soul and I think soul is missing from much of todays work.

When doing my woodwork I oftenly stop and wonder, would I be able to do these things if I had to start by straddling a log and pulling and pushing a saw. Maybe, but would I want to? No.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Man, there's a ton of things that blew me away when I first saw them that are pretty passe now. A few of mine:

The Compact Disc (CD)- The first time I heard a CD I was dumbfounded! One of my best friends was the first person I knew to have one. It was a wedge shaped portable model, can't recall the brand. He brought it over to my house and plugged it into my stereo and cranked up Boston's Third Stage. I couldn't believe it! The intro started very quietly and built to this thunderous crescendo, yet there was no hiss! And the whole idea of a laser reading microscopic pits seemed miraculous to me. I recall turning the disc, staring in fascination at the rainbow of light reflecting off the back. The CD revolutionized music for me and set me down the path to becoming a bigtime audio geek. But now I have about 1,000 CDs and they're no big deal.

The DVD- Another miraculous invention. The day I bought my first DVD player and hooked it up is a day I won't forget. The picture and sound were a stunning step up from VHS. The first movie I heard in Dolby Digital seemed like pure sorcery!

The Personal Computer- When I was a kid a computer meant a Commodore PET! It was a one peice thingy with the small green monochrome monitor. No graphics, just ASCII characters. No HD, no CD- there weren't even floppies back then; if you wanted to save something you plugged in a special tape recorder. When the Apple computer came along it seemed like rocket science!

As Expatgirl mentioned, it's hard to overstate how computers have changed things. When I was back in HS and college researching a report meant a trip to the library. I used to have to order stuff from the State Library; they photocopied it and mailed it out to you. The most advanced thing I had to type it up on was the (dazzling at the time) IBM Selectric electric typewriter.

Look at things now! I recently went back to school; in my Tech Writing class I did a 13 page research report on Japanese knives. I did most of my research online and conducted some interviews w/experts via e-mail without leaving my chair. I think wrote it up on my PC using OpenOffice software which automatically corrects simple mistakes and flags spelling errors. I seamlessly inserted images into the copy, and when I couldn't find an appropriate photo online I grabbed my digital camera, took a picture of a bunch of my Japanese knives and imported it into my paper. Back in HS it would have taken a professional printshop a couple weeks to do what I banged out in a few minutes.

I'm not sure what's more amazing- the degree to which technology has advanced over the last few decades or the degree to which we take it for granted.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Everything listed so far has been great.

I will add remote controls. I remember sitting in my grandparents TV room when they had their remote control. It was attached to the TV with a thick wire. We thought it was the most amazing thing ever. It was the size of a box of tissues.

When I was a child, I was the remote control- just ask my Dad!

 

[Rob Babcock]

Something I have noticed in my short history of coming up on 50 years is advances in technology allow more people to do more things but they just don't seem able to do these things as well.

No simple explanation for this. Mayhaps because things are becoming easier people don't pay as much attention to what their doing. Other times I think it has something to do with safety nets.

I think it also has something to do with what was written well over 100 years ago, their taking the talent and skill out of the craftsman and putting it in the machine (paraphrase). Machines really don't have soul and I think soul is missing from much of todays work.

When doing my woodwork I oftenly stop and wonder, would I be able to do these things if I had to start by straddling a log and pulling and pushing a saw. Maybe, but would I want to? No.

Some great points. Technology does allow us to do some things easily that used to require a lot of skill. But used properly it also allows us avenues of expression that we didn't have before.

 

[Wart]

I have to say that digital photography is one advancement that continues to amaze me. My first camera was an Eastman Kodak Brownie.

Mine was a Kodak Instamatic. Mom and Dad got it for me so I would keep my hands off the Argus.

Then came the Poleroid and finally the SLRs. Then the photo classes and the dark room(s).

Now I can take pictures, load them onto my computer, mail them around the world and print them in the time it used to take to load a new roll of film into the Brownie.

Amazing, isn't it?

Did you know the take up spool for the Brownie is probably more valuable than the Brownie itself? I found this out when I sold some old rolls of film on eBay.

Did you know that the head of the U.S. Patent Office wanted to close it down in 1899 because, "Everything that can be invented has been invented?"

As a matter of fact Yes I did know that was said.

Being the person I am I suspect the true motive was removal of protections a patent offers inventors. Don't forget the era. Capitalists were (and are) out to remove any barrier to making money. Nothing wrong with making money but ....

Did you know most employment applications/ contracts stipulate intellectual properties of the employee belong to the employer?

 

[Constance]

Polio Vaccine: I remember what a wonderful thing it was when the polio vaccine was discovered. Everyone in town went to the high school gym and got their little vaccine soaked sugar cube for free.
For those of you who don't remember polio, it was a terrible, paralyzing disease that killed and crippled many children and young people, and doctors had no way of treating it except for the iron lung.
One summer, we had an outbreak in our town, and a boy just a block from our house got it. All our mother's knew to do was keep us home and try to keep us from getting over-heated. I remember taking naps on a pallet on the kitchen floor with the fan blowing on me. I also spent a lot of time playing in the bath tub.

Air Conditioning: The movie theater was the first place in our town to get AC, and Saturday and Sunday afternoon matinees became very popular in the summer time. The stores were quick to follow, but most people didn't have it in their homes for a long while.

 

[Wart]

Some great points. Technology does allow us to do some things easily that used to require a lot of skill. But used properly it also allows us avenues of expression that we didn't have before.

So true.

Would I have even considered making that 'corner' in three steps if I had to angle the wood with am old block plane instead of my saw and jointer .... LOLOLOLOLOOLOL ! Not hardly! And the glue up ...

Yes, tools and technologies can be liberating BUT they can also be limiting.

Case4 in point is when design moved from the drawing board to CAD. Anyone else notice the switch to inorganic designs in the late 70's and early 80's? I firmly believe this was due to the limitations of that eras CAD. It took years to climb out of that hole. Not sure they have yet, not completely.

Also, ...

We were having problems making things fit. I asked the 'engineer' how he derived his numbers. His answer was "The machine (computer) does that". So it falls to me to give a Mechanical Engineer a math lesson so he can understand the problem? And I'm the Shop Ape?

 

[JoAnn L.]

All of the features on phones.

Quite a difference since I was growing up. We never had a telephone until I was 12 years old. When we finally got one it was on a party line. For those who never heard of one, you shared the same phone line with someone else. So if they were on the phone you would have to wait until they were done talking. When you wanted to make a call you told a telephone operator what number you wanted.

 

[miniman]

I would add gaming machines. I was so excited as a teenager to get a computer game that loaded from a cassette player - took ages to load and was really basic. Now my boys have DSLites with the game chips just slotting in and fantastic graphics and speed.

 

[GB]

The microchip. This thing is in EVERYTHING now and most of the time you would never even think of it.

 

[B'sgirl]

I know computers have been mentioned, but I'll be more specific and say the internet. All that information right at your fingertips! I've been able to use it to find diaper rash remedies, Celiac diagnosis for my son, info on politics and government, all the latest news, ebooks--not to mention the ability to send a message to DH whenever I want to during the day. It's great!