As time progresses, humanity crosses new lines and thus is faced with new challenges which need solving. In the last few years especially, the pace of creating new solutions, especially in the IT fields, has grown rather fast. For me personally, it is a bit hard to imagine everyday life without computers, internet, or social media. Here are a few more interesting IT solutions that have helped humanity come this far.
1. The Floppy Disk - 1970s
The floppy disk is probably one of the most iconic symbols of 20th century computer systems. Although the 8-inch floppy disk is pretty well-know, its successor, 5.25-inch floppy disk was much more popular and its use more widespread.
Usually, multiple floppy disks were needed in order to install a program and as they were the first easily portable and small-sized way to store data, their existence kickstarted the software industry. And with that, computers became much more user friendly and started becoming something that everyday people could have, or at least knew to want.
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| A floppy disk drive in a plane; https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2021/09/Untitled-28.png |
Most people may think that the floppy disk has finally died, however, that is far from true. Firstly, the floppy disk is still used as a "Save" button in many applications. Secondly, there are still many aircrafts in use that use floppy disks. Floppy disks are used for software updates (every 28 days) and to upload flight-related information such as the route itself, flight paths and airports. The unfortunate thing is, that floppy disks are not being manufactured anymore, creating extra costs for maintaining the airplanes.
2. Chatbots - 1960s
The first chatbot ever to be created was ELIZA. Created by Joseph Weizenbaum, it was supposed to show how human company could not be matched by computers. However, many became intrigued with the idea. One of the first uses for chatbots was to try and make them be "therapists" for humans.
Nowadays, they are also used as house assistants (Alexa, Google Home) or as helpers for clients on e-commerce websites. However, the latter may be overtaken by a human at some point as not all customer problems can be solved by a simple chatbot. Chatbots today are usually able to answer even the most thought-provoking questions in a simple manner, mostly due to access to the Internet.
3. Touch Screens (and multi-touch surfaces) - late 1990s
Although touch screens have been around since 1960s, the biggest breakthrough came in the 1990s in the form of multi-touch surfaces. The creator of multi-touch surfaces later sold his company called FingerWorks to Apple. Apple started using touch screens in their music players and phones starting from 2007.
Back then, a touch screen felt almost surreal. And nowadays, most people in western countries are able to afford to have multiple devices with touch screens.
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| Steve Jobs with the first generation of Apple iPhone https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-history-dogfight/ |
Sources:
Floppy Disk:
1. https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/floppy-disk-history-the-evolution-of-personal-computing-1804.html
2. https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/09/06/boeing-747-400-planes-use-floppy-disks-for-major-software-updates-vintagecomputing-aviation/
Chatbots:
1. https://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/eliza.html
2. https://onlim.com/en/the-history-of-chatbots/
Touch Screens
1. https://www.zytronic.co.uk/insights/article/history-of-touchscreen-technology/#:~:text=In%201965%20E.A.%20Johnson%20invented,devices%20today%20use%3B%20capacitive%20touch.
