Matty's Blog

Comparing the state of the world in the 1950s/60s depicted in the readings and the world we live in today in which multiple digital AI systems exist to serve us, I recognize just how spectacular present-day technology is.  Recently, my roommates and I bemoaned that one of us did not have an iPhone, forcing us to use Facebook messenger for our group chat instead of the preferred iMessage.  The people at ARPA would have been shaking their heads at our spoiled remarks, happy to have even one efficient, reliable communication system.  Likewise, our discussion of Alexa and Cortana would have made the people sixty years ago salivate at the mere idea of digital ecosystems that humans can talk to.  While we find the partnership of Amazon and Microsoft intriguing as the two companies untraditionally team up with competing products, ARPA would have been amazed that such products even exist.  Despite differences in technology, people then and now grappled with collaboration and competition.  In the past, telecommunication innovation was suppressed by AT&T as they attempted to dominate the market.  Today, rival technology companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft share little information between each other, competing for market share.  The dominance and isolation of the major companies could dangerously stifle innovation.

I truly take for granted the technology that ARPA struggled with, not even understanding how the internet truly works.  Until reading Where Wizards Stay Up Late, I had no conception of ideas such as packets, message blocks, IMPs and network redundancy.  It is scary how little I know about the inner workings the technology I rely on such as the internet, smart phones, computers, among many other things.  I find it slightly peculiar that many people use their smart phones the most of anything in the world, yet know little about how the indispensable device works.

At Disney World, there is a ride called The Carousel of Progress.  The ride depicts the technological advances across the last century in different scenes.  The first scene describes the turn of the 20^th century that brings gas lamps, movie pictures, and disbelief that the Wright brothers will ever get a flying vehicle to work.  Each subsequent scene describes the new advances every couple decades, with the theme song “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow” marking the scene transition.  In each scene, the characters remark that they have life so much easier than in the past, disbelieving that life could be any better.  Our discussion on digital assistants in contrast to the development of the internet sixty years ago causes me to see to how far we have come as depicted in The Carousel of Progress.  Like the characters in the ride, I see how much easier life is then it was before, and in partial disbelief of how life could be any easier.  However, knowing that technology always advances in unpredictable ways, I am excited for what the future brings, and hopefully I can contribute to the progress.  As Disney World says, “there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow.”