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Orville Wright (of the Wright brothers) went from developing early airplanes to seeing the development of international travel and the jet engine. He lived unt
by laurieg 10y ago
Orville Wright (of the Wright brothers) went from developing early airplanes to seeing the development of international travel and the jet engine. He lived until 1948 and his last flight was in a Lockheed Constellation[1]
In computer science we are similarly privileged. We've gone from basic ideas of transistors and turing machines to having a global network of interconnected supercomputers in our pockets.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Constellation
- bluecmd 10y agoQuite interesting that super-sonic flight was achieved 1946. I don't know if Orville was informed, but imagine that - from barely flying to supersonic in 40 years.
- benwad 10y ago23 more years and we were on the moon!
- bencollier49 10y agoThere is an often-quoted truthoid that says that any technology takes 50 years from inception to maturity.
- contravariant 10y agoSeems to work for big scientific theories as well, more or less. Although an alternative explanation is that after 50 or so most of the original group of people driving the development will be gone, and as a result you end up with several loosely connected but separate developments. Which isn't really a sign of maturity, but merely a lack of coherence.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI don't disagree, I'm just saying that there is a certain design ugliness that seems to be unique to turn of the century technology.
- coldtea 10y ago>I'm just saying that there is a certain design ugliness that seems to be unique to turn of the century technology. And I'm saying that this is highly subjective and/or controversial. There are tons of beautiful 80s and 90s electronics devices.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoTotally agree, it is hugely subjective.