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Remember Smartphones only started really existing in 2007. Mobile phones are from 1990s. Personal computers from 1970s. Transistor from 1920s Pace of innovatio
by Swizec 9y ago
Remember Smartphones only started really existing in 2007. Mobile phones are from 1990s. Personal computers from 1970s. Transistor from 1920s
Pace of innovation is generally increasing as more and more complex stuff becomes commoditized. But also we forget just how recent a lot of things we take for granted really are.
Give it 10 years and AI will feel just as common and boring as a laptop does today. Remember how excited you were in the 1990s when you upgraded a new PC.
- jacquesm 9y ago> Transistor from 1920s Since 1947, when it was invented.
- Swizec 9y agoTouche. I must have been thinking of those glass things that came before transistors and filled a similar purpose then
- jacquesm 9y agoRadio tubes, specifically the Triode (basic amplification tube, a lot like a transistor only not solid state and much higher voltage). Invented in 1904.
- hazeii 9y agoThe field effect transistor was patented in 1926 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-effect_transistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-effect_transistor) - practical devices came later.
- fulafel 9y agoI'd use the launch dates of the products and switch theorizing of the transistor to a more relevant milestone, after which it's less dramatic (or even slowing): Microprocessor 1971 - Personal computer 1976 - mobile phone 1983 - smartphone 1996. Your most recent date, smart phones, warrants more specific correction since it's so recent history: Nokia Communiator 1996, i-mode phones 1999, Ericsson R380 2000, Danger Hiptop 2002, Blackberry 2002. 2007 in smartphone history is marked by the introduction of the iPhone 1, 11 years after the first smartphones, but it didn't become popular quickly and didn't have apps etc. In 2013, smartphone sales surpassed feature phone sales.