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Ask HN: What have been the biggest technical achievements of the 2010s?

mrlala 7y ago
These are both web related.. but I think javascript frameworks like angular2+/react.. they have basically made it possible to make enterprise level applications on the web without the spaghetti code garbage that is javascript or hacking it together with jquery. After that will be webassembly/blazor type projects, but it's not mature enough quite yet to say.. it might change the way everything works in the next decade. Biased of course because this is what I know, but it's really opened up web application design to people who were NOT web coders. I was a C# person for many many years and trying to do anything web related before proper frameworks was an absolute nightmare.
ArtWomb 7y ago
Cloud point of presence distribution. Most humans on the internet are now within 120ms. Speed is the most important adaption metric ;) https://www.cloudflare.com/network/ https://www.cloudflare.com/network/
kapv89 7y ago
maps
- 8draco8 7y ago
  Absolutely this! I would add to this: street view, traffic prediction, search on maps and smartphone that can handle all of that. In last decade I've moved a lot and applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps saved me countless times. This is not sexy tech but actual, useful tech that improved lives of millions of people.
pequalsnp 7y ago
The advent of GANs by Ian Goodfellow and the experimentation done regarding adversarial attacks was extremely important for the ML research space.
turingbook 7y ago
The penetration of deep learning and other machine learning technologies.
yummypaint 7y ago
Alot of the tech developed for astronomy was applied to microscopy. There have been some pretty insane leaps forward that will probably lead to new insights in biology. https://www.hhmi.org/news/new-microscope-captures-detailed-3-d-movies-cells-deep-within-living-systems https://www.hhmi.org/news/new-microscope-captures-detailed-3...
magneticnorth 7y ago
The use of CRISPR-Cas9 for gene editing has the potential to be one of the most important technical advancements we've discovered this decade. One of the first major papers on it, from 2012: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22745249 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22745249
- Engineering-MD 7y ago
  I would second this. CRISPR is a potentially hugely influential tool which has massively changed research already, allowing production of novel strains much more cheaply. Not to mention the possibility for in Vivo genetic editing. I would say is the biggest technical advancement in genetics ever.
zubairq 7y ago
Containers
whb07 7y ago
Bitcoin https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- muzani 7y ago
  Hard to say whether bitcoin and blockchain are going to be world changing, but as a difficult technical achievement it's certainly a competitor.
dyingkneepad 7y ago
We were able to build lots of physics telescopes and other 'devices' necessary for experiments, which were able to confirm/deny theories and move physics forward. E.g., gravitational waves with LIGO in 2016.
ogou 7y ago
A U.S. president elected by leveraging a single Twitter account, supported by semi-anonymous organic and sponsored posts on other social networks. Despite the ethical or political implications, the actual phenomenon will be seen historically as a milestone in technology's impact on society.
- wyclif 7y ago
  This isn't a technological breakthrough, though— Twitter is a jacked up, turbocharged shortcode SMS for the web. Also, I don't think it's true that Trump was elected solely by leveraging Twitter (though there's no doubt he has leveraged it more effectively than any other president). There are a number of factors that played into Trump's election.
rotterdamdev 7y ago
Globalised surveillance.
adventured 7y ago
Tesla's success at demonstrating the large, present day commercial potential of electric cars, causing every major auto maker on the planet to shift directions and chase after them. SpaceX wrecking the old launch club and proving booster landing as a practical and economically successful approach. Helping to ignite a new space race in the process. Mobile fully coming into its own thanks to the iPhone and later the follow-on clones. While the iPhone wasn't created this decade, the extreme share of its impact was in this decade (the app store is about 11 1/2 years old). It's a truly massive system overall, worth trillions of dollars; it has reshaped the majority of all communication and financial interaction globally in the span of one decade (comparatively few people globally had smartphones by Jan 1st 2010). Also, mobile sparking the gig economy (for better or worse, we'll see over time), the sharing economy (Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc), the delivery services boom. Faster mobile and the improvements of the smartphone also hyper charged social media. The monetary investment needed and the number of people required to build all of that is rather epic. The spread of inexpensive, commercial drone technology.

These are both web related.. but I think javascript frameworks like angular2+/react.. they have basically made it possible to make enterprise level applications on the web without the spaghetti code garbage that is javascript or hacking it together with jquery. After that will be webassembly/blazor type projects, but it's not mature enough quite yet to say.. it might change the way everything works in the next decade. Biased of course because this is what I know, but it's really opened up web application design to people who were NOT web coders. I was a C# person for many many years and trying to do anything web related before proper frameworks was an absolute nightmare.

ArtWomb 7y ago

Cloud point of presence distribution. Most humans on the internet are now within 120ms. Speed is the most important adaption metric ;) https://www.cloudflare.com/network/ https://www.cloudflare.com/network/

kapv89 7y ago

maps

8draco8 7y ago
Absolutely this! I would add to this: street view, traffic prediction, search on maps and smartphone that can handle all of that. In last decade I've moved a lot and applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps saved me countless times. This is not sexy tech but actual, useful tech that improved lives of millions of people.

pequalsnp 7y ago

The advent of GANs by Ian Goodfellow and the experimentation done regarding adversarial attacks was extremely important for the ML research space.

turingbook 7y ago

The penetration of deep learning and other machine learning technologies.

yummypaint 7y ago

Alot of the tech developed for astronomy was applied to microscopy. There have been some pretty insane leaps forward that will probably lead to new insights in biology. https://www.hhmi.org/news/new-microscope-captures-detailed-3-d-movies-cells-deep-within-living-systems https://www.hhmi.org/news/new-microscope-captures-detailed-3...

magneticnorth 7y ago

The use of CRISPR-Cas9 for gene editing has the potential to be one of the most important technical advancements we've discovered this decade. One of the first major papers on it, from 2012: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22745249 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22745249

Engineering-MD 7y ago
I would second this. CRISPR is a potentially hugely influential tool which has massively changed research already, allowing production of novel strains much more cheaply. Not to mention the possibility for in Vivo genetic editing. I would say is the biggest technical advancement in genetics ever.

zubairq 7y ago

Containers

whb07 7y ago

Bitcoin https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

muzani 7y ago
Hard to say whether bitcoin and blockchain are going to be world changing, but as a difficult technical achievement it's certainly a competitor.

dyingkneepad 7y ago

We were able to build lots of physics telescopes and other 'devices' necessary for experiments, which were able to confirm/deny theories and move physics forward. E.g., gravitational waves with LIGO in 2016.

ogou 7y ago

A U.S. president elected by leveraging a single Twitter account, supported by semi-anonymous organic and sponsored posts on other social networks. Despite the ethical or political implications, the actual phenomenon will be seen historically as a milestone in technology's impact on society.

wyclif 7y ago
This isn't a technological breakthrough, though— Twitter is a jacked up, turbocharged shortcode SMS for the web. Also, I don't think it's true that Trump was elected solely by leveraging Twitter (though there's no doubt he has leveraged it more effectively than any other president). There are a number of factors that played into Trump's election.

rotterdamdev 7y ago

Globalised surveillance.

adventured 7y ago

Tesla's success at demonstrating the large, present day commercial potential of electric cars, causing every major auto maker on the planet to shift directions and chase after them. SpaceX wrecking the old launch club and proving booster landing as a practical and economically successful approach. Helping to ignite a new space race in the process. Mobile fully coming into its own thanks to the iPhone and later the follow-on clones. While the iPhone wasn't created this decade, the extreme share of its impact was in this decade (the app store is about 11 1/2 years old). It's a truly massive system overall, worth trillions of dollars; it has reshaped the majority of all communication and financial interaction globally in the span of one decade (comparatively few people globally had smartphones by Jan 1st 2010). Also, mobile sparking the gig economy (for better or worse, we'll see over time), the sharing economy (Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc), the delivery services boom. Faster mobile and the improvements of the smartphone also hyper charged social media. The monetary investment needed and the number of people required to build all of that is rather epic. The spread of inexpensive, commercial drone technology.