The Future of Technology

This is a constantly evolving area and because of it, this page will be constantly evolving as well.

AI is impacting us in ways we never imagined. Change is coming rapidly. Because of this we can't prepare students for careers by teaching and preparing them for today's workforce and today's tools. We need to be looking at the cutting edge of technology and predicting what is coming. We need to be constantly adapting with technology and not fall into the historical pitfalls of education which make us constantly a few years behind the times.

When I was in college I read the Article "The Wonderous World of 1990" which was written in 1967 and predicted the world 23 years in the future (1990). It was fascinating as I grew up in 1990 and could tell you which of these technologies happened then, which happened years down the road, and which ones never happened. 

I want to provide a very brief, watered down history of major technology advancements adopted by society - this is not when these technologies were invented or even introduced to society, but rather when these technologies became common place and were utilized by the larger percent of society. For a more accurate timeline of technological advancements, see: 

• Britannica's History of Technology Timeline - it's pretty fascinating and goes back to the beginning of humanity

• Computer History Museum's Timeline of Computer History - I'm pretty disappointed that this doesn't start with Charles Babbage & Ada Loveless (1800's) who are sometimes referred to the Father and Mother of Computing due to Babbage's Analytical Machine and Lovelace's first algorithm meant for said machine.

• Computer History Museum's Timeline of AI & Robotics - which started earlier than you'd think...

One thing to note as you go through these, many early technology developments would take decades to go from theory to production and mass adoption. You'll see that as time goes on, that gap gets smaller and smaller and today mass adoption happens at a rapid pace. The advent of the person computer happened in the 1970's, but did not become common-place household items until the mid-to-late 1990's. Contrast that with AI which was launched publicly in 2022 and was adopted by 50%+ of society by 2024.

1967-1990 - The End of the Machine Era

Back in the 60's, technological innovation and societal adaptation to these technologies was slow. Though a few major inventions happened (The personal computer, the World Wide Web, better digital communications), and styles changed, much of the labor, market, and societal norms were much the same during that 23 years and these newer technologies were not yet mass adopted by society. 

• Color Television

• VCRs

• Dishwashers & Washingmachines

• The introduction of CDs & more portable audio options.

1990-2013 - The Computer & Mobile Era

The 23 years that followed showed significant changes. 

• PC's

• Gaming Systems

• The Internet

• Mobile Phones

• Smart Phones (mass adopted near the end of this time period)

2013-2021 - The Smart & Digital Era

The next 7 years would introduce Smart devices and start paving the way for AI

• Smart Phones nearly completely replace LAN lines (those old phones that couldn't leave your home).

• Smart Watches (and other health-devices)

• Cloud computing services take off

• E-Commerce and Social Media rise

• Electronic Vehicles

2022-Present - The AI Era

ChatGPT was introduced to the public January 2022, with other AI services following shortly thereafter. These AI tools went from being trained on outdated information, not having access to more recent information, and being mostly glorified chatbots that could help in certain areas like math, history, writing, and programming, to becoming a mass adopted tool that could generate realistic images and videos, write entire applications for just about any device you wanted, search the entire world wide web, generate music that sounded like it was professionally produced, and pair with various applications and databases to help with just about anything you wanted, all within the span of 2-4 years. It's embedded into many of our personal devices (cell phones, computers/laptops, tablets,  smart home assistants, vehicles), but is also being embedded in the items we interact with without us even knowing it (traffic lights, surveillance cameras, Store Self-Checkout). Self-driving cars controlled by AI and ready for mass adoption are around the corner (supposedly) and many people are worried about their jobs because of this.