We had a rotary phone growing up, it was tethered to the wall by cord, and to use it we had to pick up the phone and listen first to see if it was being used by our neighbors, it was called "The Party Line" Sometimes while we were in the middle of a conversation someone would interrupt our conversation saying they needed the phone.
Our tv sets had round knobs in which you had to get up and physically turn to go to another channel, and there were two of them VHF and UHF if I remember correctly. They also had antennas on the top in which you had to adjust to get a better picture, the signal was streamed through the airways.
A few years later we had push button phones and and televisions, soon after that remote controls so we didn't have to leave our couches. The first Historical event I remember was a commercially made video game called Pong, it had two dials one left one right, and each dial moved a digital paddle up and down to block a square ball that moved across the screen, much like air hockey. It was black and white on screen and not very graphically appealing but it was the first video game sold commercially.
Computers were another moment in history that I was there for, the first ones that came out usually had a dark green screen with light green letters and you really couldn't do much unless you knew how to program. But we did and look where we are now.
At this point technology expanded immensely and quickly. Cable tv came out, better TV's, better computer screens, mice for the computers, cameras, and then the most incredible thing followed it. The Internet. Nobody really knew what it was for, except that if you knew what to do you could download free music, well, steal it was more correct. The internet is probably one of the most historical events in history.
Moving forward, the next biggest thing I remember was the terrorist event 9/11. I remember seeing it on a tv in a motel while I was working out of town and thought it looked like cool movie coming out, not knowing what had happened. Everyone was terrorized after that and security for everything went nuts and still is in my opinion.
A few other tidbits of history, a president was caught getting a bj by his secretary, a not so intelligent business man got elected for president. Bombings happening all over the world, some school shootings, the Hubble space telescope, End of the world Y2k event.
There has been quite a few over the years but maybe in the future we might see: The first quantum computer, Humanoid robot assistants, flying taxi's, A manned mission to mars, a cure for cancer, anti aging technology, non invasive surgery, programmable nano bacteria that lives in you body and fights off any and all ailments. A fully realized holodeck, spaceflight airlines, and no more long distance fees from any carrier.
Scott Goerz
