A Lighter Look at the Information Technology Revolution

How far will and should the web of information penetrate into our daily life? Do we desire a situation where information travels freely, where everything is tagged and tracked, your car, your dog, you?

In gazing into the future, no one possesses perfect foresight. The history of technology abounds with examples of predictions that have rapidly turned out to be woefully inaccurate. Heavier-than-air-flight, atomic energy and controlled thermonuclear power are three examples of the first half of the twentieth century where scientists were proven wrong. In the later half of the century we have the case of the President of Digital Equipment Corporation on record in 1978 as having declared that there was no reason for any individual to have a computer in their homes! And none other than Bill Gates himself was almost wrong-footed by the rapid growth of the Internet. By a strange quirk of fate it was the vigor with which Microsoft embraced the Internet that led to the ruling that his company had breached US anti-trust legislation.

But where did it all start? Economic historians characterize humankind as having passed from the agrarian revolution when we first settled down, domesticated animals and began to raise crops, to the industrial revolution that began in England in the 17th century with application of waterpower to textile production.

These epochs of course overlap, with the industrial revolution still unfolding, albeit at a slower pace. One might argue that that the information technology revolution began in the late 19th century when Herman Hollerith automated the data processing for the US Census. The company that he founded, Tabulating Machine Company, later became IBM.

In the 20th century our ability to process large volumes of data into useful information grew exponentially as the mechanical devices of Hollerith were replaced by successive generations of electronic devices. The invention of the valve amplifier was basic to the computers that assisted the design of the A-bomb. The transistor appeared in 1948 and became an essential tool in the arms race of the Cold War.