Top 7 Wonders of the Technological World
Published on September 7, 2007 - 47 Comments
With all the discussion around the net regarding the new 7 wonders of the world, I thought that a nice complement to that would the be the 7 wonders of the technological world. I searched around for inspiration and was surprised to find that no one has put together a really decent list. One of the prominent lists I did find included Microsoft Surface - how ridiculous! (I wonder who owns that newspaper). So, without further ado, here is the list of the Top 7 Wonders of the Technological World.
7. iPod
This item will be the most controversial on the list I think. My reason for including it is the impact it has had worldwide on how we listen to music, how we buy music, and how we perceive entertainment as a whole. The iPod was not the first portable digital music device, but it has undoubtedly had the most effect of all. It has spawned an entire industry of supporting gadgets and accessories and it has been the basis of the only successful attempt by any company to break the Recording Industry’s hold on music distribution. For that alone, we owe Apple Corporation a big thank you.
Apple’s hardware engineering chief, Jon Rubinstein, assembled a team of engineers to design the iPod, including Tony Fadell, hardware engineer Michael Dhuey, and design engineer Jonathan Ive, with Stan Ng as the marketing manager. The product was developed in less than a year and unveiled on October 23, 2001. CEO Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1000 songs in your pocket.”
6. International Space Station
Some 60 years ago the world was plunged in to one of the greatest wars known to man. Not so many years after that we were thrown in to the cold war. Who would have believed that before the end of the 20th century, countries that were bitter enemies for the larger part of the century would join together to create a space station? The countries participating at present are the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and numerous European nations. The Space Station has enabled us to learn that we can work together peacefully, especially in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
In the early 1980s, NASA planned Space Station Freedom as a counterpart to the Soviet Salyut and Mir space stations. It never left the drawing board and, with the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, it was cancelled. The end of the Space race prompted the U.S. administration officials to start negotiations with international partners Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada in the early 1990s in order to build a truly international space station. This project was first announced in 1993. The first section, the Zarya Functional Cargo Block, was put in orbit in November 1998 on a Russian Proton rocket.
5. Linux
Linux has to be on the list for the very fact that it truly opened the door to Open Source software to more people than any other open source project. The very fact that so many people can work together without meeting face to face to bring together such a complex project as an operating system - and to make it good enough to compete with the giants in the industry, is a wonder in itself. The project started as the brain child of Linus Torvalds.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds began to work on a non-commercial replacement for MINIX (another Unix-like operating system) while he was attending the University of Helsinki. With code from the GNU system freely available, it was advantageous that this could be used with the fledgling OS. Torvalds initiated a switch from his original license (which prohibited commercial redistribution) to the GNU GPL. Linux and GNU developers worked to integrate GNU components with Linux to make a fully functional and free operating system.
4. Hubble Space Telescope
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has become one of the most significant instruments in the history of astronomy. Children of today do not need to look in to the sky and wonder - Hubble has brought the beauty of the heavens to the face of the earth. The Hubble telescope has enabled a multitude of incredibly discoveries about our universe and origins to be made. It has also provided us with some of the most beautiful images of all time. To understand the true value of this telescope, consider the Hubble Ultra Deep Field - the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light, looking back in time more than 13 billion years. It is impossible to look at this image and not feel a sense of awe at the technological achievement that made it possible. For your viewing pleasure, here is a full 3100 × 3120 pixel copy of the HUDF.
The history of the Hubble Space Telescope can be traced back as far as 1946, when the astronomer Lyman Spitzer wrote the paper Astronomical advantages of an extra-terrestrial observatory. Spitzer devoted much of his career to pushing for a space telescope to be developed. In 1962 a report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences recommended the development of a space telescope as part of the space program, and in 1965 Spitzer was appointed as head of a committee given the task of defining the scientific objectives for a large space telescope. On April 24, 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery launched in Florida, taking the Hubble Space Telescope in to space.
3. Lasers
When lasers were invented in 1960, they were called “a solution looking for a problem”. Since then, they have become ubiquitous, finding utility in thousands of highly varied applications in every section of modern society, including consumer electronics, information technology, science, medicine, industry, law enforcement, entertainment, and the military. Every day virtually every person is effected in one way or another by lasers. In the medical field, lasers have revolutionized surgery and we can now restore sight to the near-blind with their help.
With its origins in the theories of scientists like Einstein, in 1960 Theodore H. Maiman created the first working laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. It used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped synthetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light at 694 nanometres wavelength. Later that year, Iranian physicist Ali Javan, working with William Bennet and Donald Herriot, made the first gas laser using helium and neon.
2. The Computer
There will be no controversy about this entry. The computer has changed the world so much that we could say we are now living in the computer age, having left the industrial age well behind us. Computers are used in virtually every arena of human life - including medicine, science, crime detection, entertainment, and much much more. The computer has revolutionized so many aspects of our lives that it is now hard to imagine life without it.
In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer that he called “The Analytical Engine”. Due to limited finance, and an inability to resist tinkering with the design, Babbage never actually built his Analytical Engine. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the U.S. Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which later became IBM.
1. The Internet
A visualization of the Internet
Admittedly, without computers, we would not have the Internet, but the Internet far supersedes the computer in order of importance. It is fair to say that the Internet is the new Library of Alexandria. The Internet now stores an immense portion of human knowledge and it is not just available to an elite few - it is available to every man, woman, and child in the free world. For many of us, our daily life relies heavily on the internet - not just for information gathering and research, but for shopping, entertainment, news, and communication. It allows us to speak to any person on the planet without the high costs imposed by telephone companies. The Internet has launched the careers of many great artists - people who would normally be overlooked by the mainstream industries they work in. There can be no doubt, the Internet is the greatest wonder of the technological world.
The USSR’s launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a technological lead. After much work, the first node went live at UCLA on October 29, 1969 on what would be called the ARPANET, one of the “eve” networks of today’s Internet. The first TCP/IP-wide area network was operational by January 1, 1983, when the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) constructed a university network backbone that would later become the NSFNet. It was then followed by the opening of the network to commercial interests in 1985. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the NSFNet include Usenet, BITNET and the various commercial and educational networks, such as X.25, Compuserve and JANET.
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1. dalandzadgad - September 7th, 2007 at 7:31 am
good one. i enjoyed this list.
2. jfrater - September 7th, 2007 at 7:39 am
dalandzadgad: Thanks - I really enjoyed putting this one together.
3. cyber_rigger - September 7th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Cell phones have had more impact than portable mp3 players.
An mp3 player is just a subset of personal computer technology.
4. jfrater - September 7th, 2007 at 8:44 am
cyber_rigger: I included the mp3 player because of the impact that Apple has had on the music industry - not just for the device itself.
5. ImplosiveFire - September 7th, 2007 at 9:36 am
“Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has become one of the most significant instruments in the history of anatomy”
Don’t you mean astronomy?
Great list BTW
6. Bill Coffin - September 7th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Really cool list!
7. jfrater - September 7th, 2007 at 11:12 am
ImplosiveFire - I guess my mind wandered
Thanks for pointing that out!
Bill: thanks
8. anesb - September 7th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I’m going to have to agree with cyber_rigger. I think cell phones have had a much greater impact on the tech world than mp3 players. At least in the Midwest, where I live, about 12-15 years ago, only the privileged had cell phones. Then all of a sudden every one had one, even my grandparents. Now cell phone companies are some of the largest companies out there. Its still hard to remember what life was like with out them.
9. Daniel - September 7th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
What about particle accelerator’s, they have one at CERN, same place were the world wide web was born.
10. jongleur - September 7th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Keep the lasers and the computers, the rest are all results of those two items. And those two present a sort of “chicken & egg” problem, the rate of development of both of those items was dependent on advances in the other. Although to be fair, the first ‘modern’ computer does edge out the first laser by about a decade.
The calculations to design the one are done on microprocessors etched by the other….
But in terms of real advances in science and technology, those two stand alone.
Archimedes is credited to have said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world,” and those two are the lever and fulcrum of our modern technology.
11. Oyster - September 7th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Totally agree with the iPods and the internet.
12. Ben - September 8th, 2007 at 9:28 am
How about transistors. Very simple on the surface but they allow all the complex tech we see work!
Having grown up with portable cassette(sp?)players, I agree with the Ipod being on here. It has helped to really get digital music libraries to become mainstream. I know for me this has changed the way, both for better and worse that I interact with music.
13. jfrater - September 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Ben: Nice addition - for sure.
Oyster: I am glad someone does
14. Daniel - September 8th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I totally disagree with the iPod.
It’s probably number one, in the top 7 wonders of marketing world. (talking about commercial jfrater) It looks beautiful, but that’s it! We all know that only dumb people buy these things, that’s why is so popular.
Make better research, I personally think it’s a shame to compare so close this device with the ISS, or the internet it self! c’mon!
15. jfrater - September 8th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Daniel: I definitely do not agree - it is not just a marketing success, it is a technological success. No company has produced anything like the iPod scrollwheel (which I think you would agree with but I suspect you have not used one).
16. Daniel - September 8th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I don’t own one, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t used one.
There a lot of media players out there, as I said, not good-looking as the iPod, but that’s why people buy it. Commercial success I agree.
The technology used in the iPod is not what you call a “technological success”.
The scroll-wheel, a simple touchpad, a technology that developed from touch-screen’s in the 70’s, same tech used in the iPhone.
How can an iPod be compared to Linux or a computer?
Top 10 Apple Related Websites!? Now I understand…
17. jfrater - September 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Daniel: I am glad you understand though I am not sure that the fact that I use a Mac has any bearing on my lists - I still stand by my original selection above.
18. zombiejorge - September 10th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Our generation as a whole cant seem to comprehend the history we’re making. The internet is/has/will shape the way things are done from now on. Its kindof crazy that the greasy kid down the block and wallstreets top broker are refering to the same source for information.
19. jfrater - September 10th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
zombiejorge: it is amazing, you are right.
20. Bort - September 11th, 2007 at 3:57 am
The iPod definitely counts as a wonder of the technological world. Sure, it’s also a marketing wonder: brilliantly advertised and packaged, but it’s also a technological breakthrough.
Before the iPod, mp3 players held pathetic amounts of data, making them no better than a standard discman. Nobody cared until the release of the iPod. It wowed the hell out of people. Combine the unbelievable amount of storage space with a simple, user friendly interface that is still second to none, and the fact that it’s aesthetically pleasing, you have a device that changed the world.
Prior to the release of the iPod, people were downloading music, yes, but this device really encouraged it. “Who needs 1000 songs in their pocket?” soon became “1000 songs in my pocket isn’t enough!” Now we have independent music artists completely ignored by the mainstream media headling festivals for tens of thousands of people.
And most importantly, the iPod has had an undeniable impact on not only how people obtain music (and now television and movies), but also how entertainment is distributed. The iTunes store, emusic, rhapsody? Hell, music blogs are the new record shops.
Ten years ago, did anyone think we’d be able to listen to thousands of songs, and watch our favorite movies on something smaller than a deck of cards? Or that we’d be able to use said device to buy songs whenever we want? And you know the iPod touch will eventually be capable of purchasing shows and movies on the fly.
21. jfrater - September 11th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Bort: Well put
22. 80toy - September 11th, 2007 at 10:59 am
i think that we should all take a minute to thank Mr. Gore for inventing the internet, without him we would be cavemen figting off man-bear-pig.
23. sakul - September 11th, 2007 at 11:11 am
uhh.. the IPOD? Cmon… and it wasn’t even apple that had the first disk based mp3 player. It was creative labs. Creative labs is in a lawsuit with apple because apple stole their gui interface too.
Don’t you think transistors should be here, instead of the ipod?
24. jfrater - September 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
sakul: nope
25. Daniel - September 13th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
The first one was the MPMan F10, developed by a Korean company.
26. ap - September 18th, 2007 at 7:29 am
I think cellphones should be added. Almost everyone owns a cellphone now. Cellphones have a bigger impact on our world today than I-pods IMO
27. venky - September 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
yo! this thng s real gr8..good job job..internet deserves its its spot at the top of the table
28. heavybison - October 12th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Idea for a top 10…howz ’bout 10 best selling cell phones till this point in time..
29. DiscHuker - October 12th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Wow. Such vitriol against the i-pod. It is obviously a technological wonder. I’m not here to argue whether or not it is more important than the cell phone. But, c’mon people, don’t be a hater.
Are we saying that we shouldn’t like the latest dell laptop because it copied from the commodore 64?
30. mikedelta - October 25th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
are u kidding me, the ipod is nothing more than the walkman of the 00s, thats it. you dont think that this thing will be superceded by something revolutionary in 5 years? also, why single out the HST and not include the other 3 Great Observatories? or how about the voyager probes or any of the magnificent planetery probes launched in the last 40+ years? Linux??!!! its an operating system, thats it!! how is this so great. even the most amazing greatest operating system that can make perfect toast is not a wonder of the world!! forgotten: nuclear energy, moon landing, human genome decoding, eradication of a desease-smallpox. you should have a wider view of history, this list is total nonsense, did you just look around your room and pick out 7 things? frikkin laser beams??? you gotta be kidding me.
31. Nekonron - October 30th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Out of the 7, I can only say that I agree that the Hubble Telescope, ISS, Computer and Internet as a “7 wonder”.
But you do have sound arguments and it probably wasn’t easy to even compile up this short list so I can only say, great list!
32. travis reece - January 7th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
yeah, linux…. its cool i guess. but im gonna go with the majority and say cell phone. imagine telling someone about cell phones 100 years ago. instant communication on the go, kinda amazing.
33. Gus - January 12th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Ok….it took me a long time to find a lame list on your site man…but now I think i got one…
Dude ur cool and stuff but this, this is pure plain stupid man - IPOD??? are you nuts dude? and wot abt “the impact apple has in music industry”? yeah what impact dude? selling tunes for a buck ? ow now that’s a life changer c’mon…the scrollwheel part really made me laugh dude Oh my Gosh!! a (old tech) scrollwheel that nobody ever made before cuz it doesn’t have no purpose at all besides being cool yeah I’m another person now the scrollwheel made me a better human hahahhaha your are missing a lot in this one man…like ipods more are amazing than transistors and cell phones, yeah right.Plus aplle sux just as bad as microsoft.
And wot abt LINUX??? i agrre is damn useful but a wonder??? nah…just an OS and for what it counts IT IS ONLY USEFUL FOR GEEKS nobody outside geeks would find it useful and most of mankind would not know how to operate, now you tell me how da heck something that 90% of the planet will never lay eyes on, is sooo amazing.
We have robots in mars, H bombs, genoma, particle accelerators and ppl claim Ipods and OS’s are wonders…go figure…
34. fishing4monkeys - January 18th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Great list!
35. fishing4monkeys - January 18th, 2008 at 4:13 am
@gus:
I don’t think you see the significance of this list. Ipods and OS’es have compleatly changed the world for almost everyone! What are you using right now? A Computer (which probably has MP3s on it) with a CD drive which uses a LASER with an OS on the INTERNET! All of which are on this list! Almost all of the stuff on this list has affected people worldwide, was pretty much unheard of even as a theory 100 years ago, and is surprisingly affordable! If you ask anybody whether particle accelerators or iPods have affected their life more which do you think they will choose? Exactly…
36. Gus - January 22nd, 2008 at 2:30 am
@ fishing4monkeys:
Dude, I’m not saying that these gadgets aren’t cool I know they are, but they are not WONDERS man!!!
Hell.. so what if ppl thinks Ipods are more important than particle accelerators??? The fact remains that particle accelerators are far more fucking important to mankind than freaking music players man, same thing for the genoma and probes in Mars
Now… dude, you name one thing that IS coolest that HAVING ROBOTS WONDERING IN MARS!!!!!!
FUCK!!! WE HAVE ROBOTS IN MARS!!!! did you understand? i said WE HAVE FREAKING ROBOTS IN MARS!!! Now that’s a freaking wonder man! having robots in Mars !!!!
Cheers!
37. fishing4monkeys - January 28th, 2008 at 4:50 am
@gus:
Why reply to me if you don’t even understand me? 50 years ago did we predict going to mars? YES!
50 years ago did we predict 50 GB in a hand held computer? NO!
Most things on this list might not be that groundbreaking compared to “having robots on mars” but in reality they are! Could those robots work without having tiny computers? NO!
Can you purchase one of those robots in any store? NO! MP3 players, OS’s, etc have affected the everyday person FAR MORE then “having robots on mars”…even if you were to buy a “mars robot” it would debt you in to bankruptcy! Almost ANYONE with a job can but an MP3 player…so which is more ground breaking? An un-manned robot that travles by the age old rocket and once landed moves extremly slow? Or a tiny computer that you can hold in the palm of your hand that didn’t even exist let alone be actually avaliable to the public 10 years ago!!
38. nelson - February 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
internet rulezzz
39. Polly Odyssey - February 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
The internet is probably one of the greatest things ever invented.
40. AmaraT - May 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I can see why people would say cell phones so much and I’m sure if this was a longer list it might be on there. But I don’t see why ipods are such a big controversy. Maybe it wasn’t the first mp3 player or even music player but it definitely helped revolutionize a new form of listening to music, watching movies and shows (while on the go). Most cell phones now are adding these types of features to them as well. It may be all commercialized but it contributed to a lot of new ideas of how people can “harness” technology. Besides this is just a list for fun- it’s not the guinness book of world records or anything. Don’t take it so seriously.
To jfrater: If it counts for anything I like this list too lol
41. Pamela - June 29th, 2008 at 12:03 am
why not include cellphones?
42. alex - September 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I don’t know when this list was created, but why not the LHC? I mean c’mon its the LHC.
43. TheOddball - September 5th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Tchyeah.
INCLUDE CELL-PHONES !
Every teenager wouldn’t be caught dead w/o one
lol
44. BlasterQ - September 8th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
You forgot Windows. I know, I know. You hate microsoft. And so does a lot of people who hates microsoft and windows, but still uses windows and still cannot live without windows. But windows has positively affected people more than your ipod, and your linux.
In fact, the whole idea of linux is not to provide free OS to everybody, but to topple microsoft from the OS monopoly. People have forgotten that the pioneers of linux were the losers in the OS wars a couple of decades ago. Linux is their way of revenge, because microsoft bankrupted them. If microsoft didn’t bankrupt them, there would never be any free linux, nor there will be openoffice, etc.
45. Gordon - September 13th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I agree with most of the respondents……cell phones would outweigh the MP3 or the Linux…….I personally cannot stand the way in which they’re used, particularly while driving, but they have revolutionized the way we communicate.
46. Galeshka - October 23rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Great list. I’d like to add one for consideration though, contraception pill. I know it was long ago but i think this one invention shape lot’s of our culture compared to before it’s invented.
Some might even say it’s accelerated the development of other technology. Just my thought though.
47. blends - December 10th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
thinks the list is nicely put together and well written. it is very hard to create a complete list of technological wonders since technology encompass so many important part of our lives. methinks it best to score (should we need to) the items following specific indicators such as:
1. scope: invented/constructed in modern time (above 1900s?)
2. purpose: direct/indirect implication on survival of human race
3. availability/accessibility: widely available and accessible (as of 2000s?)
4. not a precursor: not superseded by a more advance devices
5. groundbreaking: leads to future or current advancement of technology
current state of technology (digital revolution) already allows fast replication of any invention. in that respect not a single item (such as Linux/Windows) could be listed and it is more proper to list a concept (Operating System or Open Source).
however a single item may represent the whole concept due to cost and availability (such as particle accelerators (many in construction), ISS (Space Stations) and Hubble (One of the Few Space Telescopes available). The Internet is one of the great example of concept (yes, internet IS A CONCEPT. its physical existence is represented by myriads of cable networks, wireless and satellite networks and server machines through out the world)