Module 07: “Technology That Liberated and Enslaved”

Module 07: “Technology That Liberated and Enslaved” PS 150 American 20th Century Political History Benedictine College Fall, 2012 John F. Settich, Ph.D.

There were only 100 years in the 20th century, but technology grew more rapidly in that century than it had in 1,000 years. We are still adjusting. • Some of the advances have freed us from isolation and ignorance and indifference about others. • Other aspects of technology have driven us apart and made us more disoriented than we ever were.

In his film, Modern Times (1936) Charlie Chaplin shows the tyranny of technology, in our attempts to harness its power to make our lives easier. This story and its comedy is a lesson to us all who hope to embrace technology with no loss of our humanity.

On July 26, 1963 SYNCOM reached geosynchronous orbit. • It broadcast satellite images from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. • In 1929 geosynch “stationary” satellites were theorized. • In 1945 Arthur Clarke wrote that 3 could cover the earth with signals. SYNCOM TELESTAR, first active, civilian communications satellite, 1962.

In 1929 DuPont scientists formulated Neoprene, a synthetic rubber. • It was commercially available by 1933. • This discovery liberated us from importing natural rubber, essential for so many products.

Radio may seem to be the most common of communications technology, but it continues as our vital link with each other. • Entertainment, sports and news were all radio’s domain for the 20th century, even after television.

Dr. Otto Bayer (left) developed polyurethane in 1937, a vital step in the magnificent march toward using plastics in thousands of products, including packaging and insulation and many other products.

Air travel advanced from adventurous to routine in less than one generation. • Commercial air travel was a special contribution from America to the world. • Your professor’s first flight was in a TWA Constellation in 1956.

Levittown, NY was the first of the mass produced, community styled suburbs that exploded after WWII. Bill Levitt, ex-Navy Seabee built 17,500 homes between 1947 and 1951 on Long Island, NY in what had been potato fields before the War.

An American invention of the 20th century: the atomic bomb. We used two of them in the last days of World War II. • The consequences were horrific in human terms, but the war ended quickly. • We have been political prisoners of “The Bomb” ever since.

In 1927 Bell Labs demonstrated television transmissions between New York and Washington, DC. It was not until after World War II that America had the capital to produce TV sets and programming, but since then: Wow!

Business computers changed everything in the 20th century. The New York Stock Exchange trades billions of shares every day, earlier it was only thousands. Capital flows around the world on computer instructions, not letters of credit on paper.

It was a rapid trip from the first Apple computer in 1976 to 1999’s laptops and high speed chips. • Storage and speed improved day after day and the applications exploded to make the machines very useful to all.

ARPANET opened on 29 Oct 1969 with two sites, it had 15 by 1971. The National Science Foundation created its version of the net. They adopted the TCP/IP protocol and commercial development followed in the late 70s and early 80s. The next breakthrough happened when web browsers arrived. First widely used graphic interface was Mosaic in 1993, Netscape in 1994 and then MicroSoft’s Internet Explorer in 1995. Then the internet really took off!

Prescription drugs arrived and multiplied exponentially during the 20th century. • Also, vaccines arrived for polio & others. • Medical technology started as x-rays and entered the era of robotic surgery at the century’s end? • Where will it go next?

Telephones arrived in the 20th century. • They changed the way we do business, maintain social relationships, deal with emergencies, order pizza and shop. • These companies have gotten very rich, selling us time, an odd item to buy!

These are the devices of consumer debt and convenience. • They destroyed our natural urge to save and replaced it with the drive to spend. • This genie will NEVER go back in the bottle! • Technology made it all possible !

America started the century with virtually none and now they are everywhere: highways • They made some villages ghost towns & others mega-cities • The initiative was federal, at first, and now all governments bear the costs.

Watson & Crick identified the secret of the double helix DNA. • Their work, advances in the technology of biochemistry and the human genome project have brought us closer to understanding the foundations of life. • What is next?

Mechanical air conditioning sounds rather dull, but there would be no large cities in Arizona, Texas, Florida or Nevada without it. • We have harnessed cool air and now, live and work where we choose, when we like. • It is awesome!

Module 7: Technology that Liberated and Enslaved • Like no other time before in mankind, the rapid advance of technology has changed the ways in which we live and work and relate to each other. • Not all of the changes have been positive in the long term. • How can we accept the best that technology offers and reject the rest?

Module 07: “Technology That Liberated and Enslaved”