Over the past weekend I was talking with a very intelligent friend of mine. We were speaking about how some inventions are truly mind-boggling. That is, some inventions are so outside of the box, that I struggle to see how people could even begin to think about the invention as a concept, much less how to bring that idea to reality.
Let’s start with an invention that I understand: airplanes. Humanity has been after a way to soar the skies for eons. We have always had a good example in birds and bugs of how we might fly. In the end, men and women took a different route to get into the sky, but the idea of wings is still there. Once we made it airborne, going from rickety, stick-figure planes, to jet rockets and space travel didn’t take long. All more of less straightforward there, as long as we don’t get too bogged down in Bernoulli’s Principle.
One invention that still confounds me despite the alarming levels of interaction that I have with it is the computer: how did someone ever come up with the idea of running electricity through some gold, silicone and who knows whatever else to store information? It just boggles the mind. Positively confounds it. Once the computer was invented, it’s easy to appreciate how it was expanded, improved and developed. But that initial idea of information impressed upon and stored on little bits and pieces of plastic and metal. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Didn’t the initial computers come about as a way to complete mathematical calculations? In which case, it is just an extension of the calculator. No idea how someone conceptualized a piece of plastic and metal to complete mathematical problems with electricity though.
This may be over simplifying, but is the telephone really just an extension of the 2 cups connected with a string?
Heck…. I couldn’t describe the processes and such which make my car’s engine work. Even if my life depended upon it.
I think it’s probably true of much of the stuff we use on a daily basis.
Who ever thought to drink the stuff coming out of a cow’s udder? Who thought to plant seeds to grow crops. Language?
I’m glad human-kind wasn’t depending upon me to move it forward.
As a programmer, I have to say, that computers seem way more mystifying than they actually are. That doesn’t deminish their function or evolution. I recommend that you read “Code” by Charles Petzold. It is a fun, easy read and it covers everything. Petzold wrote the Bible when it comes to the Win32 API. I cut my teeth on his writing.