the transistor age

Our world has always changed in ways we cannot foresee. The physicist Niels Bohr said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” We read science fiction novels, watch futuristic movies and television shows and listen to the expert advice of scientists but none of us actually know the future. People from the 1950s claimed that we would have interstellar travel, limitless solar energy and complete birth control. While some old predictions have come closer than others, it seems that none have actually come true.

Although most of the past and present predictions about the future would be great if they came true, society might not want them. The advances in social interaction and communication have outpaced other advances as evidenced by the Internet. Maybe these other technological advances never panned out because society wanted the web more. The only way that someone could be seen by the world thirty years ago was by doing something incredibly bad or incredibly good and have television agencies cover your outrageous story. People now have the ability to speak to the world every day. This unique advance has changed society more than any other science-related advance.

The Internet, so far, has an interesting atmosphere. From extremely conservative to extremely liberal, all types of content exist on the web. Users can freely access almost anything they wish to view. This also means that they can produce and publish any kind of content. Even proponents of the World Wide Web could not have foreseen the current state of the online world. If they could have seen, they may or may not have liked what they saw. So we go back to wondering about the future. Is this the transistor age or the biotech age?