From scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized our understanding of the world to practical inventions that changed the way we live, scientific and technological developments in the 20th century have profoundly altered nearly every aspect of our lives. We usually think of these changes as wholly positive, but when you look at the destruction caused after the first two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945, this view tends to be distorted. As we can see by this horrific event, technology can be used to improve lives, but also destroy them. If you ask someone what the greatest technological breakthrough of the twentieth century was, you are sure to get mixed responses. Some may say the television, others will say modern medicine, and A major powerhouse that pushed the boundaries during the early 20th century—especially during the 1920s—was the United States. After coming out of World War I victorious and with relatively little losses, The United States’ post-war economy was the epitome of consumerism. As the cost of production continued to drop, items once thought of as a luxury, such as vehicles, became within the price range of everyday consumers. The trend began when Henry Ford created the assembly line and continued to pick up momentum as the century progressed. This eventually led to widespread adoption of other goods once considered luxury, such as radios, telephones, and refrigerators. As more money was poured into these emerging fields, the infrastructure behind them continued to grow. Roads were paved, telephone lines were strung, and gas stations began popping up. In essence, these advances A well supported outlook towards the future of technology would be “cautiously optimistic.” Nuclear fission is one example of this. While is did further our understanding of atomic theory and resulted in a solution to many energy woes, it also caused the tragedies of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl. Looking towards the 21st century, artificial intelligence is shaping up to be another highly controversial piece of technology that we are only beginning to understand. As George Santayana once said, “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” We can only hope that the world has learned an important lesson from these tragedies: never underestimate the power of
World War I had placed great strains on the economies of the most European nations that were involved in the conflict. With trade agreements with countries like Britain, France and United Kingdom America’s economy flourished, as they forced these countries to accept goods in exchange for debt. The economy of America soared to new heights. America’s abundant natural resources and technological advances were used to become leaders in manufactured exports. (Encl) Usually the general public would opposed big business owners to partner with government, but as the lifestyles of many Americans elevated these relationships were accepted. By the end of the decade, 1910 to 1919, annual incomes rose from $580 to $1300 setting the stage for the “crazy years” known as the “Roaring Twenties”.
...ductivity shaped the development of the American economy in the 1920s. The nation’s industries shifted from coal to electricity. Mass production, electrification, and other innovations increased American productivity and established industries flourished while new industries developed. One of the most signigicant inventions during this time was the assembly line. This made hard work become less tedious and forever changed the lives of factory workers.
The automobile was only used by less than ten million Americans and by the end of this post-war decade that number had climbed to over thirty million. Many new inventions were coming through, making life for Americans much more comfortable. Radios, vacuum cleaners, irons, washing machines, and refrigerators were among the new necessities Americans just had to have. Refrigerators allow for better production and transportation of food products. This allowed for the ability to keep food cold and fresh, thus making exporting of food a valuable agricultural economy.
The bureaucratization of business in the 1920’s meant that more people could be employed in higher paying white-collar jobs than before, including, for the first time, housewives. This new income combined with the reduced prices for goods that resulted from mechanized production, assembly lines and a general decrease in the cost of technology created a thriving consumerist middle class that went on to fuel the economy in all sectors, especially the upper classes. Likewise, during World War II Americans saved up around 150 billion dollars, and this sum combined with the income of the GI Bill allowed normal people to buy expensive things, from houses to cars to electronics to education at a rapid rate, fueling the trademark prosperity of the 1950’s. The new automobile culture of the 50’s spawned new businesses that catered to mobile Americans, such as nicer and more standardized hotels like Holiday Inn, and drive-up restaurants like McDonalds. Just as the culture of the 1920’s was transformed by modernist ideas, the world of the 1950’s was reinvigorated by the introduction of the automobile to the middle class....
The 1920's were a time where North America became modernized. Whether it was the music, the culture or the growth in technology, this time era is known to most people as the point where America advanced itself to become a world renowned country. An advancement that will be focused on is the Ford Model T. During this time owning a car was a symbol of wealth. Henry Ford, the creator of the Model T, made a system that revolutionized the automobile industry as we know it today. Henry Ford made it possible for people with an average income to own a motor vehicle by creating the assembly line and the theory of mass production. "The horse, which had been the chief means of land transportation for 3,500 years, had given way to the automobile, and the country's largest industry had been born." (Gordon)
The United States began a period of uninterrupted prosperity an economy expansion during the 1920s, coining the term, the roaring twenties. Automobiles and construction became the most important and excessively relied industries in the nation as a result of the assembly line and other innovations. However, the prosperity depended only on these few basic industries, thus,
...d them to end the war with Japan. But not only did they create bombs, but they also found a new way to power the spreading cities of America. Also, even though many knew the power of a nuclear bomb, they couldn’t have predicted the lasting effects on the land and the people. So within this scientific experiment we have learned that nuclear radiation can cause genetic mutations, the formation of cataracts, leukemia, and a shortened life (Document I).
The United States was also in the process of industrialization. Industries were built and electricity was the new form of power. Electric lights became available and the first movies were made. "By 1916, 21,000 movie houses were testimony of a new industry" (Hacker and Zahler 99). Automobiles became prevalent and that caused the need for roads to be built: "The early growth of the automobile industry wakened a new and much stronger demand for surfaced roads" (Hacker and Zahler 101). Henry Ford was a major contributor in propelling the automobile industry. He improved the assembly line and mass production of parts. "By 1914, the automobile industry had developed such characteristic features as standardization of parts, minute subdivision and mechanization of labor, and even the assembly line in manufacturing" (Hacker and Zahler 100). The United States experienced great social and industrial change on a national scale as well as international scale.
In the real world, life has its ups and downs. In the 1920's, corporations started to take better care of their workers than they had in the past. Workers were paid higher wages and worked shorter hours. With more time and money on their hands, workers turned into consumers, which caused an increase in the production of consumer goods. One of the most popular consumer goods was the automobile. To keep up with the high demand, the automobile industry had to create a way to make a lot of cars in a short amount of time, at a low price. The solution was the assembly line. With the assembly line the time to create one car dropped from 12 hours to 90 minutes. The price of the automobile fell greatly also, which further increased the demand. The automobile industry inspired other industries to form, such as the steel, rubber, petroleum, machine tools, and road building industries. But life wasn't just peaches and cream in the 1920's. Immigrants and farmers were facing some serious adversity. After World War I, the United States began to put a cap, or put a quota, on how many immigrants could come into the country.
The technological field has advanced to something far more than what people could have imagined just a half a century ago. The technological revolution has changed the lifestyle of societies just as the Industrial revolution changed the lifestyle of Europe. Who would have imagined the Internet and computers in most homes, when a computer could barely fit into an entire building, much less intelligent machines? Artificial Intelligence is an intriguing technology that will shape the human lifestyle of the future. Restricting research and progress in the field is hardly a feasible task in today's world. More realistically, we should monitor and keep the technology in a realistic and safe progression.
Through the generations, technology has propelled the human race into the future. Advancements in technology have surpassed the expectations of our founding forefathers. Technology has pushed the limits of typical modern thinking and tremendously broadened the horizons of rational human beings. From cave dwellers, barely being able to survive, to astronauts landing on the moon, technology has made this advancement possible. However, advancements in technology and new inventions do not always positively affect humans. The invention of the atomic bomb, however useful in its time, has led to many unexpected consequences, and it is for these reasons that this is an invention that we can live without.
In the early days of car making, the process was slow and costly. The average car was around eight-hundred and fifty dollars, until the assembly line was developed by Henry Ford. This process made the cost of the Ford Model T drop down to an inexpensive three-hundred dollars. The Ford Motor Company sold a total of fifteen-million Model T’s by 1927(History, “Model T”). With the cost of the Model T almost three times less expensive, it allowed the average middle-class citizen to purchase a luxury such as an automobile. This drastically increased the number of cars on the small number of roads that the United States had to offer. This led to the mass development of roads and allowed people to travel from city to city relatively quickly to buy goods and services. Roads were a huge factor in american growth. It allowed businesses to grow and expand,
Hiroshima served as an example of the kind of destruction that can potentially be produced by science, but it also showed the hope for a newer, more efficient source of energy. The Atoms for Peace Initiative has attempted to convince countries from using nuclear power as a destructive force, and will hopefully succeed, as it has so far, in keeping atomic bombs from being used. Nuclear energy is a renewable source of energy that has been found to be incredibly efficient, and is continuing to be developed. The lasting effects of Hiroshima should be enough to convince countries from deciding to use nuclear weapons, but the future of nuclear energy is continuing to be observed and developed.
I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future. Days go by and how time flies, seasons always changing. When we contemplate the future we envision mind-warping technology and global warming destroying the Earth. Change is inevitable but it's up to our supremacy what we and our planet Earth change into. Will we help or hinder our future survival? One sentence from America's Declaration of Independence has some relevance to this matter. 'But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security'. In other words if something is wrong, those that have the ability to take action, have the responsibility to take action.
Another example of the change in our technology over the last century is the change in the computer. In 1946, the first electronic computer called the ENIAC took up the space of a large room. Instead of using transistors and IC chips, the ENIAC used vacuum tubes. Compared to many computers now, the ENIAC is about as powerful as a small calculator. That may not be much, but it is a milestone because there would not be computers today if it were not for the ENIAC. As the years passed, the computer became smaller and more powerful. Today, more than half of the American population has a computer in their home. The personal computers today are thousands of times more powerful than the most powerful computers fifty years ago.