Technology quote
 

- Henry Petroski The Evolution of Useful Things 1990.

Do you think this quote is still true today?

Here's a snapshot of technology from 1990:

* Operating systems: Windows 3.0 and the original Apple Macintosh was around.
* DVD's were still 5 years away (1995)
*Cell phones? Early GSM service was a year away from being adopted in Europe.
Beepers were more popular than cell phones
*Gaming consoles:
- Nintendo Super NES came out in 1990-1991 (16-bit gaming console)
- Sega Genesis also came out in 1991
- The original Sony Playstation was introduced in 1993.
*Hand held games:
- Game Boy (8-bit early monochrome LCD technology)
- Atari Lynx
*Tivo/DVR technology was 9 years away (introduced in 1999)

So -- is this quote still valid today, 20 years later? If it is still true, where do you fit in? Are you too old? Too young?

I'll reserve my thoughts on this for later...

Discuss...
-Z-man.

Absolutely.

Don't think it's ever been any other way.

I'd say the difference today is we're not defining "technology" only as a thing that you buy. The quote is about what we called "early adopters" or those that went on to buy cell phones, iPods, etc.

Today, electronic communication devices are ubiquitous, but I believe it still holds true that a younger generation is first to use them in new ways (social networking).

Perhaps what gates a generation from adopting a technology today is not as much financial resources, but getting permission from the parents to have access ;)

Profits have been removed from products and put in the consumers pockets. This has brought the price of high tech down . This tied in with easy access to credit has allowed people of no means the ability to take possession of items that might otherwise be reserved for people who can afford them. This being said, I am not sure I agree with the quote in current times.

I can't wait for the next decade...Robo Wife here I come!!!

I have been a tech geek all my life even before home computers. I remember building Heat-kits that did nothing but blink lights back in the 60s. I bought a pair of jeans “on-line” in 1982 via CompuServe and a Commodore 64 at 300 baud. I got my first month’s bill from CompuServe and about fainted. Each minute “on line” was billed and at 300 baud with a black screen and white text it took forever just to look around.

I was never on the bleeding edge of computers and toys because I am CHEAP. I had a Compaq 4.77 MHz with 256K (that is K not Megs) running DOS 2.1 and twin floppies. No hard drive!

I did not get a cell phone until AT&T finally had a package deal for a free phone and only 50 bucks a month for 100 minutes. That was just 5 phones ago for me. I now have an original 8GB iPhone that I got for free because my dad upgraded his to a 3GS. We did not go to a HD TV at home until just a few months ago. I could not bring myself to spend the huge bucks for the first few generations of HD TVs. I still have a standard TV in the home office, where I use a five year old computer. I drive 25 year old cars and I have not had a car payment in this millennium. My house is paid for and I don’t have any debt. I could afford to have the latest and greatest but I am cheap.

Same here; I got my first programming job @ 15, but I've never had the latest-and-greatest because I don't want to pay out the nose for it. I learned that lesson in the late 80's when I bought a car phone from Radio Shack - one of the cool ones with the battery pack that you could actually remove from the car! It was ~$800; I bought it, installed it, and then went back to get the service set up. They wanted another $1200 to set up service, so I told them to go to hell and gave them back the phone.

Too old. Definitely.

I don't own anything made by apple and don't plan to, I have a cell phone that I talk into and listen to and nothing else and that's all I need.

My truck has a jack for MP3 but it'll never get used, they gave me 6 months of free satellite radio when I bought the truck but I never bothered to turn it on.

Petroski's quote is certainly true in Japanese Macaques.

OK, ya lost me.

Can you explain how a monkey relates to the latest technology purchased by the geeks?

...it is the generation that is young enough not to have become so familiar with the old, and yet not so young as to be without the financial resources to do so, that usually embraces the newest technology first.

Just look at 'em! Isn't it obvious?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl...0472/img/1.jpg

There's snow monkey
like show monkey
like no monkey I know.....
Love,
Ethel

So they all texting each other with the new underwater iPhone only available to snow monkies. Now I get it!

Awesome. Just over half a page and random photos posted in duplicate bring a whole new element of existentialism to the thread. Ok, bring it back around and complete the circle. Pins and needles. ;)

I always thought it was the kids tugging at the heart/purse strings that did it for the crunchberry generation(aka "we eat what we like").

There is another aspect to this. Professionally, I have needed to keep up with the latest and fastest computers. In 1990 I had a 12 mhz 386, win 3.0, with a 20 meg hard drive. Personally, I had/have no need or desire for a computer, games, or phones.
today, I have a cell phone, but still no games or toys. My office computer is a 3.2 gig Mac with a couple of 500 gig drives, 6 gigs of memory, OS 10.6, blah, blah. Personally prefer older stuff. I have an iphone only because the office bought me one. I'd rather pour babbit bearings in a 1923 Fordson than learn how to use it, so it's only used for phone (and email when I'm on the road). I've often wondered why they made phones that can take pictures - I'd rather have a vacuum cleaner that will take out the trash.

for the monkeys the "newest technology" was a method of winnowing rice grains from sand.

here is the story, as told by my favorite biology professor (me):

Invention (Role of Age and Behavioral Propagation)
Imo Examples (Innovation and Invention)

Newton said that if he had seen farther than others it was because he had stood on the shoulders of giants

yet, the innovations of Newton and Einstein dramatically changed Western Society

Imo lived in Japan, and changed her society more than any other

Imo is dead now, but she was a greater innovator than either Newton or Einstein


study of Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), Japanese scientists discovered that one troop knew how to dig out plant roots with their hands, other troop did not. (implies different traditions of cultural innovation)

Candy Eating

introduced new food to the monkeys — juveniles, who are more prone to experimentation, first began eating caramel candies

* later, mothers learned candy eating from their kids (juveniles), then passed it along to their own infants

juveniles ® mothers ® infants

* propagation of the behavior was most rapid among the young animals and slowest among the sub-adult males, who were socially distant from the young and their parents

Potato Washing

In 1952, the scientists began scattering sweet potatoes on the beach

* monkeys ventured out of the forest and extended their activities to a completely new habitat

* Within a year the monkeys had learned to wash the sand off the sweet potatoes

— invented by Imo, 2 year old female

* trait was most readily learned by Imo's own age class (1 to 2.5 years old)

* infants and young less than a year old never learned (too complicated?)

* only 18% of older monkeys ever learned it (all females)

* older males never learned it (in human societies too, the older males are the most conservative) Why? (they have a lot to lose if innovation doesn't work)

* monkeys shifted their washing from a brook to the sea and acquired a taste for salt


Wheat Sifting

In 1955, Imo invented another technique (she was 4 years old): scientists were throwing wheat grains onto the beach as food, monkeys were picking the grains out one by one.

somehow, Imo learned to scoop up a handful of sand and wheat, carry it to the edge of the sea and throw it in the water. She then let the sand sink and eat the wheat floating on the surface.

* behavior spread through the troop like the potato washing but with one important difference:

younger ones (< 2 years) had more trouble learning the technique, probably because it was more complex (you have to "throw away" the food, even if only temporarily)

Behavioral Propagation
Slow Fast
candy eating subadult males young
potato washing young, old males 2 year olds
wheat sifting < 2 yrs, old males 4 yr. females


— young animals tend to be innovators

— if too young, they can't learn complex tasks

— older animals, especially males, are conservative

— small shifts in dietary habits can lead to rapid cultural changes and evolutionary breakthroughs

· monkeys learned to enter the water to bathe, especially in hot weather

· acquired a taste for salt

· juveniles learned to swim — some even began to dive and bring up seaweed from the bottom (new food source)

· one monkey swam to another island (range expansion)
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I hope you enjoyed those thrilling episodes from yesteryear.

Lots of awesome technology is business/government/militry driven behind the scenes and then filters down to the consumer.


My workstation has 48GB of ram. 48. GB. And it's still slow for the things I do.

I'm still amazed at my 8GB machine I just built which has a 6 core processor. It's funny, I priced up a 24GB machine with a nearly top i7 processor, 2x2TB drives in Raid 1, Sata 6, etc, and the price was something like 5-6 times my machine. 1/2 the price difference was the i7. My 6 core AMD was only about 2/3rds the speed of the top i7.

There is always a huge price tag between the bleeding edge and the cost effective.

did you ever do the comparison with Dell or Lenovo machines?

Yes, they are more expensive