Our digital world didn’t appear overnight. This is an interesting concept for people of my generation (Gen-Z), because we haven’t experienced a world without accessible digital technology.
In this post, I am going to explore our digital world by discussing our society and the individuals who helped develop our digital society historically.
The Creative Process of Digital Technology
If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know how to define the word digital. It took us a while historically to get to this point.
It could be argued, but in my opinion, the digital world began with the creation of language to store information. Although I mentioned in my last post that clay tablets are analog, the ability to store and record information is crucial in the development of the digital world.
The next important development, in my opinion, skips a couple of hundred years forward from clay tablets: machines. In class, we discussed Alan Turing and how he dove headfirst into machines and computing. Turing was the start of our understanding of how machines could display logic.
The next innovation that marks the timeline of digital innovation is the computer (not the modern computer yet). I researched the early computer and learned about Charles Babbage. Babbage is known for his innovation in creating the concept of a digital programming computer in the early 1800’s.
The image on the left is of Alan Turing.
The image on the right is of Charles Babbage.
Our Society and Its Development Alongside Digital Technology
As we have developed as a society, our technology has changed with us. As we created populations and established society, we needed a space to record information and to communicate with others. This can be seen in the development of language and in the study of linguistics. In times of war, we needed people like Turing to help us decipher codes and further our international intelligence.
With these examples in mind, it makes sense why the development of our society and our technology has been parallel to each other. As society demands more, technology supplies what is needed. This couldn’t be done without the innovation of brilliant visionaries like Turing and Baggage.
In the modern day, we still have technological visionaries. For example, Bill Gates helped spread personalized technology by co-founding Microsoft.
I know this was a lot of information, and maybe at times it was hard to follow. However, it’s important that we understand the history behind our digital world. When we understand this, we have more appreciation for the luxury that is modern-day digital technology.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more posts.