Characterizing Technical Progress

xox

Joined Sep 8, 2017
838
I would say that current inflection point is going to be the sharpest, and hence the most significant. The changes that artificial intelligence will ultimately have on the structure of human society will be monumental. Soon we shall see some incredible advances in technology where innovations of the past pale in comparison.

Yep, now we just have to avoid Ragnarok.... =p
 

Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,671
I see that you have microcomputer, but not computer. The latter is not possible without the former. I guess it should come before or after transistor, depending on when they became important.
But didn't the computer come first? "Baby" was made with five hundred EF50 dual-control pentodes.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,619
I see that you have microcomputer, but not computer. The latter is not possible without the former. I guess it should come before or after transistor, depending on when they became important.
The first, named Colossus, was definitely not 'micro' and mostly mechanical. ;)
 

Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,671
The first, named Colossus, was definitely not 'micro' and mostly mechanical. ;)
Colossus was EF37 based, and much more thermionic than mechanical, even the punched tape reader was optical.
I didn't count Colossus in my post because it only ran one program. Baby, its successor, had the ability to rewrite the program.
 
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