Tag: History

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Electronic age: I.T. to the moon! Now Mars!

Visual of Mainframe computing evolving to clouds (cloud computing is the next stage)

4. Electronic age can be defined starting around 1940 and right now.

But this age reflects a cross road moment, where Information Technologies creates new branches of sub-domains and humans creativity lets these sub-domain takes on a form of it’s own. Lets mention just a few and see if we can find some nostalgia:

The electronic era enable humans to enter space now over 60 years ago! From Gagarin’s historic 1961 space flight and Neil Armstrong’s flight to the moon in July 20 1969! All due to computer language & internal computer memory that made computer reprogrammable and even more efficient to use in new circumstances!

The era also opened up the digital gaming market, through Mainframe simulations that around 1970’s evolved into classic arcade games. It would only take a decade before the rise of the gaming consoles of the likes of SEGA, Nintendo to evolve and create a new culture, where we could enjoy 2D games such as Super Mario on the NES (8-bits) or Sonic the hedgehog through SEGA!

Not to forget fantastic games such as Settlers, Backpacker and Diablo on the modern day computer! Gaming evolved in par with increase computing power such of more memory processing & storage power etc. The gaming industry is actually a part of the entrainment industry all of which have been enabled by Information Technology! I.T. transformed during this era and has continued to grow ever since! Just to put some perspective, the video gaming market is expected to reach a whopping $277 billion in 2025!

But lets not stop there, because the electronic age gave birth to the world wide web (www went public 1991) commonly known as the internet (or “the net”) that you are using now and probably everyday!

It literally created additional ways to communicate with Information Technology on a virtual scale, which SWEIT believe is just in it’s infancy. We expect to se a big increase of transitions from analog to virtual platforms on the net! The net that is evolving more to a cloud of networks that will expose us to a very different world that will emerge from the likes of IoT, Mixed Reality, Additive Manufacturing also known as 3D printing and mush mush more! SWEIT also hopes to contribute in this future through new collaborations globally and regionally! And of course by knowledge sharing!

We hope you have enjoyed the journey through the four phases of Information Technology!

Stay tune for more info!

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Electromechanical era: The birth of mass-media

Photo collage with references of the era. Communication designs that still is visible around us today.

Electromechanical: between 1840 and 1940.

SweIT would like to put the Electromechanical era, some what in reference to steam power and sometimes we more simply reference the period “The birth of mass-media”.

If we want to understand how steam initiated a new era for IT, we should be transparent about the inventions during this era. It started 1810 rather then 1840’s, if we would be allowed to acknowledge the transition from the Printing press (Gutenberg) into the updated automatic steam engined printing press, that Friedrich / William Koenig invented in 1814.

The new printing press rolled out 1,100 pages an hour (extremely more efficient than previous alternatives) and the technology was adopted by The Times Magazine, which in turn put The Times in a leading position and way ahead of its competitors in printing and labour costs.

The increase efficiency of Information Technology opened up for new ways to use IT. Now the citizens became increasingly the focus and the masses would become more and more exposed to what is today called media (journalism, services, propaganda, lobbying and entertainment).

To give a reference the electromechanical aspects, this was also the era where the teleprinter (electrical telegraph) evolved through a bunch of inventions by a number of engineers, including Samuel Morse, Alexander Bain, Royal Earl House, David Edward Hughes, Emile Baudot, Donald Murray, Edward Kleinschmidt, Charles L. Krum and Frederick G. Creed. This invention provided additional ways for communication to travel! The electric telegraph is the forerunner to our modern day mobile technology.

Both the teleprinter and the steam printing press took the western world by storm and ignited the first industrial revolution!

Stay tuned for next week update about the fourth phase of Information Technology!

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The Mechanical era: The beginning of sharing information, data and big ideas

PHOTO COLLAGE WITH REFERENCES OF THE TECHNOLOGY

Mechanical: between 480s and 1840
(In litterature this period really starts around 1450 A.D. but for this article the start was rather from 480’s reflecting the Chinese woodblock press technology (IT). However it could of started earlier still)

The mechanical age shows the first connections between our current technology and its ancestors. The mechanical age can’t really be defined to start directly after the the “premechanical” era, since studies shows written Sumerian language was developed already around 3100 BC and commonly used for it’s tablets and coins. So there should be an overlapping era, due to transitions made in technology and approaches around the world.

But SweIT would like to dedicate “the start of the Mechanical era” to around 480s to 1400s due to the wide use of Chinese woodblock printing, that became a popular form of creating content around the world, until the transition to the new European printing press technology provided by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450 (inspired by the woodblock printing).

But between 1450 and 1840 many new technologies evolved and were developed. The interest to automate the process of symbols, words, and calculations, exploded!


From a climate and resource perspective: We should perhaps be thankful today, that some inventions were never built. The picture above portrays the scale of Charles Babbage idea of the programmable computer from 1837!

There were lots of different machines invented during this time, but not yet any machine that could do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day computers (calculators). And make notice, there was no outspoken worries at the time about if this era was sustainable or not . If you look at the size of some of these inventions, the time and resources invested for the end results compared to the power behind them, it seems today absolutely ludicrous why anybody would ever attempt to use them. But as always new technology did the same to people then, as it still does now days. ALL of this creativity that we pour out of us selfs, can have HUGE impact on society..

Stay tune for next weeks update! Then we will enter the third phase of Information Technology!


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Who would of known? IT might have originated from Neanderthals…

La Pasiega Cave Art (Neaderthal)
La Pasiega Cave Art (Neaderthal) Photo: P.Saura

Information Technology is not something new, it’s been around for ages. In fact it’s been here ever since Homo sapiens and if history is right, it might also suggest we should adapt to a more regenerative mindset to not follow the faith our fellow Neanderthals did due to climate changes.

Humans are thought to first been able to communicate through the use of sound expressions or simple drawings known as petroglyths which usually we call cave paintings or rock carvings today. The earliest rock carvings date back to at least 45,500 years ago and is located in Indonesia and is a picture of a wild pig. However there is also a study from 2018 that have found cave paintings dated back early as 64,000 years ago which are located in the Iberian Peninsula and it is said to be evidence that the first sort of petroglyths seems to have come from Neanderthals.

This might suggest that there might be more than 4 phases that we should divide the history of Information Technology in. However SWEIT would not want to confuse people with our own definitions of this era. So since we lack a good term for the “Neaderthals period” we will include it in the Premechanical period for now.


Premechanical: Between 64000 and 1450A.D.
(In literature this period is 30.000 b.c, but for this piece it also reflects 64.000 years bc. due to new findings made in the last decade)

More studies and findings concludes that the Neanderthals had the ability to speak and use language much in the same way modern day humans have been doing for ages, but more evidence of Information Technology such cave arts, might suggest the evolution between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals might be more semantics than we previously thought. It might even suggest that these fellow human beings, that probably were more a reflection of us selfs might have thought us a thing or two. Before the Neaderthals went instinct due to what might have been caused by climate change, they might actually have thought Homo Sapiens the use of Information Technology.

Stay tuned becuase next week, SWEIT will focus on the second era of Information Technology!

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