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
A brief summary of the changes from the 1920’s is provided in this source. The article discusses the birth of mass culture and how an economy of automobiles is born. The site also discusses social and political changes along with the economic growth seen during this era.
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)
...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 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....
As the late 19th century progressed, technological ideas and inventions began to thrive. The notion that technology would impact life as we know it was an unbelievable idea to comprehend. People had no idea that something so simple such as the light bulb would become so vital to them and for century’s to come. Inventions such as, the typewriter, barbed wire, telephone, Kodak camera, and electric stove were created, however the major inventions created and use tremendously today are, Medicine, Electricity, and Transportation.
...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.
During the Roaring 20’s, Henry Ford’s assembly line cut the cost of automobiles by 60% enabling the average American in the working class to buy one. He also provided many workers with unusually high wages of six dollars a day. This set the example for the majority of American manufacturers and many more products became available to Americans. As the financial and cultural gap between the upper class wealth and the lower class laborers shrank, the first urban middle class emerged. Automobiles for the most part were not a hazard to the environment, but instead improved urban environment and living conditions. Farmers gained the ability to transport their produce cheaply to new markets without need for trains.
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.
This century has been one of many changes and incredible inventions. If a person was to think about it, this century has taken us from horseback to fuel-injected horsepower, from gaslights to sodium-vapor streetlights, from crystal radios to digital television, from compasses to GPS navigation systems, from wood burning stoves to microwave ovens, from Victrolas to DVD players and of course from hot air balloons to jet propulsion aircraft.
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.