World Wide Web

Daily writing prompt

The most important invention in your lifetime is…

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That’s a tough question to answer. Here are 10 possible answers, but of these, I suppose that I’d choose the World Wide Web.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • It feels very significant currently. But in some ways, it’s just one aspect of advances in computing, so I’m not sure if it’s the most important invention.
• CRISPR Gene Editing
  • I don’t really understand this, but perhaps it will become more significant in future years because of its potential to treat genetic diseases and transform agriculture.
• Renewable Energy Technologies
  • I would have thought that they went back further than my lifetime, but perhaps some technological developments have made a significant impact. Regardless of one’s position on climate change, it’s always a joy to observe energy technologies that have minimal negative impact on the environment.
• The World Wide Web
  • At a personal level, this has been hugely significant in all kinds of ways. Much of my employment in the 21st Century has been web-focused, as has my spiritual life and leisure life. I’m often amazed that I never anticipated it until someone mentioned the Internet in the mid-1990s. To begin with, it had little significance. I remember using it to find lyrics to songs, and I remember my first awkward attempt at email. But in a few years, we had broadband, mp3s, YouTube, Facebook, Udemy, Audible, and so on. I get nostalgic about life before the Web, but I’d hate to be without it.
• The MRI Scanner
  • That can be important at an individual level. But I would also think that AI and the web can be hugely helpful in enabling people to check out their symptoms at an early stage and to educate themselves in staying physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy.
• GPS
  • I don’t really use GPS, but it’s obviously regarded as a Godsend by others.
• Semiconductors & Microprocessors
  • I remember getting my first transistor radio and my first calculator 😀. And I probably did study the technology behind semiconductors and microprocessors in college. We’re not always aware of the fact that some much in our modern world depends on them, from laptops and medical devices to AI. So, they are an important invention.
• The Mobile Phone & Smartphone
  • I have a phone, but I’m not a huge fan. Yet, it has made a difference. What I like best about phones is the aspects of them that have little to do with communication. I use them to play music and talks, read, and watch YouTube, but I get the jitters when the phone rings. When I was a child, we didn’t have any sort of phone in the house. If we needed to make a call, we’d visit my granny, who had a phone, or we’d go to a phone box.
• The Internet
  • Didn’t I already mention that? Well, they had the Internet before the web. Again, it’s the technology that underlies the web and so much else.
• The Personal Computer
  • I see that as a hugely significant development. I had a PC for about a year before I bought a modem to access the web. As I said, in the late 1990s, there wasn’t much that you could do with the web. I had dial-up until around 2005. I took little notice of YouTube when it begun in 2005, but it’s been a great friend ever since.

So, as stated above, I personally think of the web as being the most significant. What lies ahead? Who knows? I asked Microsoft Co-pilot. What I’d be most excited about would be Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCIs). Imagine being able to offload all your memories onto a computer and somehow recreate your entire life in a virtual world. I’m not sure if it’s realistic. Something that might be more realistic is the ability to recreate my hometown, Cork, as it was in 1962 in virtual reality (VR). So, I could put on a headset and walk or drive around the city as it was.