Depending on when you born, you may have had the privilege
of seeing progress at its best (and worst).
This post touches upon only a few of the changes that many of witnessed
over such a short period of time.
Way back when, 1960 to be exact, you could get a half pint
of milk for four cents/pennies. A gallon
(a bit less than four litres) would cost about 60 cents. A gallon of milk now costs about $3.50. You used to be able to get a candy for a
penny. The same sized candy now costs
you anywhere from five to ten cents. More
shockingly, the penny itself has gone extinct (in Canada at least)!
For the music buffs, many have never seen, much less played/listened
to, vinyl records. There were also 8-track
tapes and cassettes that now have been replaced by CDs and other forms of digital
recordings. These older forms of
recordings have, for the most part, disappeared.
For the video buffs, there was such a thing called “film.” Later, there came Super 8 film. Eventually it entered our homes in the form
of Beta and VHS video cassettes. All of these
forms of video now have been replaced by the DVD.
Only a few decades ago, all calculations were done by hand
using the computing power of the human brain.
Computers then came along with the purpose of facilitating such menial
tasks, allowing people to focus on more “meaningful” endeavours. At first, computers were the size of large
rooms. Now these “machines” can fit in
the palm of your hand (or even smaller).
Some believe that computers/machines will eventually replace humans…or
is it just that human beings will become so lazy that they will let the
machines take over everything?!
- B. J. T. Pepin