Tipping points of widespread adoption
tags:: #memex3 #atomic projects::
[!quote|#5fb236] Highlight First, suppose we brought back Henry Ford for a look at today's automobiles. He would be little surprised by changes in design: cars still have four wheels, steer ing, front-mounted engines, transmissions, and the like. But he would be greatly surprised by the changes in human practices that have grown up around the auto mobile?for example, annual sales of millions of cars, the interstate highway system and the intracity systems in places like Los Angeles, nationwide trucking, cars as status symbols, multicar families, state licensing of driv ers, rush hours, traffic congestion reports on the radio, and much mor
While cars still may be the same fundamentally driving with its wheels, using an engine, etc the popularity of cars have completely changed the culture of America, cars are now seen as a vital tool for Americans and one that can be used to flex wealth.
Page 3 [[2023-03-19#1:21 pm]] [!quote|#5fb236] Highlight Second, suppose we brought back Alexander Graham Bell to see our telephones. He would be little surprised by the design of instruments and switching systems-handsets, carbon microphones, dialing mechanisms, crossbar switchers, operator services, and the like. But he would be greatly surprised by the changes in human practices that have grown up around the telephone-phones in every home, office, and hotel room, car phones, phone booths, international direct dialing, news services, multinational corporations, electronic fund transfers, telemarketing, ordering by phone, fax, telephone pornography, and much more
Again, the telephones may have changed but Bell would be surprised about how the culture around them have changed.
Page 3 [[2023-03-19#1:22 pm]] [!quote|#5fb236] Highlight Third, suppose we brought back Thomas Edison. He would be little surprised by what we would present to him in the design of light bulbs and electric generators. But he would be greatly surprised by the changes in human practices that have grown up around electricity-international distribution of power, total dependence on electric power in the developed countries, radio and television industries, electronics, computers, and much more.
I have noticed with the last three points that there seems to be a tipping point for when a technology becomes cheap enough and reliable enough that makes it emerge into a widespread thing that completely changes the culture. For example, the telephone; once the technology got good enough it was able to be mass produced in a way that was accessible to the common person. Completely different to the early uses of it.
Page 3 [[2023-03-19#1:24 pm]]
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