Ancient time, modern times. Prehistory, contemporary history. We have many different names for different times. These classifications are usually overlapping, subject of debate and sometimes not all that scientific. They however make our perspective towards our past more meaningful. Efforts made today will lead to brighter future in contrast to what world used be.
Innovations are usually considered to be the fuel for advancing into a new age and at first glance it really seems to be that way. Watt's steam engine triggered industrial revolution, advances in metallurgy led to iron age and so on. Any more detailed analysis will fall flat any fantasy of sudden intuitive leap in development of the history of mankind.
Watt's steam engine was an improvement to Tomas Newcomens engine which wasn't the first steam engine around either. Iron age has been scaled between 1200 BC - 700 AD varying in different locations(1). But then again, iron was acquired from meteorites already couple of thousand years before 1200 BC and smelting technologies slowly evolved without any certain dramatic event. Some even suggest that the shortage of tin used in bronze alloy forced bronze smiths to seek alternative natural resources thus leading mankind to another era because simply it needed to happen.
What about now? Where do we stand now? Information age? Well I'm writing my thoughts to be published in the world wide web. That has certainly changed since industrial age. If I lived in the 19th century I could only hand out these silly thoughts in leaflets on the streets in Finland. There is however not a single innovation that would make the difference between industrial and information age. And there won't be a single magical event that will make the difference between this information time and the next one. More important will probably be the social aspect. The new age will already be there when it's wanted and needed, whatever it will be called. Maybe a quantum age? Yeah, I vote for quantum age.
There innovations for new age are already here. LASER for example is device based on a quantum phenomena. It has revolutionized communications but it has not revolutionized the way we common people look at the world or ourselves. Scientist have also performed magical things like teleportation in laboratories. These are particularly those kind of examples that cannot be explained using previous classical ideas, suggesting that there is a need for a turn of a page. Perhaps when man discovers practical ways to exploit entanglement and superposition in computing, historians will mark a point for new era.
I cannot predict the future but eventually we are forced to accept that our description of the physical world has not been complete. And that is the point we start to look at the past as if it was a "different" era than we presently live. I cannot but wish to live long enough to experience that exiting turn up, which will occur indistinguishably. There is already proven theoretical basis for the turn up in quantum mechanics, but perhaps it still lacks a proper practical interpretation for it.
Innovations are usually considered to be the fuel for advancing into a new age and at first glance it really seems to be that way. Watt's steam engine triggered industrial revolution, advances in metallurgy led to iron age and so on. Any more detailed analysis will fall flat any fantasy of sudden intuitive leap in development of the history of mankind.
Watt's steam engine was an improvement to Tomas Newcomens engine which wasn't the first steam engine around either. Iron age has been scaled between 1200 BC - 700 AD varying in different locations(1). But then again, iron was acquired from meteorites already couple of thousand years before 1200 BC and smelting technologies slowly evolved without any certain dramatic event. Some even suggest that the shortage of tin used in bronze alloy forced bronze smiths to seek alternative natural resources thus leading mankind to another era because simply it needed to happen.
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| Past is history. But when does time stop being the present? Picture taken in 2009 at a dock. |
Let's skip to time being
What about now? Where do we stand now? Information age? Well I'm writing my thoughts to be published in the world wide web. That has certainly changed since industrial age. If I lived in the 19th century I could only hand out these silly thoughts in leaflets on the streets in Finland. There is however not a single innovation that would make the difference between industrial and information age. And there won't be a single magical event that will make the difference between this information time and the next one. More important will probably be the social aspect. The new age will already be there when it's wanted and needed, whatever it will be called. Maybe a quantum age? Yeah, I vote for quantum age.
There innovations for new age are already here. LASER for example is device based on a quantum phenomena. It has revolutionized communications but it has not revolutionized the way we common people look at the world or ourselves. Scientist have also performed magical things like teleportation in laboratories. These are particularly those kind of examples that cannot be explained using previous classical ideas, suggesting that there is a need for a turn of a page. Perhaps when man discovers practical ways to exploit entanglement and superposition in computing, historians will mark a point for new era.
I cannot predict the future but eventually we are forced to accept that our description of the physical world has not been complete. And that is the point we start to look at the past as if it was a "different" era than we presently live. I cannot but wish to live long enough to experience that exiting turn up, which will occur indistinguishably. There is already proven theoretical basis for the turn up in quantum mechanics, but perhaps it still lacks a proper practical interpretation for it.
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