11 Facts About Technology: Explore The Less Known

Technology City Glowing (Credit: Pixabay)

Almost every element of human existence has been altered by technology, including communication, education, employment, and leisure in the sense that we have seen amazing inventions over the past few decades that have fundamentally altered our world, but there are intriguing tales (some of which are not well known) behind these developments whereby this blog post article explores 11 uncommon and little-known technological facts, providing a window into the past and the early innovations that paved the way for the tech-driven world of today.

The Swift Developments in Technology

The speed at which technology is developing is extraordinary and as we continue to push the limits of what is achievable, things that were revolutionary ten years ago may seem outdated today not forgetting that innovation seems to develop quickly, and the digital world is always changing, from social media and cloud storage to artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

However, there are lesser-known tales that shed light on the unique, surprising, and perhaps unintentional beginnings of the gadgets/devices and technology that influence our daily lives beneath the surface of today's technological wonders with these statistics serving as a reminder that technological advancements are frequently as a result of intriguing discoveries and obstacles rather than a linear path. Let us now examine some of these lesser-known tech historical events and their impact on the modern world below here as follows:

1. First Computer Bug: Nowadays, a "bug" in our computers usually refers to a system problem or glitch. However, engineers at Harvard University first used the term "bug" in computing in 1947 after they came across a real insect whereby they found a moth that had flown into one of the relays, causing it to malfunction, when they were repairing the Harvard Mark II computer and after carefully removing the moth, the engineers recorded it in their logbook as the "first actual case of bug being found."

   The word "bug" was used to refer to computer system faults as a result of this incident and that was the first time the term "bugs" was used to refer to computers, even though it was already used in engineering to describe mechanical problems not forgetting that since then, the phrase has become increasingly common in the computer industry to refer to anything from small bugs to major system malfunctions.

2. Email Existed Before The Internet: Even though email is one of the most widely used communication tools today, you might be surprised to learn about its beginnings where a computer developer named Ray Tomlinson created email in the year 1971, before the internet as we know it today in the sense that email was developed as a component of the ARPANET, which was a model of the current internet.

   The creation of the "@" symbol to distinguish the user's name from the host computer was Tomlinson's most noteworthy accomplishment and the foundation of modern email systems was established by that technology, which made it possible for messages to be sent between computers, thus, email existed before the World Wide Web, which Tim Berners-Lee launched in the year 1989 but one of the oldest and most reliable online communication tools being still email.

3. More Transistors Than People: Over the past few decades, present-day microchips have grown significantly in size and power whereby billions of transistors, which are tiny electrical switches that regulate the flow of electricity, are found in today's microchips like for example, the most recent Intel processors have almost 10 billion transistors on a fingernail-sized chip.

   In reality a modern chip has more transistors than people on the planet and Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years, is the cause of this amazing density where with every new generation, this recurring trend has made computers and cellphones quicker, more powerful, and more energy-efficient.

4. The First Computer Virus "Creeper" & Anti-Virus "Reaper": The first computer virus, Creeper, was developed as a harmless experiment by computer scientist Bob Thomas in the year 1971 where by replicating itself from one computer to another and showing the message, "I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!" it was created to propagate throughout the ARPANET and although it did not damage anyone's computer or steal any data, it ushered in the start of the era of computer viruses and self-replicating software.

   Reaper, the first anti-virus program by Ray Tomlinson's was developed in response whereby finding and eliminating Creeper as it propagated throughout the ARPANET was Reaper's responsibility and like Creeper, Reaper was not malevolent since it essentially eliminated Creeper virus from compromised computers. Later, Core War, a programming game that mimicked similar conflicts between rival programs, was inspired by the relationship between Creeper and Reaper.

5. Bluetooth Was Named After a Viking King: Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, a Viking monarch, is the the inspiration of Bluetooth, the wireless technology that enables communication between gadgets like phones, speakers, and headphones whereby similar to how Bluetooth connects different gadgets/devices, King Harald was in charge of bringing Denmark and Norway together in the 10th century.

   Jim Kardach, an Intel engineer who contributed to the creation of Bluetooth, is the source of the connection to King Harald where since Bluetooth was created to connect different technologies in a similar way, he picked the name as a tribute to the king's efforts to bring people together and it is interesting to see that the runic initials of King Harald's name are combined in the Bluetooth logo.

6. World’s First Website: Many people consider British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to be the creator of the World Wide Web since he developed CERN's (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) first website in 1991 whereby providing information about the World Wide Web project itself was the main goal of this simple website and the fact that the original website is still up and running now is really intriguing, reminding us of how far the internet has come over the past three decades. Kept as a historical reminder, the first website ever is accessible at info.cern.ch, the domain on which Berners-Lee published his masterpiece.

7. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in The 1950s: Although artificial intelligence (AI) has been around since the 1950s, many people believe it is a relatively recent discovery but computer scientist John McCarthy first used the term "artificial intelligence" in 1956 at the event held at Dartmouth College whereby the goal of early AI projects was to build machines that could mimic human intellect.

   Although AI's early stages were less complex than those of today's complex algorithms, the discipline has undergone significant development since then with AI now being utilised in everything from virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to self-driving automobiles and medical diagnostics not forgetting the concept that machines can think like people has existed for a lot longer than most people know.

8. Origin of The "404 Error": If you have ever been online and seen a "404 error" message, you are probably familiar with the notification that a page cannot be found and in fact, the number "404" has a historical origin that may be traced back to the early days of the internet where Tim Berners-Lee and the other founders of the World Wide Web worked in a building at CERN with the number 404.

   Among the most well-known HTTP status codes, "404" was allocated to indicate that a webpage could not be found and although the "404 error" is now widely understood to indicate a broken link or missing information, its roots can be found in the actual location of the web's founders.

9. Tech Giants Built in Garages: Several of the largest technological companies in existence today, including Apple, Google, and Amazon, were initially established in simple locations like in the garage of Jobs' parents, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak established Apple in 1976 with the rest being history. They started developing the Apple I, one of the earliest personal computers with also a similar vein, Google was founded in a Menlo Park, California, garage on September 4th 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, hence this topic of humble origins serves as a reminder that, with a great deal of ambition and effort, big ideas may frequently come from small places.

10. Origin of CAPTCHA: The "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," or CAPTCHA, is a tool used to distinguish between automated online bots and human users with its inception linked to a significant objective: the digitisation of books whereby researchers discovered that CAPTCHA could assist in identifying distorted language in scanned books at the beginning of the new millennium because computers frequently had difficulty interpreting the distorted writing, while people could quickly identify the characters, hence researchers were able to turn millions of book pages into digital text by employing CAPTCHA.

11. Internet's First Domain Name: In 1985, Symbolics, Inc., a business that specialised in computer workstations, made "symbolics.com," the first-ever registered domain name whereby the Domain Name System (DNS), which is now an essential component of the internet's infrastructure, was founded with that domain name and with more than 1.8 billion websites on the internet today, the domain name system is essential to web address management making the milestone of "symbolics.com"'s registration, indicate the extent to which the internet has advanced from its earliest days.

Summary

The history of technology has been packed with surprising changes, minor triumphs, and ground-breaking discoveries with the above 11 lesser-known facts giving insight on the remarkable beginnings of contemporary technology, from the unintentional discovery of the first computer bug to the development of email even before the internet. These historical accounts serve as a reminder that every device/gadget, software, and internet platform has a unique narrative that is sometimes ignored.

It is critical to acknowledge the amazing journey that has taken us to this point and to acknowledge how far we have gone as we continue to develop and explore new frontiers in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and beyond. Technology is a field that is always changing, and there are even more interesting things to come. That way, we can better appreciate the technologies influencing our lives today and the ones that will influence the world of tomorrow if we are aware of their origins so keep exploring, learning, and being inspired by the amazing past and future of technology, regardless of whether you are a tech enthusiast or just curious.