We Move On
My father felt like he lived in the greatest time. When he was a little tyke living in southwest Texas, his family had a horse
and buggy. Of course, most of the time, since they lived in town, he just walked wherever he wanted to go. But on special occasions, there was a comfortable, smooth, lazy buggy ride. Just sit and let the horse do the work.
Later, his Dad bought a car. This was an incredible invention. The seats were much softer than the buggy’s bench. It zipped along at a nice pace. And you didn’t have to clean up after it when it stood in the yard for a day. You didn’t have to fork hay into its stall. And it had a great horn that sounded like au-ooga. And the next car the family had came with windows that kept most of the dust out. And should it rain, which it did every year, you didn’t get wet riding in the car.
And from there, things just kept advancing and he lived to see a man walk on the moon. Surely such progress would never again be matched in a person’s lifetime. From riding on horses to walking on the moon was an incredible leap for mankind.
Would such advancement in one person’s life ever be equaled?
When I was much, much younger, I visited the State Fair of Texas and saw an amazing sight. A machine they called a computer, the size of a small house, could do many calculations in just a minute’s time. It could read the holes punched into cards or a tape faster than a magician’s hands. It could print out answers as quick as a fairway barker could talk. And it could store hundred’s of pieces of information and find them at a later time. Amazing.
From there, we moved to machines that were 
smaller and faster. Storage increased. When I bought my first computer, it had a memory of 32,000 bytes and each byte could store one letter or symbol. It had a disk that could store over a million bytes of information for rapid recovery. And, it would fit into a ten by ten foot room. Our next machine had 256,000 bytes of memory and could do thousands of operations in one second. Its disk could store 80 million bytes of information, cost $20,000, was the size of a large washing machine, and weighted 1,000 pounds.
Of course, today, your smart phone probably has 4,000 times as much memory. Most hard disks on a laptop have a hundred times as much capacity as my second computer and rather than a thousand pounds, weigh mere ounces. Rather than the $20,000, today’s 8 billion byte disk might cost $200. For a better comparison, in 1980 I paid an average of $250 for one megabyte of disk storage. Today, I would pay about 2.5 cents for a megabyte of disk storage.
The progress in technology in my lifetime is even more dramatic than the progress in transportation my father saw in his lifetime. What will be the next great advancement? We are probably seeing the beginnings of it now. How many of us recognize it?
If you have an idea about what it might be, or on the great advancements of the past, please give us your thoughts on it. I’d love to hear from you.
James R. Callan
My latest suspense novel, A Ton of Gold, looks at how an old Texas folktale can affect people today. Crystal Moore gets caught in the middle of murder, kidnapping and arson, all because of a 178 year old folk tale. Leave a comment and ask for a sample of this contemporary novel and I’ll e-mail you two chapters.
I think of how our lives are affected by having a cell phone. I remember getting separated from friends in Albuquerque, NM one time. We were in 2 separate cars. We used instinct & both ended up at the same restaurant within 1/2 hour of each other. Today, we’d hit the cell phone button as soon as they were out of sight. I wonder if we’ve lost something in instinct & thought processes? I’m sure we will all dictate our stories & not type very soon. My daughters purchased me a Dragon for Christmas to push me that way, but I’m resisting.
I think we always lose something with the advances. Cars took away the charm of the horse and buggy. Computer games have caused our children to be more sedentary. TV requires less imagination than reading or listening to a story on the radio.
Of course we gain a lot. And the hope is that the advances far out-distance the losses.
Thanks for the good comment, Janet.
Change is part of life, though sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with them. I also grew up with radio (glad to read you were also a fan of “I Love a Mystery”). Now my grandsons do things with computers I couldn’t even imagine at their age.
I used to work in computers – even sat on a national standards board once. But, things have moved so fast that I hardly understand the language now. It doesn’t help that I am moving slower and slower. Thanks for stopping by.
Great post, Jim! I’m constantly amazed (and often confounded) by the rapid changes in technology these days.
Your post reminded me of the black and white TV we had when I was a little girl. I remember when we got our first color TV and I watched Bonanza and other shows in color. I was thrilled and amazed! Now we have hundreds of stations to choose from and HD quality. Never would’ve believed it was possible.
It’s good to be reminded occasionally of just how far we have come in our lifetime. I remember when we had only radio and would listen to “I Love a Mystery” and “One Man’s Family” never missing an episode, Radio was good for our imagination. TV dulls it. But, that’s progress. Thanks for the comment, Patricia.
Jim – the game I like to play is – What are you using today that won’t be here tomorrow?
Things like – Kodak film. Typewriters. Fountain pens. Things we touched each day that aren’t here any longer.
What’s next? Shoelaces? Neckties?
I like the game. But what is this about neckties? I certainly wear one – each time I have to attend a funeral. Thanks for visiting, DAC.
We had a rotary phone on the farm when I was growing up, and we were on a party line with several others. I still remember our number and how simple it was- 57L. Now people are giving up land lines in favor of cell phones only.
And I’m not sure that’s progress. I guess it beats the party lines. Is there anybody out there who remembers the old phones that were attached to the wall with the mouthpiece you spoke into fixed on the box, and a crank on the side was used to send a ring? Each person on the party line had a special ring. Maybe two shorts. Or a long and a short. That’s a long way back. I don’t mind not having that any more.
Very interesting, Jim. I’m delighted to read this and look forward to being invited to be your guest blogger sometime in the future.
Thanks for the comment, Eileen. I’ve got your name in for a future guest blog.
From playing with hand made wooden toys on the farm to my daughter’s Fisher Price toys to my granddaughter’s iPad – where we will go next is impossible to imagine.
Yes, it is hard to imagine all the technology advances that will still occur in our lifetime. I was actually involved in some of the early research in computers. But that was so many years ago that I hardly recognize the language today. What a great time to live.
Being married to a man 21 years older than I am makes me keenly aware of how rapid changes happen. In Bill’s lifetime he has gone from walking behind a horse plowing to flying airplanes with 600 horsepower engines! Our “cross-generation” marriage of soon-to-be 30 years has been an amazing blend of past experience and new experiences! Loving every minute. Thanks so much for your essay! And by all means, send me those two chapters. I just spent several days teaching writing workshops and your blog is one I listed as recommended reading. Hope you get some new sign ups.
Thanks, Nancy. You are such a special person I am humbled by your comment. And I will send off the two chapters to you today. You and Bill are a great fit – despite the 21 years. I appreciate your mentioning my blog. I have about 1,500 registered at present. Don’t know how many read it, or how many stop by but do not register. But it is fun to do. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.
I am continually amazed at how fast technology is moving–it seems like some of the ideas in sci-fi novels aren’t that far away.
You are absolutely right. Science fiction today – consumer product tomorrow. Thanks for the comment, Lira. (And congratulations on your new position.)