How inventions changed our reality
The world before modern technology in 3 thought provoking stories
Once an invention comes into existence and radically changes people’s behaviors, it’s hard to imagine how things were before they existed.
But what if we turn back the clock and attempt to understand what the world looked like in such cases?
That’s exactly what we’ll do in the next 5 minutes.
Penthouses
We’re all used to getting hit in the face by those pushy-as-hell real estate ads. But do you know what’s the most sought-after inventory in this space? The penthouse.
Everybody dreams about living in one, but nobody can afford even a hundredth of the cost. Top-floor apartments in high-rises have become hot property in today’s world. But that’s a very recent phenomenon, and things were never like this until very, very recently.
You know who used to live on the higher floors just a century ago? Servants, struggling artists, and aunties who were assumed to have gone mad. The rich and famous had no business on the upper stories, because who the hell was going to climb all the way to the top?
Ah, now you see it. The luxuries and dreams of the top-floor apartments became a reality only after the elevator was invented and used in all buildings! Without it, the “dream views” and the “sky-life” was left to the poor servants, who’d have to go through the pains of hiking all the time.
Elevators have existed for hundreds of years- even Archimedes came up with a primitive rope-and-pulley design. But they used to be as safe as a condom with a giant hole, and you’d not want to gamble your dear life just because you felt like ascending a few floors.
It was the invention, rather, of the safety elevator, that totally turned the tables and changed the top floor from an undesirable area handed over to the servants and strugglers, to the most sought-after real estate in the world.
Working women
Life can be tough for working women. But it used to be much, much tougher until a few decades ago.
If you’re a working woman who’s passionate about her career, you should know that this way of life has become popular very recently. It was mostly not possible for the longest time.
Women had to marry early. Focussing on and building a career was out of the question- it’d take time and energy. Time and energy that would rather be invested in giving birth to children and rearing them.
Not just that- even dating someone actively before getting married was kinda impossible. What if you got pregnant? You couldn’t run that risk.
So picture the world of a talented, smart, and aspiring young woman. She wants to build a career. Maybe she wants to do a master’s or a Ph.D. in a topic she’s passionate about. While focussing on these pursuits, she definitely wants to date men without having to marry the first person she comes across in the garden. But nope. None of that’s possible.
Until they invented the pill.
That’s right, amigos. It was the pill that totally changed the trajectory of women, dating, and careers.
Thanks to this crazy invention, women could finally think of dating and having sex before marriage. They could finally invest 5 years in a specialized field (even though one wonders why anybody would want to do a Ph.D.). And they could definitely prioritize their careers because all the good men wouldn’t be taken if they entered the marriage market late…because all the ladies were now delaying the wedding date.
All thanks to this one tiny thing that took the world by storm.
Imagine a world without women leaders, scientists, non-stop Bumble swiping, and the freedom to be a mom after 30. That was the world before the pill.
“Cars”
Searching the internet for information is a big part of our lives. We’re constantly searching- for restaurants, brands, coupon codes, and tips to last longer.
We get those answers immediately. In fact, it’s a major frustration if we don’t, and we love declaring “Google is dead” even if minor issues come up on the way.
But searching was never so fast, easy, accurate, and convenient.
In the early days of the Internet, search was a tragedy. If you searched for “cars”, all you got were results of porn websites inviting you to come and spend a minute (or 15, depending on your inclinations) with them.
That’s because all those websites had cleverly subverted the search engine algorithms.
By placing the word “cars” in white text on white background all over their website, they had become heavily indexed. The search engine would therefore be tricked into recommending them as websites that would make sense for someone looking for information on cars.
All that those search results could offer were maybe, umm, some car scenes…but definitely nothing relevant about “cars”.
So that’s what search delivered to you just a couple of decades ago: a one-way trip to porn sites whose marketing teams deserve a gold medal for gaming the system.
That was the state of affairs until two Stanford nerds got inspired by the system of academic citations and ended the party for those porno marketers with their page rank algorithm.
For the first time in history, people searching for cars would actually get information about cars. Only.
And that changed the future of the search business.
Thanks for tuning in today! If you are obsessed with technology and invention, you can also read my note on the curious case of parallel inventions. But before you head there and get your mind blown to pieces, join the email list now.