Technology – Stone Age through the Glass Age

April 20th, 2018

Photo by Juhasz Imre from Pexels

We’ve certainly come a long way in our “tool usage.”  Not so long ago, our ancestors trudged their way through the human timeline discovering and inventing new forms of tools and weapons.  Archaeologists have labeled three distinct periods in history identified by the way people made tools and weapons.   They are the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age and it is clear that different people groups developed at different rates and speeds through these ages. This concept remains true today, except now we are replacing the terms “tools and weapons” with the term “technology.”

The Meaning of Technology

The website, Use of Technology, has a comprehensive yet simple definition and application of technology.   “Technology is a body of knowledge devoted to creating tools, processing actions and the extracting of materials. The term ‘Technology” is wide, and everyone has their way of understanding its meaning. We use technology to accomplish various tasks in our daily lives, in brief; we can describe technology as products and processes used to simplify our daily lives. We use technology to extend our abilities, making people the most crucial part of any technological system.”

The History of Technology

Visual Capitalist’s share an amazing Infographic of the History of Technology.  We’re just going to highlight a few key events for effect:

50,000 years ago – The peopling of Australia around this time suggests that humans had at least a serviceable knowledge of constructing watercraft.

30,000 years ago – The first domestication of dogs is thought to have begun.  Essentially, it is the beginning of the human use of living tools which continues with the Agricultural Revolution and the domestication of plants and other animals – arguably humankind’s greatest invention.

26,000 years ago – Construction of early settlements

20,000 years ago – Indications of an early knowledge of mathematics are discovered.

12,000 years ago – First use of metal tools

10,000 years ago – Construction of megalithic architecture

2,100 BC – The abacus is invented – essentially, a primitive computer

200 BC – First analogue computer created

27 BC – Roman surveyors used odometers to measure out the famous roads that led back to Rome.

1 AD – Alexandrian engineer, Hero, invents an early steam-driven turbine.

9 AD – Flight achieved by means of a glider

1232 – Gunpowder rockets invented in China

1800s – Computing machines arrive on scene, as do gas-fired internal combustion engines

1900s – Controlled and sustained flight achieved; the Age of Supercomputing arrives; first long-range guided ballistic missile; Space Race; Nuclear Fission Power Plants usher in the Atomic Age

And Now, the Glass Age

Similarly, the Glass Age has been in the process of exponential advances as well.  According to Corning, the world’s leading innovators in materials science, glass has been one of the most transformative materials in history.  What was once considered a fragile material, glass is now stronger than steel.  Glass that was once brittle can now be rolled up like paper.  We can now experience limitless possibilities of design and functionality through precision glass used in products like interactive touch screens.

Benq and Avacor Interactive Flat Screens

Harness the qualities of glass for your company.  Present, annotate and collaborate on a giant tablet with meeting participants in the room and around the world. An ​interactive flat screen puts everything you need to visually present, capture and share ideas at your fingertips – all beautifully integrated into a single device.  It’s a perfect complement to your audio visual system and we have affordable but extremely durable interactive displays.

Ushering in the Glass Age,

The AV Bend Team