I’m sure we all wonder at times what advancements the future holds. One way to free up your imagination to roam unrestricted is to compare the past with the present.
My brother sent me the first image below as a matter of interest and I used the details to dig up further information.
In 1956 IBM released a system called the 305 RAMAC computer which marked a new technological milestone, as it was the first computer system to include a magnetic disk drive.
But that isn’t the RAYMAC computer system on the forklifte.
That’s just the disk drive!
The entire system is shown in the image below. The hard disk storage unit is the enormous cabinet standing at the left-hand end of the operator’s console.
The hard drive storage unit itself was designated the IBM 350 Disk File, and the magnetic storage consisted of a stack of 50 x 24 inch disks that can be seen through the glass front in both pictures.
The Disk File storage unit had a capacity of a little less than 5 MB, and was leased by IBM customers for an annual fee of around US$35,000.
54 years later…
Sitting on the desk in front of me is a Sandisk Cruzer Blade USB flash drive that is considerably smaller than my little finger, but whose 8 GB capacity is more than 1,600 times greater than that massive IBM unit. Today’s USB flash drive weighs just 2.5 grams, compared to just over a ton for its predecessor.
Care to speculate on what 2064 will look like?
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I foresee our entire lives being stored on a device like our cell phones, or in tiny chips embedded into our skin, which will sync up with everything in our environments from our cars and houses to stores and public places. I foresee more and more computerization of our automobiles, to the point that driver input is no longer needed (and possibly no longer allowed).
While there are certainly advantages to technological advances, the direction a lot of our research is headed in these days is pretty scary to think about. Things sound like fiction until you stumble upon the company that’s actually marketing the stuff.
I just recently stumbled on a website where I could purchase a handheld 1W laser capable of blinding people and starting fires from a long distance with short exposure… for the meager sum of $300. The powerful items in the computer/tech world that criminals can get their hands on is already frightening.
I guess that’s a pessimistic viewpoint, but we get the bad with the good.