Technologies That Might Not Have Been Developed

The US Air Force put up a prize for the solution to what they called the "connection problem". As missile guidance systems grew more complex, the failure rate went up geometrically. Most failures were at solder joints. A guy at TI filed the original patent - and the story of that is wild and wooly - that covers all those little black rectangles that drive modern electronic technology.

"The internet" was originally a system to connect various military installations with civilian suppliers. It grew into something nobody would have expected...

Just about everything in electronics, computers, and the subsidiary technologies that depend on them were driven by the Cold War. Overall, the Cold War wasn't such a bad thing...


The personal IT revolution could have happened earlier.IBM personal computers were available some 10 years before PCs really took off.

The first steam car dates back to the 17th century. But road transport didn't really take off until around 1900.

The fax machine dated back to 1900 but didn't come into general use until the 1980s.

The rocket equations were known from the mid 19th century and getting a rocket into space was probably within the scope of early as opposed to mid 20th century technology.
 
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