Cycle

I understand better now how people see drastic change over their lifetime; major developments like the introduction of the lightbulb, changing from horsepower to automobiles and so on.

When I began my engineering career desktop computers had a floppy disk and a monochrome monitor and we had maybe a whopping 500k of RAM. My kids smirk at that today as did the young employees who were entering my firm as I was leaving it. Technology brings with it practical improvements but also societal evolution. For context my father only ever worked in the same field on paper.

I think it's fair to say that the invention of the personal computer rivals that of the printing press in terms of the impact made on their respective eras. Both revolutionized the dissemination of information and changed forever the nature of education and the way we work.

My children (my son in particular as a computer engineer) will begin their sixties one day and marvel at the progression which has happened in their lifetime and the cycle will continue.