The History of Digital

Introduction

It hard to believe how far humans have come in the context of technology. What started out as stones, sticks, and fire, laid the foundation for unimaginable technological growth that has resulted in what we are capable of using today: computers that can store nearly endless amounts of information, phones that allows us to communicate with people across seas in a matter of seconds, and artifical intelligence that far surpasses the computing power of the human mind. All of these things wouldn’t have been possible without the developement of digitalization. In order to truly understand the origins of all the technology we have, we must first look at the history of ‘going digital’. For more examples and definitions of analog and digital technologies, visit the “Digital vs. Analog) post.

The 1800s

At this point, the technologies that have been invented were limited and are seen now as impractical and inefficient. However, they laid the foundation for what we have today. Although it may come as a surprise to some people, a variety of these early technologies utilize digital concepts. 

• The loom – a machine that used the “over and under” concept of weaving. The options “over” and “under” can be related to 0s and 1s of binary code
• Telegraph – although used analog signals, the messages that were sent used discrete characters to convey messages, which is an example of a digital technology
• Telephone – continuous, analog voice transmission

1900-1970

The early 1900s analog inventions consisted primarily of honing the transmission, collections, and interpretations of radio signals/waves. From the 1950s-1970s, digital technologies started becoming more practical, but were not outright replacing analog counterparts yet.

• Radio – utilized analog radio signals and transmission
• Television (analog) – Uses analog/continuous electrical signals to display video and audio. These signals are susceptible to noise and interference, which gave rise to static. 
• Computers – Digital computers become commercialized
  
• Other digital inventions – Watches, calculators, microcomputers/microprocessors become widely available to customers

1980-1990

The latter part of the 1900s experienced not only the highest point of analog technology, but also it’s decline that was followed by the increase in digital technologies. 

• Cellular Networks – allowed for the quick transmission of packaged digital signals over long distances without noise or interference
• Television (digital) – Instead of using analog electrical signals, these TVs used packaged, encoded signals that were better for long distance transmission and noise avoidance. 

2000-present 

• Digital Phones – Upgraded technology permitted the use and transmission of digital information that can be used for more than calling, such as texting, surfing the internet, playing games, etc…
• AI – Artificial intelligence has been around for many years, but has only recently gotten to a point where it was really be used to advance human knowledge and capabilities. AI functions via neural networks that consist of nodes, which can be related to neurons in the brain. Each node transmits and computes digital information, and with more nodes and layers of nodes has produced the advance AI that we have recently been seeing today.