CNN's top 25 innovations

Winfield Hill · Jan 8, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

John Larkin · Jan 8, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

Probably CNN.

John

Don Pearce · Jan 8, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

Presumably each if these was, in turn, the best thing since sliced
bread. Which still leaves sliced bread at number one.

d

Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

mc · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield Hill said:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
OK.

3. Personal computers

Apple and Commodore and Tandy had popular ones in 1977, which was more than
25 years ago the way I count...

4. Fiber optics

I thought there was a fair bit of that in the 1970s.

5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM

Automatic tellers or asynchronous transfers?

15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail

*click* It's 1964 and you are speaking into an answering machine. This is a
recording... *click*

24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

CNN itself?

Winfield Hill · Jan 8, 2005

John Larkin wrote...

Probably CNN.

I don't see the Internet, or the web, WWW server + internet + browser.

Michael Black · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield said:
John Larkin wrote...

I don't see the Internet, or the web, WWW server + internet + browser.

That's a good point.

But that points out that some of those things are older than a quarter
century old. Email was around before that. Surely fiber optics is older,
though that may be a debatable thing depending on when it got widespread
use. "Short Range, High Frequency Radio" isn't new, though license
free is a relatively new thing for it.

Michael

John Larkin · Jan 8, 2005

John Larkin wrote...

I don't see the Internet, or the web, WWW server + internet + browser.

These sorts of things are usually popularity contests. I mean, Mems,
OLEDs, Space Shuttle, RFID, Nanotech, voice mail, for Pete's sake.
None of them are especially important. And "memory storage disks" are
a lot older than 25 years. Sounds like they assigned a couple of
journalism interns to cobble this up.

Not a single medical item, except for the doubtful "modern hearing
aids" thing.

Grumble. Snarl. Need a latte.

John

Frank Bemelman · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield Hill said:
I don't see the Internet, or the web, WWW server + internet + browser.

Is your PC playing up again, Win ?

Ian Stirling · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield Hill said:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

20. Space shuttle

Highly debatable.
The space shuttle first flew April 1981.
So, that's within 25 years, but there was very little innovation going
on in that last year or so, just construction.

Unless we're talking about new ways to do reentry science.

Winfield Hill · Jan 8, 2005

John Larkin wrote...

Not a single medical item, except for the doubtful "modern
hearing aids" thing.

Quote: In creating the list, the group hoped to single out "25
non-medically related technological innovations that have become
widely used since 1980, are readily recognizable by most Americans,
have had a direct and perceptible impact on our everyday lives,
and/or could dramatically affect our lives in the future."

Dirk Bruere at Neopax · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield said:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

WWW

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org

Jim Thompson · Jan 8, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

PDA

...Jim Thompson

John Larkin · Jan 8, 2005

WWW

That's a good one. The Web, made possible by PCs and fiber optics, is
a historical phenomenon, the worldwide democratization of information.

John

Mark Jones · Jan 8, 2005

John Larkin wrote:

-- Colors that we see in fractals are really mathematical values
represented as color. Math is really only a method we humans invented
to understand and reproduce the world around us. I think it is
important to realize that the universe knows no such math or laws. The
universe just IS and we're trying to understand it.> On Sat, 08 Jan
2005 20:05:43 +0000, Dirk Bruere at Neopax

That's a good one. The Web, made possible by PCs and fiber optics, is
a historical phenomenon, the worldwide democratization of information.

John

Could take that one step further to:

eBay

Nico Coesel · Jan 8, 2005

Winfield Hill said:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

Internet (which, IIRC, was invented longer ago than 25 years).

John S. Dyson · Jan 8, 2005

PDA

I guess semiconductor/transistor technology.

John

JeffM · Jan 8, 2005

I guess semiconductor/transistor technology.

John S. Dyson

Are you really that young?
http://www.google.com/search?&q=shockley+bardeen+1947

Winfield Hill · Jan 9, 2005

John S. Dyson wrote...

I guess semiconductor/transistor technology.

?? That time frame is the 50s. 25 years ago is 1980.

Anthony Fremont · Jan 9, 2005

Winfield Hill said:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/03/cnn25.top25.innovations

CNN's list of the top 25 innovations of the last 25 years.

2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers

LOL, personal computers have been around longer than 25 years.

4. Fiber optics

this too
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980407.htm

5. E-mail

so has this

6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers

this too depending upon your interpretation of "portable"

8. Memory storage discs

this too

9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags

offered in some GM regular production vehicles in 1975

14. ATM

close call on that one for being since 1980.

15. Advanced batteries

kinda subjective isn't it?

16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail

hmm..... they must mean digital

24. Modern hearing aids

too subjective, what is "modern"?

25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio

what do they mean by this? bluetooth?

The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16,
at 8 p.m. ET. What do you think it is?

I'm guessing that they'll say that it's the Internet when they probably
mean the web. But it probably should be the Mars rovers (or exploration
bots/autonomous vehicles) in general.

Seriously, couldn't they find 25 things that actually didn't occur until
after 1980? I would've thought that software patents would've been
included, especially since they've "revolutionized" the software
industry. ;-)

Does an innovation occur when someone actually implements an idea, or
only after it's mass acceptance? IMO, this is a poor list given the
fact that a "panel of technology leaders" came up with it. The ISS or
Hubble might have been worth mentioning.

Anthony Fremont · Jan 9, 2005

Don Pearce said:
Presumably each if these was, in turn, the best thing since sliced
bread. Which still leaves sliced bread at number one.

If I had to pick between sliced bread and ice cream, I'd choose to hand
slice the bread. ;-) Not to mention that sliced bread is just a
marketing trick designed to make bread go bad sooner. Then they sell
the crumbs to add insult to injury.

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