The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a
historical period
Human history, also called world history, is the narrative of humanity's past. It is understood and studied through anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Since the invention of writing, human history has been studied through ...
that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during the
Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on
information technology.
The onset of the Information Age has been linked to the development of the
transistor in 1947,
the
optical amplifier
An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback fr ...
in 1957, and
Unix time, which began on January 1, 1970 and serves as the basis for
Coordinated Universal Time and the
Network Time Protocol
The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol for clock synchronization between computer systems over packet-switched, variable- latency data networks. In operation since before 1985, NTP is one of the oldest Internet protocols in c ...
. These technological advances have had a significant impact on the way information is processed and transmitted.
According to the
United Nations Public Administration Network
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is part of the United Nations Secretariat and is responsible for the follow-up to major United Nations Summits and Conferences, as well as services to the United Nations Econ ...
, the Information Age was formed by capitalizing on
computer microminiaturization advances, which led to
modernized
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
information systems and internet communications as the driving force of
social evolution
{{unreferenced, date=February 2015
''Social Evolution'' is the title of an essay by Benjamin Kidd, which became available as a book published by Macmillan and co London in 1894. In it, Kidd discusses the basis for society as an evolving phenomenon ...
.
Overview of early developments
Library expansion and Moore's law
Library expansion was calculated in 1945 by
Fremont Rider
Arthur Fremont Rider (May 25, 1885 – October 26, 1962) was an American writer, poet, editor, inventor, genealogist, and librarian. He studied under Melvil Dewey, of whom he wrote a biography for the American Library Association, ALA. Throug ...
to double in capacity every 16 years where sufficient space made available.
He advocated replacing bulky, decaying printed works with
miniaturized microform analog photographs, which could be duplicated on-demand for library patrons and other institutions.
Rider did not foresee, however, the
digital technology that would follow decades later to replace
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
microform with
digital imaging,
storage
Storage may refer to:
Goods Containers
* Dry cask storage, for storing high-level radioactive waste
* Food storage
* Intermodal container, cargo shipping
* Storage tank
Facilities
* Garage (residential), a storage space normally used to store car ...
, and
transmission media, whereby vast increases in the rapidity of information growth would be made possible through
automated, potentially-
lossless digital technologies. Accordingly, ''
Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
'', formulated around 1965, would calculate that the
number of transistors in a dense
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
doubles approximately every two years.
By the early 1980s, along with improvements in
computing power, the proliferation of the smaller and less expensive
personal computers allowed for immediate
access to information and the ability to
share and
store it. Connectivity between computers within organizations enabled access to greater amounts of information.
Information storage and Kryder's law
The world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally
compressed)
exabytes (EB) in 1986 to 15.8 EB in 1993; over 54.5 EB in 2000; and to 295 (optimally compressed) EB in 2007. This is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-
megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
(MB)
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
per person in 1986 (539 MB per person); roughly four CD-ROM per person in 1993; twelve CD-ROM per person in the year 2000; and almost sixty-one CD-ROM per person in 2007.
It is estimated that the world's capacity to store information has reached 5
zettabyte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
s in 2014,
the informational equivalent of 4,500 stacks of printed books from the
earth to the
sun.
The amount of
digital data
Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digits. An example i ...
stored appears to be growing approximately
exponentially, reminiscent of
Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
. As such,
''Kryder's law'' prescribes that the amount of storage space available appears to be growing approximately exponentially.
[ Roser, Max, and Hannah Ritchie. 2013.]
Technological Progress
." '' Our World in Data.'' Retrieved on 9 June 2020.
Information transmission
The world's technological capacity to receive information through one-way
broadcast networks
A terrestrial network (or broadcast network in the United States) is a group of radio stations, television stations, or other electronic media outlets, that form an agreement to air, or broadcast, content from a centralized source. For example, ...
was 432
exabytes of (optimally
compressed) information in 1986; 715 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 1993; 1.2 (optimally compressed)
zettabytes
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...
in 2000; and 1.9 zettabytes in 2007, the information equivalent of 174
newspapers per person per day.
The world's effective capacity to
exchange information through
two-way
Two-way or Two Way may refer to:
* " 2-Way", single by rapper Lil' Romeo
* Two-way, Cincinnati chili
Cincinnati chili (or Cincinnati-style chili) is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti or hot dogs ("coneys"); b ...
telecommunication networks was 281
petabytes
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
of (optimally compressed) information in 1986; 471 petabytes in 1993; 2.2 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2000; and 65 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2007, the information equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day.
In the 1990s, the spread of the
Internet caused a sudden leap in access to and ability to share information in businesses and homes globally. Technology was developing so quickly that a computer costing $3000 in 1997 would cost $2000 two years later and $1000 the following year.
Computation
The world's technological capacity to compute information with humanly guided general-purpose computers grew from 3.0 × 10
8 MIPS in 1986, to 4.4 × 10
9 MIPS in 1993; to 2.9 × 10
11 MIPS in 2000; to 6.4 × 10
12 MIPS in 2007.
An article featured in the
journal ''
Trends in Ecology and Evolution'' in 2016 reported that:
Genetic information
Genetic code may also be considered part of the
information revolution. Now that sequencing has been computerized,
genome can be rendered and manipulated as data. This started with
DNA sequencing
DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...
, invented by Walter Gilbert and Allan Maxam in 1976-1977 and Frederick Sanger in 1977, grew steadily with the
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
, initially conceived by Gilbert and finally, the practical applications of sequencing, such as
gene testing, after the discovery by
Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics, Inc. is an American genetic testing and precision medicine company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Myriad employs a number of proprietary technologies that permit doctors and patients to understand the genetic bas ...
of the
BRCA1 breast cancer gene mutation. Sequence data in
Genbank has grown from the 606 genome sequences registered in December 1982 to the 231 million genomes in August 2021. An additional 13 trillion incomplete sequences are registered in the
Whole Genome Shotgun
In genetics, shotgun sequencing is a method used for sequencing random DNA strands. It is named by analogy with the rapidly expanding, quasi-random shot grouping of a shotgun.
The chain-termination method of DNA sequencing ("Sanger sequencing") ...
submission database as of August 2021. The information contained in these registered sequences has doubled every 18 months.
Different stage conceptualizations
During rare times in human history, there have been periods of innovation that have transformed human life. The
Neolithic Age, the Scientific Age and the
Industrial Age all, ultimately, induced discontinuous and irreversible changes in the economic, social and cultural elements of the daily life of most people. Traditionally, these epochs have taken place over hundreds, or in the case of the Neolithic Revolution, thousands of years, whereas the Information Age swept to all parts of the globe in just a few years. The reason for its rapid adoption is the rapidly advancing speed of information exchange.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic period, humans began to domesticate animals, began to farm grains and to replace stone tools with ones made of metal. These innovations allowed nomadic hunter-gatherers to settle down. Villages formed along the
Yangtze River in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in 6,500 B.C., the
Nile River
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
region of
Africa and in
Mesopotamia (
Iraq) in 6,000 B.C. Cities emerged between 6,000 B.C. and 3,500 B.C. The development of written communication (
cuneiform in
Sumeria and
hieroglyphs in
Egypt in 3,500 B.C. and writing in Egypt in 2,560 B.C. and in
Minoa and China around 1,450 B.C.) enabled ideas to be preserved for extended periods to spread extensively. In all, Neolithic developments, augmented by writing as an information tool, laid the groundwork for the advent of civilization.
The Scientific Age began in the period between
Galileo
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
's 1543 proof that the planets orbit the sun and
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
's publication of the laws of motion and gravity in ''
Principia'' in 1697. This age of discovery continued through the 18th Century, accelerated by widespread use of the
moveable type printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
by
Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...
.
The Industrial Age began in
Great Britain in 1760 and continued into the mid-19th Century. It altered many aspects of life around the world. The invention of machines such as the mechanical textile weaver by Edmund Cartwrite, the rotating shaft
steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
by
James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...
and the
cotton gin
A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...
by
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.
Although Whitney hi ...
, along with processes for mass manufacturing, came to serve the needs of a growing global population. The Industrial Age harnessed steam and waterpower to reduce the dependence on animal and human physical labor as the primary means of production. Thus, the core of the Industrial Revolution was the generation and distribution of energy from coal and water to produce steam and, later in the 20th Century, electricity.
The Information Age also requires
electricity to power the
global networks
''Global Networks: A journal of transnational affairs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal dedicated to the study of globalization and transnationalism. Its focus spans multiple disciplines within social science, includ ...
of
computers
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs ...
that process and store data. However, what dramatically accelerated the pace of adoption of The Information Age, as compared to previous ones, was the speed by which knowledge could be transferred and pervaded the entire human family in a few short decades. This acceleration came about with the adoptions of a new form of power. Beginning in 1972, engineers devised ways to harness light to convey data through
fiber optic cable. Today, light-based
optical networking systems at the heart of telecom networks and the Internet span the globe and carry most of the information traffic to and from users and data storage systems.
There are different conceptualizations of the Information Age. Some focus on the evolution of information over the ages, distinguishing between the Primary Information Age and the Secondary Information Age. Information in the Primary Information Age was handled by
newspapers,
radio and
television. The Secondary Information Age was developed by the
Internet,
satellite televisions and
mobile phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
. The Tertiary Information Age was emerged by media of the Primary Information Age interconnected with media of the Secondary Information Age as presently experienced.
Others classify it in terms of the well-established
Schumpeterian
Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Ha ...
long waves
In economics, Kondratiev waves (also called supercycles, great surges, long waves, K-waves or the long economic cycle) are hypothesized cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy. The phenomenon is closely connected with the technology li ...
or
Kondratiev waves
In economics, Kondratiev waves (also called supercycles, great surges, long waves, K-waves or the long economic cycle) are hypothesized cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy. The phenomenon is closely connected with the technology li ...
. Here authors distinguish three different long-term meta
paradigm
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
s, each with different long waves. The first focused on the transformation of material, including
stone,
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, and
iron. The second, often referred to as
industrial revolution, was dedicated to the transformation of energy, including
water,
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
,
electric, and
combustion power. Finally, the most recent metaparadigm aims at transforming
information. It started out with the proliferation of
communication and
stored data and has now entered the age of
algorithms, which aims at creating automated processes to convert the existing information into actionable knowledge.
Economics
Eventually,
Information and communication technology (ICT)—i.e.
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s,
computerized machinery,
fiber optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
,
communication satellites, the
Internet, and other ICT tools—became a significant part of the
world economy
The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans of the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities which are conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption, ...
, as the development of
optical networking and
microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
s greatly changed many businesses and industries.
Nicholas Negroponte captured the essence of these changes in his 1995 book, ''
Being Digital
''Being Digital'' is a non-fiction book about digital technologies and their possible future by technology author, Nicholas Negroponte. It was originally published in January 1995 by Alfred A. Knopf.
In 1995, Nicholas Negroponte outlines the hist ...
,'' in which he discusses the similarities and differences between products made of
atoms and products made of
bits.
Jobs and income distribution
The Information Age has affected the
workforce in several ways, such as compelling workers to compete in a global
job market. One of the most evident concerns is the replacement of human labor by computers that can do their jobs faster and more effectively, thus creating a situation in which individuals who perform tasks that can easily be
automated are forced to find employment where their labor is not as disposable. This especially creates issue for those in
industrial cities
An industrial city or industrial town is a town or city in which the municipal economy, at least historically, is centered around industry, with important factories or other production facilities in the town. It has been part of most countries' i ...
, where solutions typically involve lowering
working time, which is often highly resisted. Thus, individuals who lose their jobs may be pressed to move up into joining "mind workers" (e.g.
engineers,
doctors
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
** ...
,
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
s,
teachers,
professors,
scientists,
executives,
journalists,
consultant
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servic ...
s), who are able to compete successfully in the
world market and receive (relatively) high wages.
Along with automation, jobs traditionally associated with the
middle class (e.g.
assembly line,
data processing
Data processing is the collection and manipulation of digital data to produce meaningful information.
Data processing is a form of ''information processing'', which is the modification (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an ...
,
management, and
supervision
Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight.
Etymology
The English noun "supervision" derives from the two Latin words "super" (above) and "videre" (see, observe).
Spelling
The spelling is "Supervision" in Standard E ...
) have also begun to disappear as result of
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
.
[McGowan, Robert. 1991. "The Work of Nations by Robert Reich" (book review). '']Human Resource Management
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' 30(4):535–38. . . Unable to compete with those in
developing countries,
production and service workers in
post-industrial (i.e. developed) societies either lose their jobs through outsourcing, accept
wage cuts, or settle for
low-skill,
low-wage service jobs.
In the past, the economic fate of individuals would be tied to that of their nation's. For example, workers in the
United States were once well paid in comparison to those in other countries. With the advent of the Information Age and improvements in communication, this is no longer the case, as workers must now compete in a global
job market, whereby wages are less dependent on the success or failure of individual economies.
In effectuating a
globalized workforce, the internet has just as well allowed for increased opportunity in
developing countries, making it possible for workers in such places to provide in-person services, therefore competing directly with their counterparts in other nations. This
competitive advantage translates into increased opportunities and higher wages.
Automation, productivity, and job gain
The Information Age has affected the workforce in that
automation and computerization have resulted in higher
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
coupled with net
job loss
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referenc ...
in
manufacturing. In the United States, for example, from January 1972 to August 2010, the number of people employed in manufacturing jobs fell from 17,500,000 to 11,500,000 while manufacturing value rose 270%.
Although it initially appeared that
job loss
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referenc ...
in the
industrial sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction ...
might be partially offset by the rapid growth of jobs in
information technology, the
recession of March 2001 foreshadowed a sharp drop in the number of jobs in the sector. This pattern of decrease in jobs would continue until 2003, and data has shown that, overall, technology creates more jobs than it destroys even in the short run.
Information-intensive industry
Industry has become more information-intensive while less
labor- and
capital-intensive
Capital intensity is the amount of fixed or real capital present in relation to other factors of production, especially labor. At the level of either a production process or the aggregate economy, it may be estimated by the capital to labor ratio, ...
. This has left important implications for the
workforce, as workers have become increasingly
productive as the value of their labor decreases. For the system of
capitalism itself, the value of labor decreases, the value of
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
increases.
In the
classical model, investments in
human and
financial capital are important predictors of the performance of a new
venture. However, as demonstrated by
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...
and
Facebook, it now seems possible for a group of relatively inexperienced people with limited capital to succeed on a large scale.
Innovations
The Information Age was enabled by technology developed in the
Digital Revolution, which was itself enabled by building on the developments of the
Technological Revolution
A technological revolution is a period in which one or more technologies is replaced by another novel technology in a short amount of time. It is an era of accelerated technological progress characterized by new innovations whose rapid applic ...
.
Transistors
The onset of the Information Age can be associated with the development of
transistor technology.
The concept of a
field-effect transistor was first theorized by
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (April 18, 1882 – August 28, 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian, and later American (where he moved in 1921) physicist and electrical engineer, who was credited with the first patent on the field-effect (FET) (1925). Be ...
in 1925.
The first practical transistor was the
point-contact transistor
The point-contact transistor was the first type of transistor to be successfully demonstrated. It was developed by research scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Laboratories in December 1947. They worked in a group led by physicis ...
, invented by the engineers
Walter Houser Brattain and
John Bardeen
John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and engineer. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the tran ...
while working for
William Shockley at
Bell Labs in 1947. This was a breakthrough that laid the foundations for modern technology.
Shockley's research team also invented the
bipolar junction transistor in 1952.
The most widely used type of transistor is the
metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), invented by
Mohamed M. Atalla
Mohamed M. Atalla ( ar, محمد عطاالله; August 4, 1924 – December 30, 2009) was an Egyptian-American engineer, physicist, cryptographer, inventor and entrepreneur. He was a semiconductor pioneer who made important contributions to ...
and
Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1960.
The
complementary MOS (CMOS) fabrication process was developed by
Frank Wanlass and
Chih-Tang Sah
Chih-Tang "Tom" Sah (; born in November 1932 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese-American electronics engineer and condensed matter physicist. He is best known for inventing CMOS (complementary MOS) logic with Frank Wanlass at Fairchild Semiconductor ...
in 1963.
Computers
Before the advent of
electronics,
mechanical computers, like the
Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, which was a des ...
in 1837, were designed to provide routine mathematical calculation and simple decision-making capabilities. Military needs during
World War II drove development of the first electronic computers, based on
vacuum tubes, including the
Z3, the
Atanasoff–Berry Computer,
Colossus computer, and
ENIAC.
The invention of the transistor enabled the era of
mainframe computers (1950s–1970s), typified by the
IBM 360. These large,
room-sized computers provided data calculation and
manipulation that was much faster than humanly possible, but were expensive to buy and maintain, so were initially limited to a few scientific institutions, large corporations, and government agencies.
The
germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors s ...
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
(IC) was invented by
Jack Kilby at
Texas Instruments in 1958. The
silicon integrated circuit was then invented in 1959 by
Robert Noyce
Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited wit ...
at
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, it became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of int ...
, using the
planar process
The planar process is a manufacturing process used in the semiconductor industry to build individual components of a transistor, and in turn, connect those transistors together. It is the primary process by which silicon integrated circuit chips a ...
developed by
Jean Hoerni
Jean Amédée Hoerni (September 26, 1924 – January 12, 1997) was a Swiss-American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the " traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably fa ...
, who was in turn building on
Mohamed Atalla
Mohamed M. Atalla ( ar, محمد عطاالله; August 4, 1924 – December 30, 2009) was an Egyptian-American engineer, physicist, cryptographer, inventor and entrepreneur. He was a semiconductor pioneer who made important contributions to ...
's silicon
surface passivation method developed at
Bell Labs in 1957.
Following the invention of the
MOS transistor by Mohamed Atalla and
Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959,
the
MOS
MOS or Mos may refer to:
Technology
* MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor
* Mathematical Optimization Society
* Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique
* MOS (filmm ...
integrated circuit was developed by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at
RCA in 1962.
The
silicon-gate MOS IC was later developed by
Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968. With the advent of the MOS transistor and the MOS IC, transistor technology
rapidly improved, and the ratio of computing power to size increased dramatically, giving direct access to computers to ever smaller groups of people.
The first commercial single-chip microprocessor launched in 1971, the
Intel 4004, which was developed by Federico Faggin using his silicon-gate MOS IC technology, along with
Marcian Hoff,
Masatoshi Shima and
Stan Mazor
Stanley Mazor is an American microelectronics engineer who was born on 22 October 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He is one of the co-inventors of the world's first microprocessor architecture, the Intel 4004, together with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shim ...
.
Along with electronic
arcade machines and
home video game consoles pioneered by
Nolan Bushnell in the 1970s, the development of
personal computers like the
Commodore PET and
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
(both in 1977) gave individuals access to the computer. But
data sharing between individual computers was either non-existent or largely
manual
Manual may refer to:
Instructions
* User guide
* Owner's manual
* Instruction manual (gaming)
* Online help
Other uses
* Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ
* Manual (band)
* Manual transmission
* Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...
, at first using
punched cards and
magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
, and later
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
s.
Data
The first developments for storing data were initially based on photographs, starting with
in 1851 and then
microform in the 1920s, with the ability to store documents on film, making them much more compact. Early
information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
and
Hamming code
In computer science and telecommunication, Hamming codes are a family of linear error-correcting codes. Hamming codes can detect one-bit and two-bit errors, or correct one-bit errors without detection of uncorrected errors. By contrast, the sim ...
s were developed about 1950, but awaited technical innovations in data transmission and storage to be put to full use.
Magnetic-core memory was developed from the research of Frederick W. Viehe in 1947 and
An Wang at
Harvard University in 1949. With the advent of the MOS transistor, MOS
semiconductor memory
Semiconductor memory is a digital electronic semiconductor device used for digital data storage, such as computer memory. It typically refers to devices in which data is stored within metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) memory cells on a sili ...
was developed by John Schmidt at
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, it became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of int ...
in 1964.
In 1967,
Dawon Kahng and
Simon Sze at Bell Labs described in 1967 how the floating gate of an MOS semiconductor device could be used for the cell of a reprogrammable ROM.
Following the invention of flash memory by
Fujio Masuoka
is a Japanese engineer, who has worked for Toshiba and Tohoku University, and is currently chief technical officer (CTO) of Unisantis Electronics. He is best known as the inventor of flash memory, including the development of both the NOR flash ...
at
Toshiba in 1980, Toshiba commercialized
NAND flash memory in 1987.
Copper wire cables transmitting digital data connected
computer terminals
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal an ...
and
peripherals to mainframes, and special message-sharing systems leading to
email, were first developed in the 1960s. Independent computer-to-computer networking began with
ARPANET in 1969. This expanded to become the
Internet (coined in 1974). Access to the Internet improved with the invention of the
World Wide Web in 1991. The capacity expansion from
dense wave division multiplexing
In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techniqu ...
,
optical amplification and
optical networking in the mid-1990s led to record data transfer rates. By 2018, optical networks routinely delivered 30.4 terabits/s over a fiber optic pair, the data equivalent of 1.2 million simultaneous 4K HD video streams.
MOSFET scaling
The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most commonly fabricated by the controlled oxidation of silicon. It has an insulated gate, the voltage of which d ...
, the rapid miniaturization of MOSFETs at a rate predicted by
Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
,
led to computers becoming smaller and more powerful, to the point where they could be carried. During the 1980s1990s,
laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
s were developed as a form of portable computer, and
personal digital assistants (PDAs) could be used while standing or walking.
Pagers, widely used by the 1980s, were largely replaced by mobile phones beginning in the late 1990s, providing
mobile networking features to some computers. Now commonplace, this technology is extended to
digital cameras and other wearable devices. Starting in the late 1990s,
tablets and then
smartphones combined and extended these abilities of computing, mobility, and information sharing.
Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS)
image sensors
An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of curr ...
, which first began appearing in the late 1960s, led to the transition from analog to
digital imaging, and from analog to
digital cameras, during the 1980s–1990s. The most common image sensors are the
charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor and the
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...
(complementary MOS)
active-pixel sensor (CMOS sensor).
Electronic paper, which has origins in the 1970s, allows digital information to appear as paper documents.
Personal computers
By 1976, there were several firms racing to introduce the first truly successful commercial personal computers. Three machines, the
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
,
PET 2001 and
TRS-80 were all released in 1977, becoming the most popular by late 1978.
''Byte'' magazine later referred to Commodore, Apple, and Tandy as the "1977 Trinity". Also in 1977,
Sord Computer Corporation
}
Sord Computer Corporation is a Japanese electronics company, founded in 1970 by the entrepreneur Takayoshi Shiina.
From 1985 until 2018, it was a subsidiary of Toshiba and became known variously as Toshiba Personal Computer System Corporation an ...
released the Sord M200 Smart Home Computer in Japan.
Apple II
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he c ...
(known as "Woz"), a regular visitor to
Homebrew Computer Club meetings, designed the single-board
Apple I computer and first demonstrated it there. With specifications in hand and an order for 100 machines at US$500 each from
the Byte Shop
Paul Terrell is an American businessman. In December 1975, he founded the first personal computer retailer shop. He helped popularize personal computing to the hobbyist and home computing markets, and was the first retailer to sell an Apple Comput ...
, Woz and his friend
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
founded
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
.
About 200 of the machines sold before the company announced the Apple II as a complete computer. It had color graphics, a full QWERTY keyboard, and internal slots for expansion, which were mounted in a high quality streamlined plastic case. The monitor and I/O devices were sold separately. The original Apple II
operating system was only the built-in BASIC interpreter contained in ROM.
Apple DOS
Apple DOS is the family of disk operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. It was superseded by ProDOS in 1983. Apple DOS has three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of t ...
was added to support the diskette drive; the last version was "Apple DOS 3.3".
Its higher price and lack of
floating point BASIC, along with a lack of retail distribution sites, caused it to lag in sales behind the other Trinity machines until 1979, when it surpassed the PET. It was again pushed into 4th place when
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
introduced its popular
Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
systems.
Despite slow initial sales, the Apple II's lifetime was about eight years longer than other machines, and so accumulated the highest total sales. By 1985 2.1 million had sold and more than 4 million Apple II's were shipped by the end of its production in 1993.
Optical networking
Optical communication
Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date b ...
plays a crucial role in
communication networks
A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...
. Optical communication provides the transmission backbone for the
telecommunications and computer networks that underlie the
Internet, the foundation for the
Digital Revolution and Information Age.
The two core technologies are the optical fiber and light amplification (the
optical amplifier
An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback fr ...
). In 1953, Bram van Heel demonstrated image transmission through bundles of
optical fibers with a transparent cladding. The same year,
Harold Hopkins and
Narinder Singh Kapany
Narinder Singh Kapany FREng (31 October 1926 – 4 December 2020) was an Indian-American physicist best known for his work on fiber optics. at
Imperial College
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
succeeded in making image-transmitting bundles with over 10,000 optical fibers, and subsequently achieved image transmission through a 75 cm long bundle which combined several thousand fibers.
Gordon Gould
Gordon Gould (July 17, 1920 – September 16, 2005) was an American physicist who is sometimes credited with the invention of the laser and the optical amplifier. (Credit for the invention of the laser is disputed, since Charles Townes and ...
invented the
optical amplifier
An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback fr ...
and the
laser, and also established the first optical telecommunications company,
Optelecom
Optelecom-NKF, Inc. is an American company that designs, manufactures, and markets high-bandwidth communications products, financial market data information, and business video systems.
History
The company was founded as Optelecom in 1974 by Wi ...
, to design communication systems. The firm was a co-founder in
Ciena Corp
Ciena Corporation is an American telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier based in Hanover, Maryland. The company has been described by ''The Baltimore Sun'' as the "world's biggest player in optical connectivity." T ...
., the venture that popularized the
optical amplifier
An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback fr ...
with the introduction of the first
dense wave division multiplexing
In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techniqu ...
system. This massive scale communication technology has emerged as the common basis of all
telecommunication networks and, thus, a foundation of the Information Age.
Economy, society and culture
Manuel Castells captures the significance of the Information Age in ''The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture'' when he writes of our global interdependence and the new relationships between economy, state and society, what he calls "a new society-in-the-making." He cautions that just because humans have dominated the material world, does not mean that the Information Age is the end of history:
See also
*
Attention economy
Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. According to Matthew Crawford, "Attention is a r ...
*
Attention inequality
*
Big data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
*
Cognitive-cultural economy Cognitive-cultural economy or cognitive-cultural capitalism is represented by sectors such as high-technology industry, business and financial services, Personal service sector, personal services, the Mass media, media, the Cultural industry, cultur ...
*
Computer crime
A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing th ...
*
Cyberterrorism
*
Cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
*
Datamation
''Datamation'' is a computer magazine that was published in print form in the United States between 1957 and 1998, – first print magazine dedicated solely to covering information technology
*
Digital dark age
*
Digital detox
A digital detox is a period of time when a person voluntarily refrains from using digital devices such as smartphones, computers, and social media platforms. This form of detoxification has gained popularity, as individuals have increased their t ...
*
Digital divide
The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in ...
*
Digital transformation
Digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology by an organization to digitize non-digital products, services or operations. The goal for its implementation is to increase value through innovation, invention, customer experience or ef ...
*
Digital world
*
Imagination age
The Imagination Age is the period beyond the Information Age where creativity and imagination become the primary creators of economic value. (In contrast, the main activities of the Information Age are analysis and thinking.) This concept holds t ...
, the hypothesized successor of the information age: a period in which creativity and imagination become the primary creators of economic value
*
Indigo Era
*
Information explosion
*
Information revolution
*
Information society
*
Internet governance
*
Netocracy
Netocracy was a term invented by the editorial board of the American technology magazine ''Wired'' in the early 1990s. A portmanteau of ''Internet'' and '' aristocracy'', ''netocracy'' refers to a perceived global upper-class that bases its power ...
*
Social Age
*
Technological determinism
*
Telecommunications
*
Zettabyte Era
*
References
Further reading
* Oliver Stengel et al. (2017). ''Digitalzeitalter - Digitalgesellschaft'', Springer
*
Mendelson, Edward (June 2016).
In the Depths of the Digital Age'' The New York Review of Books
* Bollacker, Kurt D. (2010)
Avoiding a Digital Dark Age',
American Scientist
__NOTOC__
''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was in New ...
, March–April 2010, Volume 98, Number 2, p. 106ff
*
Castells, Manuel. (1996–98). ''
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture'', 3 vols. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Gelbstein, E. (2006) ''Crossing the Executive Digital Divide''.
External links
Articles on the impact of the Information Age on businessnbsp;– at ''Information Age'' magazine
Beyond the Information Ageby Dave Ulmer
Information Age Anthology Vol Iby Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 1997) (PDF)
Information Age Anthology Vol IIby Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2000) (PDF)
Information Age Anthology Vol IIIby Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2001) (PDF)
Understanding Information Age Warfareby Alberts et al. (CCRP, 2001) (PDF)
Information Age Transformationby Alberts (CCRP, 2002) (PDF)
The Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologiesby Alberts (CCRP, 1996) (
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
)
History & Discussion of the Information AgeScience Museum - Information Age
{{portal bar, Internet, Technology
Digital media
Digital divide
Contemporary history
Historical eras
Postmodernism
Cultural trends