Once something becomes a part of your everyday life it’s hard not to take it for granted, as though it has always existed in some form. Although the majority of technology has followed a fairly traceable evolutionary path, some of the most vital and world-changing tech has emerged completely out of left field. And once those rare leaps in innovation got into our collective hands, they quickly became such integral components of our day-to-day existence that it’s now difficult to imagine how we ever got by without them.
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10. DVR
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The first time I used a digital video recorder to pause live television, I thought I might've torn a hole in the fabric of time and space itself. The concept of being able to control how and when we watch television is simply revolutionary. It foreshadows the next era in media delivery in which content will be served on our own terms rather than those of a television network.
The ability to skip all the adverts, and saving a huge chunk of time in the process, is a just another added bonus. Yeah, it's worth the five extra bucks a month for one of these things.
9. Caller ID
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It may seem like a minor footnote in the history of communication, but do not underestimate the power of Caller ID. No more standing by the answering machine screening calls. And when your ex drunk-dials you at 2AM on a Tuesday, you now know exactly what's going on instead of being left to wonder what could've been. Simply put, the introduction of caller ID changed the way we use telephones forever.
8. Microwaves
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In pantheon of bachelor pads and college dorm living situations, is there a more vital appliance than the microwave oven? What the hell did people do before these things became popular in the 1970s? Well, they probably ate far fewer TV dinners, we'd imagine. A world without Totino's Pizza Rolls is one we'd rather not think about.
7. BitTorrent
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Downloading files on the internet is no big deal. But the introduction of BitTorrent, and it's ingenious design, which cobbles together pieces of the same file from various sources, thus increasing the download speed drastically, was something of a game-changer.
Without BitTorrent, the MPAA would have been far less likely to have freaked out about sites like The Pirate Bay, simply because the process of downloading large files (like pirated movies, for instance) would take far longer, making it less appealing for most would-be movie watchers. BitTorrent is already out in the wild, and no matter how many lawsuits get leveled at various torrent tracking sites, the internet community's will is always stronger than a company's desire for a bolstered bottom line.
6. Bluetooth
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When Bluetooth was announced a few years ago, the concept didn't seem all that revolutionary - a technology that connects things wirelessly? BFD. But now, it's providing wireless communication between devices literally everywhere - in your car, your remote control, your cell phone - even yer friggin' sunglasses. So now the whole vision of the concept is starting to come into focus.
Plus, how would we be able to spot douchebags from a block away without it?
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