Ten Technological Advances That Changed the World And How We Live In It

Some of the most exciting discoveries and inventions became launching pads for a new era of innovation in computers, electronics, manufacturing, and medicine. Already in 2013, experts at IBM estimated that 90% of the world’s data was created in just the prior two years, which is a testament to how the speed of innovation today dwarfs anything seen previously.

Let’s take a look at what we believe are the top 10 advances and discoveries that changed the way we live.

Artificial Intelligence

From a futuristic buzzword to a daily reality, AI has taken the world by storm and continues to astound us every single day. And it is more than ChatGPT answering your trivia questions. It is powering everything from predictive maintenance in elevators and escalators, to personalized medicine, fraud detection, and even climate change models.

With machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks accelerating at warp speed, AI is shaping how we work, how we move, and how we solve the world’s biggest challenges. Watch this space because one thing’s for sure – we’re only scratching the surface.

Electricity

No electricity, no progress. It’s as simple as that.

Since the days of Benjamin Franklin and Nikola Tesla, this force of nature has been harnessed to power every modern invention – from your kettle to your EV. Without it, it’s likely that none of the innovations on this list would even exist.

The Laser

Discovered in 1960, lasers were so before their time, scientists were not even certain where exactly they could be applied. Since then, they’ve gone from being a “solution without a problem” to a tool found in nearly every sector: from eye surgeries to industrial cutting, barcode scanning to cosmetic treatments. In fact, now, on an average day, nearly every person comes into contact with a laser¹ in some way, shape, or form.

Semiconductor Chips

Unless you work in a specific area of tech, the odds are that you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about semiconductor chips. But we think they’re the unsung heroes of the digital revolution.

Going from clunky desktop computers to laptops to pocket-sized smartphones, these chips made it possible to shrink powerful computing circuitry down to … well, a chip!

Now, every swipe, click, and ping depends on these tiny circuits that make the modern world smart and mobile.

Quantum Computing

If classical computers are bicycles, quantum computers are starships. They harness quantum mechanics – which probably needs its own blog article – to process information unimaginably fast. In 2019, a quantum computer, Google’s Sycamore, solved a problem in 200 seconds that would have taken a classic supercomputer thousands of years – a sign of how future applications in security, pharmaceuticals, and finance could explode.

The Elevator

Cities would look very different without elevators. They made the skyscraper era possible, letting urban centers expand vertically instead of endlessly sprawling. Today, innovations like the MULTI – the first elevator to move horizontally as well as vertically – are pushing the boundaries of architecture and urban planning even further.

The Human Genome Project

Completed in 2003, the Human Genome Project mapped every gene in the human body and opened up a new frontier in healthcare. The findings helped doctors target genetic diseases and paved the way for personalized treatments that seemed like science fiction only a few decades ago.

The Automobile

Truly a vehicle for change: once the first car rolled off the assembly lines, it never stopped moving. Originally seen as a panacea for all mobility challenges, the car has had to adapt to a global demand to eliminate fossil-fuel use and decrease traffic. Enter the next generation: hybrid cars, electric cars, and driverless cars, proving the car will be with us for centuries to come.

Watch Tesla Full Self-Drive Video Break Down – AP3 FSD Self Driving Autonomous Model 3 In Detail, video by Tesla Driver, taken from YouTube.

The Global Positioning System (GPS)

Remember a time when you had to navigate using paper maps and stop to ask for directions? No? Well, that’s because Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, has become ubiquitous and forever changed the way people navigate between point A and B.

From 1973 when it was first invented, to 1995 when it was first used by the US military, to 2000 when it became available for public use, GPS has now become a cornerstone of our lives. Whether it is for food delivery apps or smart city traffic systems, GPS underpins how modern society moves and functions every single day.

The Internet

What began as a military project in the 1960s evolved into the backbone of modern life. From cloud services to streaming, online shopping to social media, the internet is behind nearly every part of how we work, learn, and connect. It has sparked countless new industries while transforming traditional ones – and continues to accelerate innovation in everything from remote healthcare to AI-driven platforms.

Curious about how internet-enabled innovations are transforming buildings and cities? Learn more about TKE’s digital modernization solutions.

The smartphone

Because let’s be honest: we can barely live without them. Smartphones connect us to every other innovation on this list – controlling smart homes, paying bills, or tracking fitness. Especially since Apple dropped the first iPhone in 2007, the world has been glued to this palm-sized command center and there are no signs that the devotion is dying down.

What’s Next?

While these are our top 10, there are loads of other technological advancements that have significantly impacted our lives and continue to do so. The lightbulb, the printing press, and vaccines, to name just a few.

Technical advancements have always proven to be exciting because they are never stand-alone, and they rarely stand still.

Huge advances in renewable energy, 6G networks, autonomous robotics, and even brain-computer interfaces are in the works, promising to transform our world all over again. Innovation is wired into our DNA, so stay tuned – the next big thing might be closer than you think.

Sources
Top 7 Wonders of the Technological World, by Jamie Frater, listverse.com

Video Credits
Google claims quantum computer completed 10,000-year task in 200 second, video by CBS News, taken from YouTube
Tesla Full Self-Drive Video Break Down – AP3 FSD Self Driving Autonomous Model 3 In Detail, video by Tesla Driver, taken from YouTube

Image Credits
Renewable Energy Sources, photo by hpgruesen, taken from pixabay.com
Laser Show, photo by Jure Tufekcic, taken from unsplash.com
Pink Laser, photo by Parcreativo, taken from commons.wikimedia.org, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
DNA string, picture by qimono, taken from pixabay.com
Smartphone Navigatin, picture by Henry Perks, taken from unsplash.com
People with smartphones, picture by Rawpixel.com, taken from commons.wikimedia.org, CC0 1.0 Universal