Sean Ellis' Tech Milestones timeline

Prior to the invention of the telephone, the only way people could communicate with each other over long distances was to send letters and wait. The telephone was unbelievably revolutionary. Allowing people to talk to workers, relatives, family, friends, etc from miles and miles away as if they were right there with them is an insanely useful innovation that had many uses immediately, completely changing communication in society forever.

The radio marked the start of the ability to mass transmit ideas and stories to people. This is a similar event to the telephone, just on a much grander scale. Instead of being limited to one on one conversation, you can have hundreds of people listening to news, music, conversation, etc all at once. Radio is a major step in our society's journey to becoming more connected and well educated overall.

This advancement essentially proved the value that computers had to not only government, but to businesses and potentially even individuals as well. The way they were being improved upon every few years to be better, faster, and more capable just showed that there was so much about computers that we had no idea we could use them for. This proved that they were here to stay, and things would only get better from there.

Without the microprocessor, so many of the things we take for granted today would not be possible. Computers in our homes, smart phones, smart televisions, etc. Basically anything that has some kind of computational power and isn't the size of a room in your house would not be possible. The microprocessor directly has led to the techonological revolution that is currently taking place in our lives.

Nothing has ever been an insanely game changing as the advent of the web, and it's likely that nothing ever will again, short of teleportation or telepathy. The web took what the radio did, making mass communcation and education much easier and more widespread, and increased it to a monumental amount. Now, with the web, in an instant I can be talking directly to somebody across the world and have a discussion with them about Australia without ever even knowing their name.