“The Measure of Intelligence...."

I got to thinking about technology and all the advances the world has made in just my lifetime. I decided to simply compare three basic things at three basic times. The year I was born, half my life, and the present.
I think the most surprising thing I learned was how advanced things were in the 60's.
This is a photo of a phone just like the first phone I remember seeing in our home:

Basic telephone in the 60's

 

 I also remember that if you went into the hospital for any length of time and wanted to have access to a phone in your room, you had to take your own phone with you. Several family members borrowed this phone when they went for a hospital stay.

Typical 80's telephone

 

I wish I had a dollar for every antenna I broke on the first generation cordless phones.

How about our basic television set? The first one I remember took up the whole entire corner of the living room, but the screen itself was only about 19".
It was revolutionary actually because color T.V. was introduced about the time I was born and even though my dad didn't like to spend money, he did buy a floor model color television in the late 60's. I was privileged enough to watch Sesame Street in color!

1965 Zenith color T.V.

 

Typically most TV's sold around my town in the late 80's were something like the one pictured below. And don't forget the VCR! We were feeling so MOD because we had 38 channels.

Late 80's model. We often balanced them on anything from T.V. dinner trays to cinder blocks.

 

Well, there is simply no comparison between older models and today's sleek models that work much like computers; allowing us to record up to 500 hours of movies, weekly episodes of our favorite shows, and cartoons for the kidos. No VCR needed!
                                                   
Speaking of computers, I saw my first home computer in 1980 when my mother got all caught up in the new gadget craze and bought one from Radio Shack. We had to buy a small TV as it didn't yet come with a monitor.
In the 60's computers filled large rooms.

The Columbia University Computer Center - 1965

 

I can't even imagine working on something of that generation.

1986-1989

 

Sometimes I am in awe at the progress and change we have made just in my lifetime alone.

I will conclude with the quote by Albert Einstein that I began in the title. "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."