I don’t think anyone has ever called me a geek, but it goes with the territory. Deep down, the nontechnical, non-geek world knows it’s people like us who are responsible for designing most of the conveniences and gadgets that have transformed their lives. For good or bad, the last 50 years have seen some miraculous discoveries, and I have no doubt that many Circuit Cellar readers have participated in inventing them.

Reminiscing about significant technical milestones was prompted by reading Alex Hutchinson’s article entitled “Top 50 Inventions” in the December ’05 issue of Popular Mechanics. They put together a panel of 25 experts from 17 museums and universities across the country to identify the 50 inventions, from “the hospital to outer space to the kitchen,” that have made the greatest impact during the last 50 years. I don’t necessarily agree with the entire list, but it is certainly food for thought and perhaps something to remind you of your own personal involvement.

Considering that the backgrounds of these 25 experts included aeronautics, biology, physics, medicine, automobiles, and technology, it was an eclectic group with very diverse opinions. Certainly, if the panel had come solely from the ranks of engineers and scientists, the list might have been very different. Social significance apparently played an important part in their decisions, and the final list certainly did go from hospital to outer space to kitchen. Among their most significant invention choices were:

While I’ve never thought about Prozac and waffle-sole running shoes as historical milestones, I can at least agree on a few of their more technical-minded choices:

What makes the list interesting to me is my personal involvement in more than a few items on it. Besides Circuit Cellar’s obvious history with personal computers, a couple items on the list—video games and TV remote controls—hold some special significance.

It’s ironic that I don’t own any of the popular game machines or play video games in general, because it was a video game that was the catalyst for my “Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar” column in BYTE. After visiting MIT in the early ’70s and seeing what has been generally accepted as the first “star wars” computer video game, my first published project was an 8008-based vector graphics display generator attempting to emulate this game. My second published project was the design of a Pong-like video game. (I didn’t design the original Pong. I just showed people how to make one without buying the commercial game console.)

Finally, the original wireless ultrasonic TV remote control was invented by Eugene Polley at Zenith, but there is some personal history regarding enhancements to the basic invention. If patent fights and depositions are any indication of significant involvement, Ed Nisley and I are credited with the basic design and invention of the infrared programmable remote control that we all use today. The irony here is that all the patent fights revolved around how much of the technology we presented was considered public domain since we chose to publish it rather than patent it.

So, when I look at this list, I don’t necessarily agree with everything on it, but I can certainly attest to the fact that Circuit Cellar readers were involved in creating some of these items. If you have a personal story about any of them, I’d certainly like to hear it.