Science and Tech in the 1960's

If you’ve been an attentive reader of our blog you already know that the sixties were a period of change and revolution in almost everything there is. Science and Technology were no exception and this decade turned out to be very fruitful in these two topics.

Starting with Tech, the sixties marked the beginning of something very special and useful to all of us, something we just could not live without in today's world, the Internet or as it was called back then, the Arpanet. It was created by Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf and since then it hasn’t stopped evolving to the point where it is today one of society's main pillars. In my personal opinion, I don’t mind the fact that the internet has achieved such status but I really would mind if it were to cross that boundary, i.e. if somehow we were to become the main pillars of the internet and not the other way around. Yes, I’m a big bit scared of A.I.

Apart from that, there was also another big achievement which was the first-ever chip. This one wasn’t, however, as big of an achievement as the internet but it was still very significant and has since then evolved a lot, just like the internet. Today, you find chips all over the place: on your computers, on your credit cards, on your body and some even claim you can find them in your bloodstream due to vaccines. If I’m being honest, in case those people are wrong, governments should really look into that possibility. It would be an alternative form of controlling what we do. Because at the end of the day chips in your bloodstream or not, you are still controlled to an unimaginable extent.

It’s Science Time!!!

As referred before, in science just like in tech, the sixties brought many achievements for humanity. This was mainly due to the competition between the US and URSS created by the Cold War. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin would become the first man in space ever. His capsule, Vostok 1 completed one whole orbit of the Earth on the 12th of April 1961. After this unimaginable feat, Gagarin was awarded the highest honor in the old Soviet Union, Hero of the Soviet Union, and was also forbidden to ever participate in further spaceflights due to the fear of the death of a national hero.

Some years later and after concluding training in the Soviet Air Forces, Gagarin was finally allowed to pilot regular aircraft. Frankly, it is quite grotesque that after everything he had done, he would end up dying five weeks later simply because he crashed his MiG-15. It’s either grotesque and very unlucky for him or we’re not seeing the bigger picture here and he died because someone, somewhere thought he had to. My money is on the latter.

As if completing an orbit of the Earth was not enough of a feat for a whole decade, 8 years later, in 1969 our friend Neil would become the first man stepping on the moon which is to this day, 6 decades later, still something unbelievable and absurd that many struggles to accept. I’m not as a skeptic about this one as I proved to be before in the text and to be honest, I don’t really know why because under normal circumstances it is my nature to doubt this kind of thing but I guess I’m too fascinated by space and everything around it not believe it. Another thing I would like to mention about the man stepping on the moon is the name of the other fellows who went there with Neil Armstrong because I feel they don’t get the praise they deserved just because they lost the Rock Paper Scissors when deciding who would step out of the ship first. They´re called Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. Now you know, thank me later! (20:))

To conclude, it really amazes me how the sixties could bring so much change and development to humanity. It really is a complete shift in how we see the world and not one regarding society changes like with women, LGBT community, African American people, wars, etc but also regarding the world itself. After all the progress we accomplished with the first space trips, our horizons stopped being strangled inside the Earth and we can now challenge for new exciting things and opportunities. Unfortunately, science is going through a tough period, a period of stagnation but hopefully in the next 50 years or so we can start another period of a complete shift of horizons.

It was a pleasure writing to you all this time but now it is time to go on vacation. Probably not, but who knows someday I’ll decide to write here again. :)