Technology has been advancing faster than anything else. Political parties, gender assumptions, sports, and games seem as if they’ve remained stagnant compared to the progressive nature of technology. It’s hard to imagine that in 1885, the very first car was made. Or that robot companies have only been around since 1956 and people could hardly imagine the idea of a robot before that. One of the biggest changes in technology has been phones and computers. Cell phones were made in the 1970s, but they were rare and used only by rich businessmen. Now, even toddlers are given cell phones. To help you to fully imagine the incredible progress that technology has made here are the top 5 major changes.

1. The Journey of the Automobile

The first modern automobile was made in 1885 though in 1807 Francois Isaac de Rivaz designed the first car that was powered by an internal combustion engine running on fuel gas. This car was vastly different from what we see on the streets today and more closely resembles a child’s toy tricycle from today. The car made in 1885 is more similar to the style that we know now. The car could drive as fast as 10 miles per hour and came in one style. It wasn’t until the 1920s that cars could go 20 miles per hour.

The cars 100 years ago had nothing that we take for granted today. They could go barely faster than the speed set in a parking lot, and they had with no air conditioning, no safety mechanisms, no Bluetooth, no radio, no sensors, no car phone, and no car refrigerator compartment. They were basic and had nothing other than plain seats to take you slowly where you needed to go.

Today, we have electric cars and cars that can drive themselves. They have exceptional safety features as well that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. And, today the fastest car can go over 300 mph.

2. The Mission of the Robot

The first programmable robot was made in 1954 and was called the Unimate. It was used to lift pieces of hot metal from die casting machines for General Motors. It was basic, slow, and has problems that arose almost daily. It couldn’t communicate or interact. It has extremely basic movements and actions. People have fantasized about robots ever since the idea was even a possible reality. The world of robotics is vastly different from what was possible in the world of Unimate’s technology.

Today, we have robots that are used to walk through the ruins of a land pitted with mines to protect humans. We also have robots like Sophia who are as close to true artificial intelligence as we’ve made it. She can recognize faces and names and remember the conversations that she’s had with certain people. She also can hold basic conversations, smile, laugh, and tell jokes. Sophia is talented enough to help employees with time management activities through lectures and speeches that she's given to large audiences. She is even a declared citizen in Saudi Arabia.

3. Today’s Phone vs. Yesterday’s Phone

Phones have made some of the biggest changes in the shortest amount of time. In the 1970s, the “cell phone” was almost biggest than the land phone that it was trying to replace. It was bulky and could barely fit inside of a purse. It was far from the mobile phones that we have today. The first smartphone was made in the 1990s and had a touch screen with a stylus. The phone, however, was still bulky and had to carry around. The first smartphone (as we think of it today), was released by Apple 15 years later in 2007. It looks similar to the phones that we still have 10 years later though today we have more features, better cameras, and longer battery life. The changes that happened between the 1990s and 2007 were some of the fastest changes that we have seen in technology.

What can we expect from the future? We can expect technology to continue to change and grow. Advances are being made every day as one generation passes on its knowledge to the next. In the next 100 years, the world will look drastically different from what it looks like now.