Could you explain technology to people from different eras?

[u/glowing-fishSCL]

Many times on here, people talk about certain technologies as if they are epic watersheds in human development. And sometimes they are. But often they have precursors and are not as totally modern as people think they are. Many people in the past would recognize the basic idea, even if only as a piece of science-fiction.

Take for example the smartphone. The iPhone was first released in 2007, and while it was revolutionary, it was also basically a fix for things that made PDAs difficult, like having the keyboard onscreen. And including a phone. But PDAs and cell phones had existed for a while, so if you showed a 2026 iPhone to someone from the 1990s, you might be able to explain "its a PDA and a cell phone combined!" (Although even that was possible in 1996).
Before the 1990s, the idea of a smartphone would still be understandable, it would just be science-fiction. But the idea of a portable computer with telephone, television and radio would be familiar things, just combined together. So as far back as the 1920s, the idea of combining these technologies would have been understandable.
It is when you go before about 1900, maybe before the 1880s, that it would be totally incomprensible by any existing technology or experience that people had with things.

And this goes for a lot of technology. Show a modern drone to someone from the 1950s, and they would be amazed at what remote control airplanes are like---but they would understand, this is a remote control airplane. Show a drone to someone from before 1900, they would have no way to understand it.

(Paragraph about motor vehicles deleted because it for some reason triggered a filter? Readded in comments.)

So when it comes to what technology is "modern", it comes down to:
1. When would people recognize it as an extension on something they already had?
2. When would people understand the principles behind it?
3. When would it be totally incomprehensible?

[u/glowing-fishSCL]

This is the paragraph that I couldn't post because it triggered a message about how this isn't a "general nostalgia forum"

Same thing with cars---someone from 1926 would recognize what a car was and how it worked. Even if you go back to the 1830s or so, you could still explain modern cars to people who had seen a locomotive "this is a locomotive, but it burns kerosene instead of coal, and it doesn't need rails". But go back to the 1720s, and what a car is, and how it works, would be totally incomprehensible.

[u/SnooConfections6085 → u/glowing-fishSCL]

Early cars were called horseless carriages for a reason. A carriage or similar wagon that drives itself would be understandable to people even going back to the bronze age; the age of war chariots.

[u/holytriplem]

The Internet was a relatively difficult concept to explain to people in the 90s. I remember the backs of cereal boxes explaining the concept of search engines and how to use one.

I'd say basically any new technology that came out before ChatGPT would be understandable to someone from the late 90s for the reasons you mention though.

[u/glowing-fishSCL → u/holytriplem]

How to use the internet was difficult, even in 1998, I said things like "I have Yahoo on my computer!".
But the idea of connecting computers together with phone lines was comprehensible, because those were two things that most people knew about.

[u/OG_Karate_Monkey]

I can’t think of any technology that could not be easily explained (from a laymen/users perspective) to someone from 50 years prior.

What WOULD be difficult to convey is how these technologies actually play out in real life. The ways in which they affected society and every day life.

 

[u/SnooConfections6085]

One key modern tech that never gets much fanfare, in part due to the lack of anything close to a sole inventor, is refrigeration.

It's an easy concept to explain the end results of, but heck refrigerators are magic boxes to a good % of living people let alone before refrigeration.

That said, ice was an early product of refrigeration, it took a while to catch on in tropical areas. Before frigeration noone that hadn't traveled afar had ever seen ice and had no concept of what one would do with it.

[u/betarage]

I am not sure in theory it shouldn't be too hard to explain what the internet is to people in the 80s and 70s and maybe even early 1900s. but a lot of my interactions with older people makes me think that things were even worse than I thought back then. I guess it will depend on the person some technical geek from the 80s will probably understand almost everything I say but some random guy will not. even a very smart person from the 19th century could probably understand what I mean after a short explanation. But if I went to the 80s or 60s I would basically just say that in the future everyone can have their own tv station and there are billions .and you can send faxes and call people world wide for free and it's all in one compact device .but in the late 2000s I told my grandpa about this and he didn't understand what I was saying despite it existing. so I don't really know what was going on with people's minds back then .

And going back even further like in the middle ages I would have to be even more abstract and say it can be used to talk to people and see people far away. And you can use it to get answers to a lot of questions and you can see super realistic art that moves but I would not be able to explain it's full potential