Post #2283556
2026-05-06 05:13 UTC
Here's an answer for a life-changing technology that truly stands out:
"The Bicycle
Selected by Reshma Saujani
In the 1890s, the bicycle, as we know it today, finally let women go where they wanted, on their own, without asking permission. It even played a central role in the fight for women’s suffrage—a simple machine with outsized impact. Today, it reminds us what technology should do: expand freedom and opportunity. Millions of American women are still fighting for what the bicycle once gave them: the freedom to move, make decisions, and control their own futures. At 250 years in, that’s still the most American question we can ask of any new technology: Will it set people free?
Saujani is a lawyer, activist, and the founder of the nonprofits Girls Who Code and Moms First."
https://time.com/collection/our-america-250/2026/tech-innovations-that-define-america/
Replies (1)
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@mapto@qoto.org 2026-05-06 05:14
But I find it tremendously disappointing that so many of the "American tech insiders" in this list are so obsessed with what they do. To the extent that they declare it to be the most defining thing for their society. Do these people really consider themselves so exceptional that they believe they personally are responsible for the most important changes in society? Or is it that they are so much engaged in their petty business, that they can't stop selling even when asked a big question? To me it doesn't really matter - either way they fail to live up to the expectations arriving with the question.