The Techno-Millennium

The 20th century has been marked by unprecedented technological change. During the last hundred years human beings took to the air and sent sound and images around the world. People walked on the moon, exploded nuclear weapons and began decoding their own chromosomes. Everything from music to financial records to neighborhood gossip was turned into pulses of electricity.

Over the course of this year, National Public Radio will be looking back on this century of technology. Listen to the first report in this occasional series as NPR's Dan Charles tells a story about the forces that drive people to remake their world.

The development of technologies as complex as inertial guidance systems depend on the workings of a simple child's playtoy. The gyroscope appears to be just a spinning disk inside a metal frame. But when the disk is set spinning, it seems to defy gravity. In part two of NPR's series looking back at 20th century technology, listen as Ivan Amato recounts how engineers and scientists have harnessed the gyroscope's unique properties.

Consider the similarities between radio -- brand new in the early part of the century -- and today's Internet. The early wireless "Web" was the freewheeling domain of devoted amateurs who loved nothing better than a good prank. Then radio really took off when advertisers realized it offered a direct way to communicate with consumers, something which commercial interests are rapidly realizing about the Internet. As part of NPR's series on technological change in the 20th century, listen as NPR's Dan Charles examines the impact on society of the new technologies of the past.

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