EOTO 1 Reaction (What I learned)

Throughout many of the EOTO Presentations, I learned new things about technologies that I use everyday that I take for granted. One key takeaway that I took away from the entirety of the presentations is how vast the world of technology is. When I think of technology, items such as computers and smartphones immediately come to mind. Others, however, I failed to recognize as "technology" before these presentations, such as the printing press, the telegraph, and carrier pigeons.  In hindsight, this is because I was failing to distinguish the differences between technology and electronics. 

I learned the most from the presentation about carrier pigeons because it was the technology that I knew the least about. I was shocked that it was used as early as 10,000 BC. I had also never understood the methodology of how. the birds found where they where they were going, so I was fascinated to learn more about that process, and how they are really only trained to go to one location. They are taken away from the epicenter and they always find the way back to that pinpoint. I also thought that it was very interesting that they were used in more recent wars in order to avoid modern war technology and tracking. It shows that sometimes, older technology can still be useful even when other inventions evolve and surpass it. 

I also thought that the presentation on the telegraph was very interesting for the same reason as the carrier pigeon, I did not know a lot about it. I was surprised to find out how expensive it was to get started and I did not know that it was considered a luxury at first. Even though it was patented in 1837, the first message was not sent until 1844.