Technology has come a very long way over the years.  Back in the 18th century, around the time of the industrial revolution, many things were invented that changed the  lifestyle of the entire human race.  There are also many inventions that still change our lives today.  Its amazing how much we depend on our technology, which is still increasing.
     Before the Industrial Revolution people could not communicate except by letter, and they had a highly inefficient mail system.  The fastest transportation was either carriage drawn by horses or horses themselves. If someone wanted to travel somewhere, they would have to plan on trips measured in weeks and even months, rather than days.  Everything paced slow, and perhaps that is the reason for the dramatic change that occurred.
    All this was dramatically changed by the invention of telephones, telegraphs, steam engines, and railways.  Factories sprung up in response to the growing population’s need of mass produced items and later in the 19th century the electric generator replaced the steam engine used to power them.  The steam engine was also helpful in powering boats, one of the faster methods of transportation at the time.  The cotton gin, mechanical reaper, and artificial fertilizer improved farming profits significantly and helped provide food for the growing population.  It was a time of new ways of doing things, better and faster ways.
     In the modern world we have technologically advanced tenfold since the industrial revolution.  We have Email, the Internet, and cell phones as our primary communications and the postal service has been upgraded many times and become as reliable as the telephone.  We have a vast capacity for storing and finding information with the invention of television, computers and the Internet.  We can travel at supersonic speeds thanks to the jet engine, but the railway system is still in heavy use.  Fatal disease have been dramatically reduced to almost none due to the invention of vaccines and penicillin.  It is safe to say our technology is superior to that which was considered revolutionary in the 18th century.
     However advanced we become, technology is still relative.  What is future-bending one day can be primitive the next. We have definitely come a long way, but how far will we go?  Will the future’s inventions be as superior to our as ours are to the 18th century’s?  We won’t know until we get there.