Modern Technology You May Be Surprised to Learn Existed in the 1960s

With the mass cultural boom, the 1960s pushed boundaries everywhere. Before the moon landing, the space race pushed the limits of what humans could create. The Cold War spurred investment in military technology, some of which civilians did not become aware of until decades later. Companies, too, were quietly investing in new ideas, with muscle cars, computers, and various visionary gadgets from the 1960s eventually hitting the market.

While the word “technology” in America at that time conjured up images of luxury heavy vehicles, metal sci-fi robots, and even things as simple as a television antenna, the technology of the 1960s had an entirely different effect on the imagination. Record players went from furniture to teenage staples, microwave ovens shortened cooking times, and with the prototype of a portable calculator developed in 1967, it wouldn’t be long before everyone could easily balance their checkbook.

Today, it’s common to think of things like smartphones, electric vehicles, laptops, rockets, and deep space exploration when someone mentions the word “technology.” But the 1960s had a major influence on the technologies we regularly interact with today. In fact, many things that seem modern today not only have their roots in the 1960s, but existed in almost identical form. So let’s take a look at some of these technologies and explore what the 1960s had to offer compared to today.

It’s not uncommon to attend a concert today and find 4K drones flying, or to come across children playing with a toy drone in the park. Today, cheap and reliable drones can be found just about anywhere, with consumer brands like DJI integrating them with technology for professional photographers and videographers. Drone flying has become a popular weekend pastime.

But today’s drones started out much larger, with their roots in the Vietnam War — specifically, an aircraft called the AQM-34 Ryan Firebee. It was an unmanned jet aircraft launched and controlled from a larger host aircraft. It became a serious reconnaissance tool, flying more than 34,000 surveillance missions for the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Ryan Firebee was a far cry from the small consumer drones we know today, but they have a lot in common with today’s military drones. Certainly, drone technologies would never have reached the general public without the idea of ​​a remotely pilotable aircraft. The Firebee is recognized as a direct predecessor to modern surveillance drones, and the concept of unmanned aircraft has even influenced the way we explore space today.

Taking a photo today doesn’t take much effort. For most of us, it’s just a matter of removing the camera from your smartphone. For those with a dedicated camera, simply press the shutter button and transfer the photo to a phone via Bluetooth or via a USB-C SD card reader that fits in a pocket.

But in the 1960s, photography was a whole different game. Cameras were big and bulky, and with no digital option in sight for decades, photographers could only shoot on film. This meant loading film into the camera, taking enough photos to finish a roll, taking that roll to a drugstore or photo lab, and waiting days or even weeks to see the photos. Sharing a photo meant giving it away, requiring photographers to pay for multiple prints.

In 1965, however, the Polaroid Model 20 Swinger was released. It was the first inexpensive instant camera sold in drugstores nationwide for $19.95. Compared to most film cameras of the era, the Model 20 Swinger took virtually no time to produce a developed print. He reduced the process to minutes and became one of the best-selling cameras of all time. Its influence can be seen in some cameras that make photography more fun, and believe it or not, there are similar instant cameras that you can still buy today.

Touchscreens have become so integrated into our daily lives that interacting with a physical button can now seem strange. Smartphones, tablets, ATMs, kitchen appliances, self-checkouts and automotive infotainment systems almost all require screen interactions. Technology has become second nature to the extent that it can be easy to not even recognize when you are interacting with it.

The most popular technology of the 1960s was consumer-oriented, and although it lived on in the pages of comic books and in the world of science fiction films, the touch screen was more of a piece of technology from the 1960s. It was developed by an engineer named EA Johnson in an effort to help air traffic controllers interact with radar screens. The system he developed could detect the position of a finger by measuring changes in an electric field on the screen surface.

Johnson received a patent for this technology in 1969, but it took some time for touchscreens to reach the general public. Several behind-the-scenes advancements were made over the decades, but it wasn’t until Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 that the touchscreen truly hit its peak. The popularity of the iPhone almost instantly normalized the touchscreen among consumers. Because they help reduce the internal and external bulk of electronic devices, more and more gadgets have used touchscreens over the years, and they are now found even in inexpensive electronic devices.

Satellite navigation is another technology that has become common today, with GPS technology even helping to preserve the environment. It hit the mainstream in the early 2000s with services like Google Earth and MapQuest, and found its way into our hands with GPS devices specifically designed to be mounted in a vehicle. Today we can access satellite navigation directly on our phones and smart watches. New restaurants, parks, shortcuts and traffic reports are just a tap of the screen and a quick overview.

The groundwork for all this was laid in 1960, when the U.S. Navy launched Transit 1B, the first satellite in what would become a network of satellites designed to provide land navigation. The project as a whole was known as Transit. Initially accessible only to the Navy, it entered full service in 1964 and in 1968 became a system of 36 satellites. Transit was intended to provide precise positioning data to ballistic missile submarines.

The technology was limited, however, and in the 1970s the U.S. military began work on a successor. This program would become what we call GPS today. It took nearly two decades to develop and spent years being available only for military use. It was eventually made available to the public with limited accuracy until the government lifted all restrictions on GPS in 2000.

Gaming is now its own market in the tech world, with consoles like the Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and the still-unreleased PlayStation 6 making headlines. Even the handheld gaming market has matured, with complex games available on smartphones in addition to their handheld console counterparts. It’s still unclear what direction the market will take with VR headsets, but it’s possible that video games will one day be fully ported.

The 1970s are recognized as the decade of the arrival of video games and home consoles. In the 1980s, all of this became massively successful. The 1960s didn’t see a defining public moment for the home game, but in 1966 a man named Ralph Baer began planting his seeds. He developed a device known as the Brown Box, which was a prototype wooden video game console equipped with two handheld controllers. The Brown Box was capable of playing ping pong, checkers, and several sports games.

Baer’s employer, an electronics company called Sanders Associates, licensed the Brown Box to Magnavox, who marketed it as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Baer would become known as the father of home video games, and although his prototype was short-lived, in the 60 years since its creation, the Brown Box has influenced consoles like the NES, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, and every more modern iteration than we know today.