74 - Global Transportation, Communication and Technology Networks (comprehensive)
Amazon
American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence; founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994; subsidiaries include Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods
American online social network service founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004; had 2.9 billion monthly active users and was world's third most visited website as of 2022
Pan American
American airline with global operations from 1927 to 1991; the leading post-World War II international air carrier and early leader of jet travel
Telstar I
American communication satellite launched in 1962; relayed live transatlantic television, telephone, and data transmissions between the United States and Europe
Henry Ford
American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods; produced over 16 million Model T automobiles from 1908 to 1927
Tesla
American manufacturer of electric automobiles run by Elon Musk; released the Roadster, a completely electric sports car, in 2008
Bill Gates
American computer programmer who cofounded Microsoft Corporation; developed the MS-DOS operating system for the IBM PC in 1981 and the Windows 1.0 operating system in 1985
Martin Cooper
American engineer who designed the first prototype cell phone in 1973
Chunnel
31 mile long rail tunnel between England and France that runs beneath the English Channel; opened in 1994
Panama Canal
40 mile long artificial waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama shortening the voyage between the east and west coasts of the United States by about 8,000 nautical miles; completed in 1914 and solely operated by the U.S. until 1979; full control transferred to Panama in 1999
Space X
American aerospace company founded by Elon Musk in 2002; aims to reduce space travel costs to enable colonization of Mars; has achieved many firsts in space for a private company
Boeing
American aerospace company; manufacturer of commercial jet transports, military aircraft, helicopters, space vehicles, and missiles; largest U.S. exporter
jetpack
Again, kind of a letdown that these aren't commonplace since they've been in the works since the 1950s. Because that would be so cool.
Alan Turing
British mathematician who was an active pioneer of computer science from the 1930s to 1950s; developed the Turing machine, the first general purpose mechanical computer, and the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), one of the first electronic digital computers
Concorde
British-French supersonic passenger jet that operated from 1976 to 2003; had a maximum cruising speed of Mach 2.04 (more than twice the speed of sound) with a flight time from London to New York of under three hours
Alibaba
Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, internet, artifical intelligence, and technology; world's largest online shopping market with transactions totaling more than those of Amazon.com and eBay combined; founded by Jack Ma in 1999
Nokia
Finnish telecommunications company that was the world's leading cell phone manufacturer in the 1990s and 2000s
Airbus
French aerospace company; the world's largest airliner manufacturer as of 2019
V-2 ballistic missiles
German World War II weapon developed by Wernher von Braun; the forerunner of modern space rockets and long-range missiles
Konrad Zuse
German engineer who built the Z3, the first programmable digital computer, in 1941; he also developed Plankalkül, the first high-level computer programming language
Wernher von Braun
German engineer who was a pioneer of rocketry in Nazi Germany and space exploration in the Cold War-era United States as a NASA flight center director
Guglielmo Marconi
Italian physicist and pioneer of shortwave radio communications; sent the first transatlantic radio transmission in 1901
hoverboard
OK, so we sort of have these now, but the real ones are nowhere near as cool as Marty's in Back to the Future II.
Elon Musk
South African-born American entrepreneur; founder of PayPal and SpaceX and CEO of Tesla; purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022
Samsung
South Korean chaebol (business conglomerate); world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker and second largest shipbuilder; also a global leader in construction, insurance, advertising, textiles, banking, petrochemical industries, and more
flying car
Where is mine?! I was led to believe I'd have one of these by now. I'm terribly disappointed. Shame on you, outlandish 20th century sci-fi predictions. We've been working on prototypes since 1917. It's about time.
an artificial intelligence, search engine, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, and consumer electronics company founded in 1998; world's most visited website as of 2022; processes more than 70% of worldwide online search requests
Steve Jobs
cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc. and pioneer of personal computers in the mid-1970s; controlled Pixar computer animation studio from 1986 to 2006; introduced the iMac (1998), iPod (2001), iPhone (2007), and iPad (2010)
Bitcoin
decentralized digital currency created for online transactions by Satoshi Nakamato (a presumed pseudonym) in 2009; relies on public-key cryptography
television
device to receive transmissions of images and sounds; an image of a live human face was first transmitted in 1925; broadcasts began in the U.S. and Britain in the late 1920s and 1930s; widely popularized in the 1950s
personal computer
digital computer designed for use by a single user; became commercially successful with the launch of the Apple II in 1977 and IBM PC in 1981
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
experimental computer network developed in the late 1960s by linking computers at Pentagon-funded research institutions via telephone lines; forerunner of the Internet
Hellschreiber
facsimile (fax) machine developed by German inventor Rudolf Hell in 1929; allowed telephonic transmission of scanned printed material
Sputnik I
first artificial satellite launched into Earth orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957; inaugurated the space race with the United States
World Wide Web
information retrieval service of the internet that gives users access to a vast array of text, images, video, audio, and software; developed in 1989 and made public in 1992
social media
interactive digital technologies, platforms, and services that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks; the first online chat room appeared in 1973
Gotthard Base Tunnel
longest and most deeply set rail tunnel in the world running 35 miles under the Swiss Alps; opened in 2016
maglev
low emission floating train supported by electromagnetic repulsion; first introduced for short commercial lines in 1984; Japan plans to open a high speed line by 2037 that will travel the 319 mile distance from Tokyo to Osaka trip in 67 minutes
satellites
manmade object launched into orbit for Earth observation, communications relay, or space stations; about 8,900 have been launched by more than 40 countries since 1957
YouTube
online video sharing and social media platform founded in 2005; world's second most visited website as of 2022
Alphabet
parent company of Google and YouTube; formed from a corporate restructing in 2015
high-speed rail
rail transport designed to allow speed above 155 mph; first line opened in Japan in 1964; China has built more than 2/3 of total global miles of high-speed rail
intermodal shipping containers
standardized rectangular freight container able to move from ship to rail to truck without unloading and reloading cargo; used to transport goods efficiently and securely throughtout the world; gained widespread use in the 1950s
Apple
technology company that specializes in consumer electronics, software and online services; first successful personal computer company and the popularizer of the graphical user interface; founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976; world's most valuable company valued at over $3 trillion as of 2022
submarine cables
telecommuntions cable enclosed by an insulating sheath and laid on the ocean floor; first connected North America and Europe in 1858 and all continents by 1871; a 5,300 nautical mile cable between Hawaii and Japan could carry 128 simultaneous phone calls by 1964
Big Tech
term for the dominant information technology companies in the United States - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta (parent company of Facebook), and Microsoft
Big Three
term for the three largest automobile manufacturers in either the U.S. (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler), Germany (Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW), Japan (Toyota, Nissan, and Honda), or India (Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, and Tata)
Motorola DynaTAC
the first commercial cellular phone; it offered 30 minutes of talk time and cost $3,995 in 1984 ($10,420 in 2021)
hyperloop
theoretical high speed transportation system proposed by Elon Musk in 2013; a pneumatic tube would transport a pod carrying 28 passengers 350 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes at a top speed of 760 mph
air travel
transportation industry that developed rapidly following the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903
fiber optics
ultrathin, transparent silica or plastic fibers used to transmit data, voice, and images by the passage of light; developed in the 1960s and widely adopted in the late 1970s and 1980s
cellular communication
wireless communication network for voice and data transmission; the initial first generation (1G) network was launched in Japan in 1979
AT&T
world's largest telecommunications company founded in the United States in 1878; held a monopoly on American phone service from 1913 to 1982; largest provider of U.S. mobile phone services as of 2020
Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge
world's longest bridge spanning 102.4 miles along the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway running parallel to the Yangtze River; opened in 2011