I’m not a fan of most of the technologies that have been hyped over the past couple of years. I don’t like generative AI, and I don’t like the overall direction that most technology companies seem to be heading. That may make me sound like someone who doesn’t like technology, but on the contrary, I call myself a technologist and I’ve spent my entire life being fascinated by it. It’s just that the products most companies are building lately are either problematic or outright harmful.

(Insert “always has been” meme here)

But the truth is, in the background, under the radar, there are thousands of people working tirelessly on technology to improve the lives of others. There’s an entire slate of unsung tools and products that are making a difference. I thought it might be fun to shout out a list of the technological advancements that I find most exciting, in no particular order:

  • USB-C
  • AV1, FLAC, and other efficient royalty-free codecs
  • Literally all-day computing
  • FSR and DLSS
  • Multi-terabyte SSDs
  • Solar power + battery banks
  • Gigabit fiber
  • Immutable OSes
  • Flatpak + Flathub
  • Fwupd and the Linux Vendor Firmware Service
  • Password managers
  • Universal access to almost all knowledge and culture*
  • Memory-safe program languages
  • Federated platforms and services, like Mastodon and Matrix
  • Really, the entire free desktop and the entire free software stack that enables me use my computer every day!

Of course, that’s not to mention the other countless (and in many cases, more important) technological advances including vaccines, new medicines and safer medical procedures, improvements to sanitation, advances in agriculture, etc.

With so much awful in the world, it’s sometimes challenging to remember that there’s an awful lot of good in it, too. The slow march of progress continues to happen in the background, and mostly in the quiet. If anything, the Artemis II mission that just safely returned to Earth after taking humans the farthest distance away from home (so far!) is a good reminder of what can be achieved when humans work together.