Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution, also known as the

Third Industrial Revolution, is the shift
from mechanical and analogue electronic
technologies from the Industrial Revolution
towards digital electronics which began in
the latter half of the 20th century, with the
adoption and proliferation of digital
computers and digital record-keeping, that
continues to the present day.[1] Implicitly,
the term also refers to the sweeping
changes brought about by digital
computing and communication
technologies during this period. From
analogies to the Agricultural Revolution
(Neolithic) and the First Industrial
Revolution (1760-1840), the Digital
Revolution marked the beginning of the
Information Age.[2]

Central to this revolution is the mass

production and widespread use of digital
logic, MOSFETs (MOS transistors),
integrated circuit (IC) chips, and their
derived technologies, including computers,
microprocessors, digital cellular phones,
and the Internet.[3] These technological
innovations have
Third Industrial
transformed Revolution
traditional
c. 1947 – ongoing
production and
business
techniques.[4]

Since 2015, a Fourth Image from a

Industrial Revolution brochure advertising
has been proposed the American 286-A
personal computer
to follow the Third
in 1986
Industrial
Revolution.[5] Location Worldwide

Key MOSFETs
events Digital logic
 Integrated
History circuits
Computers
Microprocess
Cellular phone
Internet

Chronology
Rings of time showing some
important dates in the Digital
Revolution from 1968 to 2017 Second Ongoing

The Second Industrial

Revolution
Industrial Revolution
in the last quarter of
the 19th century led
to important underlying technology,
including Charles Babbage's Analytical
Engine and the telegraph.
Digital communication became
economical for widespread adoption after
the invention of the personal computer.
Claude Shannon, a Bell Labs
mathematician, is credited for having laid
out the foundations of digitalization in his
pioneering 1948 article, A Mathematical
Theory of Communication.[6]

The digital revolution converted

technology from analog format to digital
format. By doing this, it became possible
to make copies that were identical to the
original. In digital communications, for
example, repeating hardware was able to
amplify the digital signal and pass it on
with no loss of information in the signal. Of
equal importance to the revolution was the
ability to easily move the digital
information between media, and to access
or distribute it remotely.

The turning point of the revolution was the

change from analogue to digitally
recorded music.[7] During the 1980s the
digital format of optical compact discs
gradually replaced analog formats, such
as vinyl records and cassette tapes, as the
popular medium of choice.[8]
1947–1969: Origins

In 1947, the first working transistor, the

germanium-based point-contact transistor,
was invented by John Bardeen and Walter
Houser Brattain while working under
William Shockley at Bell Labs.[9] This led
the way to more advanced digital
computers. From the late 1940s,
universities, military, and businesses
developed computer systems to digitally
replicate and automate previously
manually performed mathematical
calculations, with the LEO being the first
commercially available general-purpose
computer.
Other important technological
developments included the invention of the
monolithic integrated circuit chip by Robert
Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in
1959[10] (made possible by the planar
process developed by Jean Hoerni),[11] the
first successful metal–oxide–
semiconductor field-effect transistor
(MOSFET, or MOS transistor) by Mohamed
Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in
1959,[12] and the development of the
complementary MOS (CMOS) process by
Frank Wanlass and Chih-Tang Sah at
Fairchild in 1963.[13]
In 1962 AT&T deployed the T-carrier for
long-haul pulse-code modulation (PCM)
digital voice transmission. The T1 format
carried 24 pulse-code modulated, time-
division multiplexed speech signals each
encoded in 64 kbit/s streams, leaving 8
kbit/s of framing information which
facilitated the synchronization and
demultiplexing at the receiver. Over the
subsequent decades the digitisation of
voice became the norm for all but the last
mile (where analogue continued to be the
norm right into the late 1990s).

Following the development of MOS

integrated circuit chips in the early 1960s,
MOS chips reached higher transistor
density and lower manufacturing costs
than bipolar integrated circuits by 1964.
MOS chips further increased in complexity
at a rate predicted by Moore's law, leading
to large-scale integration (LSI) with
hundreds of transistors on a single MOS
chip by the late 1960s. The application of
MOS LSI chips to computing was the basis
for the first microprocessors, as engineers
began recognizing that a complete
computer processor could be contained
on a single MOS LSI chip.[14] In 1968,
Fairchild engineer Federico Faggin
improved MOS technology with his
development of the silicon-gate MOS chip,
which he later used to develop the Intel
4004, the first single-chip
microprocessor.[15] It was released by Intel
in 1971, and laid the foundations for the
microcomputer revolution that began in the
1970s.

MOS technology also led to the

development of semiconductor image
sensors suitable for digital cameras.[16]
The first such image sensor was the
charge-coupled device, developed by
Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith at
Bell Labs in 1969,[17] based on MOS
capacitor technology.[16]
1969–1989: Invention of the Internet,
rise of home computers

A visualization of the various routes through

a portion of the Internet (created via The
Opte Project)

The public was first introduced to the

concepts that led to the Internet when a
message was sent over the ARPANET in
1969. Packet switched networks such as
ARPANET, Mark I, CYCLADES, Merit
Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, were
developed in the late 1960s and early
1970s using a variety of protocols. The
ARPANET in particular led to the
development of protocols for
internetworking, in which multiple separate
networks could be joined into a network of
networks.

The Whole Earth movement of the 1960s

advocated the use of new technology.[18]

In the 1970s, the home computer was

introduced,[19] time-sharing computers,[20]
the video game console, the first coin-op
video games,[21][22] and the golden age of
arcade video games began with Space
Invaders. As digital technology
proliferated, and the switch from analog to
digital record keeping became the new
standard in business, a relatively new job
description was popularized, the data
entry clerk. Culled from the ranks of
secretaries and typists from earlier
decades, the data entry clerk's job was to
convert analog data (customer records,
invoices, etc.) into digital data.

In developed nations, computers achieved

semi-ubiquity during the 1980s as they
made their way into schools, homes,
business, and industry. Automated teller
machines, industrial robots, CGI in film and
television, electronic music, bulletin board
systems, and video games all fueled what
became the zeitgeist of the 1980s. Millions
of people purchased home computers,
making household names of early
personal computer manufacturers such as
Apple, Commodore, and Tandy. To this day
the Commodore 64 is often cited as the
best selling computer of all time, having
sold 17 million units (by some
accounts)[23] between 1982 and 1994.

In 1984, the U.S. Census Bureau began

collecting data on computer and Internet
use in the United States; their first survey
showed that 8.2% of all U.S. households
owned a personal computer in 1984, and
that households with children under the
age of 18 were nearly twice as likely to
own one at 15.3% (middle and upper
middle class households were the most
likely to own one, at 22.9%).[24] By 1989,
15% of all U.S. households owned a
computer, and nearly 30% of households
with children under the age of 18 owned
one.[25] By the late 1980s, many
businesses were dependent on computers
and digital technology.

Motorola created the first mobile phone,

Motorola DynaTac, in 1983. However, this
device used analog communication -
digital cell phones were not sold
commercially until 1991 when the 2G
network started to be opened in Finland to
accommodate the unexpected demand for
cell phones that was becoming apparent in
the late 1980s.

Compute! magazine predicted that CD-

ROM would be the centerpiece of the
revolution, with multiple household devices
reading the discs.[26]

The first true digital camera was created in

1988, and the first were marketed in
December 1989 in Japan and in 1990 in the
United States.[27] By the mid-2000s, they
had eclipsed traditional film in popularity.
Digital ink was also invented in the late
1980s. Disney's CAPS system (created
1988) was used for a scene in 1989's The
Little Mermaid and for all their animation
films between 1990's The Rescuers Down
Under and 2004's Home on the Range.

1989–2005: Invention of the World

Wide Web, mainstreaming of the
Internet, Web 1.0

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide

Web in 1989.

The first public digital HDTV broadcast

was of the 1990 World Cup that June; it
was played in 10 theaters in Spain and
Italy. However, HDTV did not become a
standard until the mid-2000s outside
Japan.

The World Wide Web became publicly

accessible in 1991, which had been
available only to government and
universities.[28] In 1993 Marc Andreessen
and Eric Bina introduced Mosaic, the first
web browser capable of displaying inline
images[29] and the basis for later browsers
such as Netscape Navigator and Internet
Explorer. Stanford Federal Credit Union
was the first financial institution to offer
online internet banking services to all of its
members in October 1994.[30] In 1996 OP
Financial Group, also a cooperative bank,
became the second online bank in the
world and the first in Europe.[31] The
Internet expanded quickly, and by 1996, it
was part of mass culture and many
businesses listed websites in their ads. By
1999, almost every country had a
connection, and nearly half of Americans
and people in several other countries used
the Internet on a regular basis. However
throughout the 1990s, "getting online"
entailed complicated configuration, and
dial-up was the only connection type
affordable by individual users; the present
day mass Internet culture was not
possible.

In 1989, about 15% of all households in the

United States owned a personal
computer.[32] For households with children,
nearly 30% owned a computer in 1989, and
in 2000, 65% owned one.

Cell phones became as ubiquitous as

computers by the early 2000s, with movie
theaters beginning to show ads telling
people to silence their phones. They also
became much more advanced than
phones of the 1990s, most of which only
took calls or at most allowed for the
playing of simple games.

Text messaging existed in the 1990s but

was not widely used until the early 2000s,
when it became a cultural phenomenon.

The digital revolution became truly global

in this time as well - after revolutionizing
society in the developed world in the
1990s, the digital revolution spread to the
masses in the developing world in the
2000s.

By 2000, a majority of U.S. households had

at least one personal computer and
internet access the following year.[33] In
2002, a majority of U.S. survey
respondents reported having a mobile
phone.[34]

2005–present: Web 2.0, social media,

smartphones, digital TV

In late 2005 the population of the Internet

reached 1 billion,[35] and 3 billion people
worldwide used cell phones by the end of
the decade. HDTV became the standard
television broadcasting format in many
countries by the end of the decade. In
September and December 2006
respectively, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands became the first countries to
completely transition from analog to
digital television. In September 2007, a
majority of U.S. survey respondents
reported having broadband internet at
home.[36] According to estimates from the
Nielsen Media Research, approximately
45.7 million U.S. households in 2006 (or
approximately 40 percent of approximately
114.4 million) owned a dedicated home
video game console,[37][38] and by 2015, 51
percent of U.S. households owned a
dedicated home video game console
according to an Entertainment Software
Association annual industry report.[39][40]
By 2012, over 2 billion people used the
Internet, twice the number using it in 2007.
Cloud computing had entered the
mainstream by the early 2010s. In January
2013, a majority of U.S. survey
respondents reported owning a
smartphone.[41] By 2016, half of the
world's population was connected[42] and
as of 2020, that number has risen to
67%.[43]

Rise in digital technology use

of computers
In the late 1980s, less than 1% of the
world's technologically stored information
was in digital format, while it was 94% in
2007, with more than 99% by 2014.[44]
It is estimated that the world's capacity to
store information has increased from 2.6
(optimally compressed) exabytes in 1986,
to some 5,000 exabytes in 2014 (5
zettabytes).[44][45]

1990

Cell phone subscribers: 12.5 million

(0.25% of world population in 1990)[46]
Internet users: 2.8 million (0.05% of
world population in 1990)[47]

2000

Cell phone subscribers: 1.5 billion (19%

of world population in 2002)[47]
 Internet users: 631 million (11% of world
population in 2002)[47]

2010

Cell phone subscribers: 4 billion (68% of

world population in 2010)[48]
Internet users: 1.8 billion (26.6% of world
population in 2010)[42]

2020

Cell phone subscribers: 4.78 billion (62%

of world population in 2020)[49]
Internet users: 4.54 billion (59% of world
population in 2020)[50]
 A university computer lab containing many
desktop PCs

Converted technologies
Conversion of below analog technologies
to digital. (The decade indicated is the
period when digital became dominant
form.)

Analog computer to digital computer

(1950s)
Telex to fax (1980s)
Phonograph cylinder, gramophone
record and compact cassette to
compact disc (1980s and 1990s,
although sales of vinyl records have
increased again in the 2010s among
antique collectors)
VHS to DVD (2000s)
Analog photography (photographic plate
and photographic film) to digital
photography (2000s)
Analog cinematography (film stock) to
digital cinematography (2010s)

Analog Compact Cassette in

background, with digital UMD and
MiniDisc in foreground
 Analog television to digital television
(2010s)
Analog radio to digital radio (2020s
(expected))
Analog mobile phone (1G) to digital
mobile phone (2G) (1990s)
Analog watch and clock to digital watch
and clock (not yet predictable)
Analog thermometer to digital
thermometer (2010s)
Offset printing to digital printing (2020s
(expected))

Decline or disappearance of below analog

technologies:
 Mail (parcel to continue, others to be
discontinued) (2020s (expected))
Telegram (2010s)
Typewriter (2010s)

Disappearance of other technologies also

attributed to digital revolution. (Analog–
digital classification doesn't apply to
these.)

CRT (2010s)
Plasma display (2010s)
CCFL backlit LCDs (2010s)

Improvements in digital technologies.

 Desktop computer to laptop to tablet
computer
DVD to Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray
2G to 3G to 4G to 5G
Mobile phone to smartphone (2010s)
Digital watch to smartwatch
Analog weighing scale to digital
weighing scale

Technological basis
The basic building block of the Digital
Revolution is the metal-oxide-
semiconductor field-effect transistor
(MOSFET, or MOS transistor),[51] which is
the most widely manufactured device in
history.[52] It is the basis of every
microprocessor, memory chip and
telecommunication circuit in commercial
use.[53] MOSFET scaling (rapid
miniaturization of MOS transistors) has
been largely responsible for enabling
Moore's law, which predicted that
transistor counts would increase at an
exponential pace.[54][55][56]

Following the development of the digital

personal computer, MOS microprocessors
and memory chips, with their steadily
increasing performance and storage, have
enabled computer technology to be
embedded into a huge range of objects
from cameras to personal music players.
Also important was the development of
transmission technologies including
computer networking, the Internet and
digital broadcasting. 3G phones, whose
social penetration grew exponentially in
the 2000s, also played a very large role in
the digital revolution as they
simultaneously provide ubiquitous
entertainment, communications, and online
connectivity.

Socio-economic impact
Positive aspects include greater
interconnectedness, easier
communication, and the exposure of
information that in the past could have
more easily been suppressed by
totalitarian regimes. Michio Kaku wrote in
his books Physics of the Future that the
failure of the Soviet coup of 1991 was due
largely to the existence of technology such
as the fax machine and computers that
exposed classified information.

The Revolutions of 2011 were enabled by

social networking and smartphone
technology; however these revolutions in
hindsight largely failed to reach their goals
as hardcore Islamist governments and in
Syria a civil war have formed in the
absence of the dictatorships that were
toppled.

The economic impact of the digital

revolution has been wide-ranging. Without
the World Wide Web (WWW), for example,
globalization and outsourcing would not
be nearly as feasible as they are today.
The digital revolution radically changed the
way individuals and companies interact.
Small regional companies were suddenly
given access to much larger markets.
Concepts such as on-demand software
services and manufacturing and rapidly
dropping technology costs made possible
innovations in all aspects of industry and
everyday life.

After initial concerns of an IT productivity

paradox, evidence is mounting that digital
technologies have significantly increased
the productivity and performance of
businesses.[57]

The Digital transformation allowed

technology to continuously adapt which
resulted in a boost in the economy with an
increase of productivity. With the increase
of technical advances, digital revolution
has created a demand for new job skills.
Economically, retailers, trucking
companies and banks have transitioned
into digital format. In addition, the
introduction of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin
creates faster and secure transactions.[58]

Negative effects include information

overload, Internet predators, forms of
social isolation, and media saturation. In a
poll of prominent members of the national
news media, 65 percent said the Internet is
hurting journalism more than it is
helping[59] by allowing anyone no matter
how amateur and unskilled to become a
journalist; causing information to be
muddier and the rise of conspiracy theory
in a way it didn't exist in the past.
In some cases, company employees'
pervasive use of portable digital devices
and work related computers for personal
use—email, instant messaging, computer
games—were often found to, or perceived
to, reduce those companies' productivity.
Personal computing and other non-work
related digital activities in the workplace
thus helped lead to stronger forms of
privacy invasion, such as keystroke
recording and information filtering
applications (spyware and content-control
software).
Information sharing and privacy

Privacy in general became a concern

during the digital revolution. The ability to
store and utilize such large amounts of
diverse information opened possibilities
for tracking of individual activities and
interests. Libertarians and privacy rights
advocates feared the possibility of an
Orwellian future where centralized power
structures control the populace via
automatic surveillance and monitoring of
personal information in such programs as
the CIA's Information Awareness Office.[60]
Consumer and labor advocates opposed
the ability to direct market to individuals,
discriminate in hiring and lending
decisions, invasively monitor employee
behavior and communications and
generally profit from involuntarily shared
personal information.

The Internet, especially the WWW in the

1990s, opened whole new avenues for
communication and information sharing.
The ability to easily and rapidly share
information on a global scale brought with
it a whole new level of freedom of speech.
Individuals and organizations were
suddenly given the ability to publish on any
topic, to a global audience, at a negligible
cost, particularly in comparison to any
previous communication technology.

Large cooperative projects could be

endeavored (e.g. Open-source software
projects, SETI@home). Communities of
like-minded individuals were formed (e.g.
MySpace, Tribe.net). Small regional
companies were suddenly given access to
a larger marketplace.

In other cases, special interest groups as

well as social and religious institutions
found much of the content objectionable,
even dangerous. Many parents and
religious organizations became alarmed
by pornography being more readily
available to minors. In other
circumstances the proliferation of
information on such topics as child
pornography, building bombs, committing
acts of terrorism, and other violent
activities were alarming to many different
groups of people. Such concerns
contributed to arguments for censorship
and regulation on the WWW.

Copyright and trademark issues

Copyright and trademark issues also

found new life in the digital revolution. The
widespread ability of consumers to
produce and distribute exact
reproductions of protected works
dramatically changed the intellectual
property landscape, especially in the
music, film, and television industries.

The digital revolution, especially regarding

privacy, copyright, censorship and
information sharing, remains a
controversial topic. As the digital
revolution progresses it remains unclear to
what extent society has been impacted
and will be altered in the future.

With the advancement of digital

technology, copyright infringements will
become difficult to detect. They will occur
more frequently, will be difficult to prove
and the public will continue to find
loopholes around the law. Digital recorders
for example, can be used personally and
private use making the distributions of
copywritten material discreet.[61]

Concerns
While there have been huge benefits to
society from the digital revolution,
especially in terms of the accessibility of
information, there are a number of
concerns. Expanded powers of
communication and information sharing,
increased capabilities for existing
technologies, and the advent of new
technology brought with it many potential
opportunities for exploitation. The digital
revolution helped usher in a new age of
mass surveillance, generating a range of
new civil and human rights issues.
Reliability of data became an issue as
information could easily be replicated, but
not easily verified. For example, the
introduction of Cryptocurrency, opens
possibility for illegal trade, such as the
sale of drugs, guns and black market
transaction.[58] The digital revolution made
it possible to store and track facts,
articles, statistics, as well as minutiae
hitherto unfeasible.
From the perspective of the historian, a
large part of human history is known
through physical objects from the past
that have been found or preserved,
particularly in written documents. Digital
records are easy to create but also easy to
delete and modify. Changes in storage
formats can make recovery of data
difficult or near impossible, as can the
storage of information on obsolete media
for which reproduction equipment is
unavailable, and even identifying what such
data is and whether it is of interest can be
near impossible if it is no longer easily
readable, or if there is a large number of
such files to identify. Information passed
off as authentic research or study must be
scrutinized and verified.

These problems are further compounded

by the use of digital rights management
and other copy prevention technologies
which, being designed to only allow the
data to be read on specific machines, may
well make future data recovery impossible.
The Voyager Golden Record, which is
intended to be read by an intelligent
extraterrestrial (perhaps a suitable parallel
to a human from the distant future), is
recorded in analog rather than digital
format specifically for easy interpretation
and analysis.
Implications
The shift to digitization in the
contemporary media world has created
implications for traditional mass media
products. With more technology advances,
the more converged the realm of mass
media will become with less need for
traditional communication technologies.
For example, the Internet has transformed
many communication norms, creating
more efficiency not only for individuals but
also for businesses. However, McQuail
suggests traditional media have also
benefited greatly from new media, allowing
more effective and efficient resources
available.[62]

Environmental impact

The digital technology industry is one of

the least sustainable and most
environmentally damaging sectors in the
modern world,[63][64] due to its inextricable
link to the electronics industry and the
waste produced by it.[65] Digitization
facilitates the mass propagation of data,
which requires the existence of data
centers for processing and storage. These
centers consume significant amounts of
the electricity supply of a host country.[66]
See also
Revolution
Neolithic Revolution
Agricultural Revolution
Scientific Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Second Industrial Revolution
Environmental revolution
Information revolution
Microcomputer revolution
Nanotechnology
Technological revolution
The Triple Revolution
Dot-com company
Digital native
Digital omnivore
Digital addict
Digital phobic
Electronic document
Fourth Industrial Revolution
Great Regression
Indigo Era
Japanese economic miracle, a period of
rapid growth and innovation in Japan
which roughly coincided with the Third
Industrial Revolution
Paperless office
 Post–Cold War era
Telework
Timeline of electrical and electronic
engineering
Telecommunications

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External links
Virginia Heffernan (New Wikibooks
has a book
York Times) - The
on the topic
Digital Revolution (http of: The
Information
s://web.archive.org/we
Age
b/20110720215121/htt
p://cle.ens-lyon.fr/93744078/0/fiche___
pagelibre/)
 Virginia Heffernan (New York Times), an
interview (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0110720215134/http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/0
0082720/0/fiche___pagelibre/)
Digital Transformation Reshaping The
Business Model (https://www.vizzwebso
lutions.com/digital-transformation-resh
aping-the-business-models/)
The Digital Revolution: A Historical
Perspective (https://tecroxy.com/digital-
revolution/)

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