The second half of the 20th century has been a period of enormous scientific achievement and technological change. The challenge this week is not to understand what these changes produced—simply look around you for that—but to understand the historical meaning they carry.
The key technologies discussed this week include the development of aviation, nuclear weapons, spaceflight, and the electronic digital computer. There are many web sites for the exploration of these topics, and you are encouraged to explore on your own if you wish, using such web search tools as Google to find particularly useful sites to visit.
A key theme is the emergence of a large scientific and technological establishment, shaped in large part by military and other government needs and priorities. Listen to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's remarkable Farewell Address from January 1961 to get a sense of how the emergence of this so-called "Military-Industrial Complex" created great concern, even from someone whose entire life had been devoted to the military establishment. Alternatively, you can read the text of the Farewell Address.
Here are some useful places to start in exploring a couple of the week's key topics:
On the History of Spaceflight
Space history: Aviation, rocketry and pre-manned flight
President Kennedy's Explanation for the Space Program
On the History of the Computer and the Internet
Virtual Exhibit on the ENIAC computer
The History of Computers - Computer History Timeline
Hobbes' Internet Timeline-history
of the Internet