The GPS for digital navigation, VoIP for phone calls over the internet, the Laserphaco Probe which is a tool to correct cataracts, the oven, the automatic lubricator, the fibre optic cable — what do these have in common?
They were all brought to you by the minds of Black inventors and technologists: Dr. Gladys West, Marian Croak, Patricia Bath, William Peyton Hubbard, Elijah McCoy, and Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson respectively. Often when we think of inventors, innovators and trailblazers in the world of technology, we imagine white men at the helm: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Elon Musk. Their recognition aligns with our common approach of remembering swaths of history through the accomplishments of men in powerful positions.
But history has many hidden figures in the world of technology, great minds who toiled in the background, researchers who don’t receive accolades because they didn’t publish enough. One overlooked supporter of innovation which is often left out of this equation is government, of which many of these Black inventors worked within.
Key to these breakthroughs and their widespread change is public research and development through business and academic grants, equitable development which grow our economy and make our society a better place to live in, day by day. For cars to hit the road, governments had to build the roads first, create policies to ensure public safety, introduce public education programs for us to gain our driver’s licenses and so on, investing billions behind the scenes, to create the necessary paradigm shift.
The internet, while invented at MIT, was funded by the government through a research and development grant. Every part of the Apple phone can be traced back to government support to the tune of $260 billion. Before private investors drop their millions in Silicon Valley, they seek evidence of government support, Elon Musk’s Tesla included. From microchips to solar technologies, only government provides the long-term investment to drive human progress.
Technology beyond our modern information context, broadly refers to the invention of tools and techniques; this is something humanity has excelled in from stone tools to ceramics to writing to the wheel to the plough to cast iron to steam engine to the fibre optic cable. As we continue on this path, can we rediscover what it means to be inspired and informed by this history of innovation? What does this look like, as a public? We comprise of a diversity of experiences, approaches, and perspectives; it takes all of us to shift public culture from the artisanal to the prototype to social change.
