The world changed. Here's how.
Your grandfather's doctor probably made house calls, kept notes in a paper ledger, and had no way to run a blood test before Tuesday. Today you can video-chat a physician at midnight and have lab results on your phone by morning. The gap between those two worlds is enormous — and not entirely in the ways you'd expect.
There was a time when taking a photo meant committing to it — paying real money, waiting days, and hoping for the best. Today we snap dozens of shots before breakfast without a second thought. The story of how we got here is wilder than you might expect.
In 1965, driving across America meant paper maps, mystery diners, unreliable motels, and absolutely no guarantee of what was around the next bend. Today's road trip is comfortable, optimized, and almost entirely predictable. We gained a lot — but ask anyone who did it the old way, and they'll tell you something got left behind on the shoulder of Route 66.