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12 technologies that changed everything

New technologies emerge all the time, but only a handful change everything that follows in their wake. And they're not always the first of their kind. For example, Gottlieb Daimler may have invented the prototype gas engine vehicle in 1885, but it wasn't a game changer.

For good or ill, the following 12 technologies changed our lives--and sometimes entire industries--in ways both simple and profound. Did we miss anything major? We're sure you'll let us know in the comments below.

1. Zenith Flash-Matic TV Remote (1955)
Think about it: When was the last time you got up off your duff to change the channel? Or, for that matter, manually opened a garage door, used a key to open your car, or turned a knob on any piece of consumer electronics?

Thank the Flash-Matic, the first wireless TV remote, which used flashing lights to turn the set on and off, control volume, and cycle between channels.
Introduced in 1955, it was shortly followed by the Zenith Space Command, which used ultrasonic waves to channel-surf and dominated the lives of couch potatoes until infrared remotes took over in the early 1980s.
Before the remote, TV viewers were likely to pick one channel (of the three available) and watch until the test pattern came on. TV remotes arguably helped pressure broadcasters to produce better shows and more channels (though somehow we still ended up with "Gilligan's Island" and "The Biggest Loser"). They also changed what we expect from our devices.

Now you can use an iPhone app to control not only your TV, but your DVR, computer, home audio gear, the lights in your house, burglar alarms, and certain models of cars. You may never have to get off your duff again.

2. Sputnik (1957)
Like any massively successful project, the Internet has many fathers. But the earliest claim to paternity may belong to an 183-pound hunk of aluminum hurled into orbit on October 4, 1957. Sputnik not only launched the space race, it also started a technological cold war that led to the creation of the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, or ARPA).

"ARPA had a license to look for visionaries and wild ideas and sift them for viable schemes," writes Howard Rheingold in his book The Virtual Community (Chapter Three is called "Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net"). "When [MIT professor J. C. R.] Licklider suggested that new ways of using computers ... could improve the quality of research across the board by giving scientists and office workers better tools, he was hired to organize ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office."

Licklider and his successors at ARPA sought out "unorthodox programming geniuses"--the hackers of their day. The result: ARPAnet, the precursor to today's Internet. Without the space race, the Net might not yet exist. Other side benefits of that massive R&D infusion: advanced microprocessors, graphical interfaces, and memory foam mattresses.