Technology Then, Technology Now

Man certainly is a clever beast. Of all the organisms that evolved out from the primordial slime, man alone has developed the most resourceful and ingenious means of saving labor and advancing progress, thus assuring his rightful place of supremacy on this planet. I think it’s fitting to marvel at what we’ve done, to view the steps leading up to this technological achievement or that, and congratulate ourselves. Everybody who has lived for more than two decades can immediately think of instances in their own lives where they were affected by technological breakthroughs. In my field of graphic design, I’ve seen the computer change everything. We went from T-square and triangle to the keyboard and mouse, from copy casting, ruling pen and airbrush to QuarkXPress, FreeHand and Photoshop. Things constantly evolve, old notions are continually challenged, accustomed ways become antiquated overnight.

As fascinating as it is to contemplate where we are, I think it’s equally interesting to consider what we used to do when we didn’t have the conveniences of today. For example, before there were calculators, there were slide rules. My father, who was a civil engineer, used a slide rule, and watching him solve math problems with it made you think of a conjurer performing some sleight of hand. Modern aircraft come equipped with a battery of onboard computers, global positioning instruments and so on, but doesn’t knowing what we have now make you gape at Lindbergh’s incredible feat of crossing the Atlantic in what was essentially a flying gas tank steered by a stick? As we peer down through the ages, it’s so easy to romanticize how things were done, the art involved, like navigating wind-powered ships by the stars or building pyramids without modern cranes or earth-moving equipment. Taken to an extreme, it’s easy to imagine a conversation two cavemen might have had after the invention of the wheel, where one turns to the other and says, “Sure, now anyone can move massive boulders from one place to another, but remember what a great dragger Og used to be?”

I bring this up because last night the Fox Movie Channel aired a vintage science documentary that showed how microsurgery was done way back in 1966. Now remember, this occurred long before arthroscopy, CAT scans or MRIs, and any of the minimally-invasive surgical techniques that are available today. The film, aptly entitled Fantastic Voyage, revealed an incredibly inventive way one medical team found to perform brain surgery on a cellular level. That’s right, on a cellular level, and we’re talking nearly forty years ago!

Apparently in 1966, medical science lacked the technology to make such operations possible with the team working from outside of the patient’s body, so they cleverly got around that problem by putting the staff into a submarine, miniaturizing them all to microscopic size and injecting them into the patient’s bloodstream. The only hitch to this technique and the reason why it’s not still used today is that you only have an hour to get the operation done before the patient’s natural defenses attack the sub and its tiny crew. But what an adventure that must have been! During that hour, many things went wrong, but the plucky crew found ways to get around them and successfully complete the operation. Among this pioneering staff, the member who I thought really distinguished herself was Dr. Raquel Welch. For some reason, the filmmakers seemed to concentrate more on Dr. Donald Pleasance as the bright light of this talented company of medical professionals, which I think is a strong comment on how women were viewed back then, because clearly Dr. Welch and not Dr. Pleasance was the one to watch. He constantly overruled her well-considered scientific comments with his own pompous remarks, but, even more irritating, he had a way of blocking my view of her at every possible moment, especially when she leaned over to work the finely calibrated instruments aboard the sub. Midway through the documentary, nearly all the team had to work outside the submarine to make repairs. Seeing Dr. Welch remove her white coveralls to expose the skin-tight wetsuit underneath really made me sit up and take notice. What a physician! When I get a chance today, I plan to scan the online medical journals to see what contributions this fine woman has made since 1966. I’ll also check to see if there are any lifesize cardboard cutouts of her as well, as I find her mere presence so inspirational. Especially in that wetsuit.