Technical standards: foundations of the future

Abstract

■ Without the cubit, the pyramids could not have been built. Technical standards are the foundation of each technological advance; each innovation is linked by reference to prior technical standards. Each successful innovation furthers the flow of progress. Most innovations cause only a small ripple in that flow, but a few bring about more profound change, and are perhaps the beginnings of a whole new wave.1 Technical standards are a means to chart these rising waves of change. In this article, three classes of technical standards are identified and the changes they influenced are described. A fourth class of technical standards is postulated and some of its effects are predicted. n early example of a standard is the written alphabets developed by the Egyptians and Babylonians around 4000 BC.2 Thus the setting of a standard marks the start of recorded Western history. The Western alphabet continued to evolve for about 3000 years until the Greeks completed the task with the addition of vowels (and the writing of the Homeric tales).3 Alphabets were so desirable that many other, incompatible, alphabets were also developed in other cultures. The creation of multiple alphabets appears to have been caused by minimal communications between different cultures and the desire of each culture to control its own alphabet. So each culture developed its own standard alphabet, many of which survive today. While the alphabet was being developed so were unit standards for length and volume, setting the stage for the next wave of change, the trading wave. Trading, the major activity of merchants, is facilitated by the acceptance of public standards4 for unit measure. Initially, different cultures created different unit standards. Over time, trading (a form of communication) reduced the number of systems of weight and measures significantly. Waves of human progress, technology, and standards are related and overlapping. As humans and technology do, standards follow an evolutionary path. Multiple standards are created and over time are winnowed down to the most desirable and culturally acceptable standards that codify the technical requirements developed during the preceding wave. Later waves build upon previous technical work by referring to the standards. Even the information wave, first described in 1980, has already evolved sufficiently to suggest further division into linear and adaptive phases. Table One describes the periods most relevant to the creation of new classes of technical standards. It is not meant to describe all the waves of progress that have occurred. Technical Standards: Foundations of the Future