I’ve loved technology for as long as I can remember.
Not casually. Not in a “oh, that’s dope” kind of way. I mean the kind of love where technology didn’t feel like an object, it felt like a portal. Like access. Like possibility.
I remember hearing that dial‑up modem connect for the first time. That chaotic, robotic scream of two machines trying to understand each other. Most people hated that sound. But for me, it was magical. It meant something was about to happen. It meant I was about to see something new. Learn something new. Discover something that didn’t exist in my immediate world.
I remember sitting in front of those big CRT monitors. The ones built like microwaves. Screens so thick they had depth to them. You didn’t just “use” those computers. You experienced them. They had presence. Authority. Weight.
I watched technology evolve in real time. Floppy disks became CDs. CDs became flash drives. Flash drives became cloud storage. Computers shrank. Speeds increased. The internet went from rare… to essential… to unavoidable.
Technology didn’t just improve. It integrated itself into our lives. It became how we communicate, how we create, and how we work. It became a new method for how we expressed ourselves and how we understood the world.
And like most people who grew up loving tech, I knew the names I was taught to know. The mythology was clear. Silicon Valley. The usual suspects. The familiar origin stories.
But the deeper I started digging, the more I realized something that completely changed how I see technology.
Some of the most important technological breakthroughs shaping our everyday lives were created by Black innovators whose names most of us were never taught.
People whose ideas didn’t just contribute to technology. Their ideas became infrastructure.
Mark Dean Helped Build the Foundation of Personal Computing
Before personal computers became normal, they were institutional machines. Massive systems locked away in universities and corporations. Access wasn’t assumed. It was restricted.
Mark Dean helped change that.
As an engineer at IBM, he helped develop the architecture that allowed personal computers to function reliably. Not the branding. Not the outer shell. The internal systems that allow processors, memory, storage, and input devices to communicate.
He holds three of the original nine patents for the IBM Personal Computer.
Three.
Every laptop I’ve ever used. Every video I’ve edited. Every story I’ve written. Every piece of digital expression I’ve shared with the world exists because personal computing became accessible.
And personal computing became accessible because Mark Dean helped make it possible.
Shirley Ann Jackson Helped Build Modern Communication
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson’s research helped lay the groundwork for telecommunications technologies like caller ID, call waiting, and fiber optics.
Fiber optics allowed data to travel using light. Light. That’s why you can stream video instantly. That’s why FaceTime works. That’s why the internet feels instant instead of delayed.
Which means a Black woman helped build the infrastructure behind modern communication itself.
Every time my phone rings and I see who’s calling before answering, I’m interacting with the downstream impact of breakthroughs like hers.
Jerry Lawson Helped Make Gaming Expandable
Gaming wasn’t always expandable. Early consoles were static. Permanent. You bought the system, and that was the experience.
Jerry Lawson helped change that by developing interchangeable game cartridges. That innovation turned gaming into a platform instead of a limitation. Every console I grew up playing. Every game that let me explore a new world. Every late night lost in digital imagination exists because gaming became expandable.
And he helped make that expansion possible.
Philip Emeagwali Helped Make the Internet Scalable
The internet doesn’t just exist… Like a blob of information waiting for us to interact with it. It operates at scale.
Philip Emeagwali helped pioneer parallel computing, allowing computers to process massive amounts of information simultaneously. Every search. Every stream. Every digital interaction depends on that ability. The internet feels instant because computing became scalable.
And computing became scalable because innovators like him pushed its boundaries.
Lisa Gelobter Helped the Internet Become Human
There was a time when the internet was purely functional. Static. Informational.
Lisa Gelobter helped change that by pioneering animation technologies that gave the internet emotional expression. GIFs. Memes. Reaction culture. The internet didn’t just become faster.
It became human.
Valerie Thomas Helped Expand Human Perception
NASA physicist Valerie Thomas helped develop imaging technologies that allowed machines to visualize data in new ways. Medical imaging. Satellite imaging. Visualization systems. She helped expand how technology sees. Which ultimately helped expand how we see.
Timnit Gebru Is Helping Shape the Future of AI
Artificial intelligence is shaping the future of technology. Timnit Gebru is helping ensure that future evolves responsibly by exposing bias and pushing for accountability.
Timnit Gebru’s research helped expose a critical issue with facial recognition systems.
Many AI models were significantly less accurate when identifying darker-skinned individuals. Particularly darker-skinned women. Not because the technology was malicious. But because it was incomplete. Because it hadn’t been trained on diverse enough datasets. Because the systems weren’t designed with the full spectrum of humanity in mind.
And that matters. Because artificial intelligence isn’t just a novelty. It’s infrastructure. It’s being used in hiring decisions. Security systems. Law enforcement. Healthcare diagnostics. Financial systems. Areas where accuracy isn’t optional. Where fairness isn’t optional. Where representation isn’t optional.
Timnit Gebru didn’t just contribute to artificial intelligence. She helped challenge it. She helped push the field toward accountability. Toward responsibility. Toward awareness. She helped ensure that artificial intelligence evolves in ways that reflect humanity more completely. And what makes her role in this story so important is that she represents continuity.
Because innovation didn’t stop in the past…It’s still happening.
The Technology We Use Still Carries Their Brilliance
I built my career on technology shaped by people whose names I was never taught. Every video I’ve edited. Every podcast I’ve recorded. Every idea I’ve shared with the world exists because of systems they helped create.
Their brilliance became embedded in modern technology. Permanent. Intertwined with everything we do. The technology we use every single day still carries their brilliance inside it.
And it always will.
