Napier's bones, invented in 1617, were physical rods used for multiplication before calculators.

Netflix was founded as a DVD mail rental service — it didn't launch streaming until 2007.

More than 90% of the world's currency exists only digitally — not as physical cash.

The first computer bug was an actual bug — a moth found trapped in a Harvard Mark II relay in 1947.

The World Wide Web made internet access widely usable.

GPS exists because of Einstein’s theory of relativity correcting time differences.

The electric light bulb is often attributed to Edison, but at least 22 inventors worked on incandescent lights before him.

Iceland runs almost entirely on geothermal and hydroelectric energy — it is one of the greenest countries on Earth.

The fax machine was invented before the telephone.