| The Digital Age - The Age of Technology Revamped
Technology has abruptly entered the western world or has it? It would certainly be naïve to think any person is immune from its effects. These affects are both negative and positive. Is technology going too fast or too slowly? When did technology develop? We know technology is there but can we manipulate it however, whenever we like? Read on and become a whiz in how technology has stuck its butt into every facet of modern life. Technology simply relates to the way people use their inventions and ideas to suit their own, specific needs. Since the start of mankind, people have always had to work hard to attain their food and shelter, and have had to work to satisfy all their wants and desires. Through the ages, people invented tools, machines, materials, and techniques to make work easier. People have also found ways to gather and use the power of water, wind, steam and electricity to increase their productivity. Many people across the world believe that we live in the age of technology. The 21st century-the age of modern technology. Everyone knows some technological invention has had a major impact on our daily lives. Where would you be without your cable TV? The TV that brings to your living rooms and bedrooms the charm of the big wide world outside. And what about the internet? It has cast a dizzying spell converting teenagers into junkies. Now we can be a couch potato in front of the TV and the computer! Who could leave home without their mobile phone? Forget a social life if you’ve yet to embrace these three inventions. The digital age is thriving at such a breakneck speed that CD’s are on the brink of being obsolete. But we have always lived in a technological age because people have always been inventing new things, and putting new ideas in practice to obtain life’s necessities. Therefore, technology is the use of both basic and advanced tools and methods of work. When technology is talked about in our modern society, people generally mean the industrial technology that helped to bring it about. Technology means different things to different people. Over the years, people have invented tools, machines, materials, and techniques to make work easier. The latest innovations continue to pressurise you and me to keep up or perish. Most people believe the last decade or two to be the dawn of a new era in technological breakthroughs. But we have always lived in a constantly evolving age, both biologically and technologically because people have always been inventing new things, and putting new ideas into practice to obtain life’s necessities and luxuries quicker, more cheaply and with more features. Technology has significantly helped people better manipulate nature, or as some environmentalists may claim, exploit nature. Though few would argue against the claim that technology has been critical in building a civilised way of life. About 800,000 years ago, people learnt how to light fires to provide themselves with heat and light. Although this is a small discovery, it still made a noticeable impact to the way they led their life. Approximately 10,000 years ago, people learnt how to raise animals for domestic use, and how to grow crops and utilise more sophisticated farming methods. Over the ages people settled down in small groups because they were able to produce large quantities of food which helped in creating a sizeable population. People were free to choose jobs other then farming. They could be warriors, priests, craftsmen and more. Economists will tell you specialisation of labour has also lead to major technological advances. All these are what made civilization possible. From there on, society progressed and has never turned back on its quest for ‘greatness’. However few people today would know how to naturally light a fire!
We can only guess what awaits us in the next week, month, decade. Can a world free of wires be a reality in the not-so-distant future? Will computers ever not crash? With space tourism becoming a reality, will we be able to spend the summer in Mars? Some recent inventions came with a huge tangle of wires- from iPods to speakers, and printers to walkmans and radios. Will we ever be wire free? In fact, major home entertainment brands like ‘Phillips’ are looking to make 2005 the year of the freedom from wires. We are beginning to see the emergence of certain wireless objects such as radios, which means that we can now listen to our favourite music in the garden or while jogging without having to worry about tripping over wires! However, are there any repercussions of sitting in the passenger seat while technology goes where it wants to? Perhaps the most controversial use of technology at the moment is cloning. There are 2 main types of cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning stem cells for the use of medical treatment, while reproductive cloning involves reproducing whole people, which may also be utilised for medical treatment. Clones may be utilised for organ donation or replacing bone marrow. Most people opposed to cloning believe it is essentially messing with nature, however bacteria has been reproducing itself [in our bodies] for a lot longer than man has been messing with nature. Does this justify mankind’s use of cloning? I’ll let you decide. Abortion is another hot topic on the complaints list of any anti-technologist. It is another controversial use of technology. Those opposed to abortion claim it is killing another human being. Pro-abortionists claim that prior to a certain age, they are not yet “a person”. Abortion has become a classification issue but what is the benchmark that makes a fetus become a human? Is it a heart beat, is it some level of mental processing? Is it a religious decision? Do we have the right to step in and stop people making a personal decision? If we believe that it is murder, we should never idly sit by while we let the unborn be murdered. If we could agree that abortion is not murder, then are there any other problems with abortion? Are we wasting our time with technology? Do we spend so much time, money and energy in making things more efficient, that we forget that things would be so easy without it. Let’s first consider the constantly crashing, more often down than operational, out of date once it’s out of the box computer. It’s been thought that the computer reduces paperwork but this is very wrong as it is been found that it makes masses of paperwork far easier to produce. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be mourning for too long if I never received junk mail. What if our friends called us or *gasp* just showed up when they wanted to as opposed to messenging over the internet? Question technology and ask yourself where you would be without it. Entertainment and medicine has advanced immensely but have the chat programs facilitated a more superficial relationship with less people? A major problem with technology is that it becomes tough to look back after pushing forward, at which point it may be too late. There may not be an alternative. I’ll leave
you with a recent breakthrough to think about. After you
read the next paragraph, ask if technology has…well… lost
the plot a little. Don’t know about you, but I think I do just fine in identifying jerks.
• www.khaleejtimes.com • http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/cloning.html • http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/08/12/jerk.o.meter.ap/index.html OnSET is an initiative of the Science Communication Program URL: http://www.onset.unsw.edu.au/ Enquiries: onset@unsw.edu.au Authorised by: Will Rifkin, Science Communication Site updated: 7 Febuary, 2006 © UNSW 2006 | Disclaimer  CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G |
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