We are living in the 21st century. Four centuries has passed since human being first learned to developed and used what we commonly knew today as technology. The transition of the past to the present had produced tremendous yet productive, helpful but sometimes destructive technologies that became part of human life. Technology had a huge influence on how people made their living today, their lifestyle, how they behave and also how they deal their work. Clearly, human being depends on technology to survive. Believe it or not, technology will continue to grow and change through time and will still affect the lives of every human being.
Everything in this world is created to undergo a process what we called change and technology also goes the same. But technological change was totally different in a sense that it occurs in a fast pace. So fast that even the person who were involved in development didn’t anticipated its effects to the society. For the past 4 centuries, technologies that were developed were so many that maybe one day is not enough to count all of them. So many that in every field of industrialization you belong, there are always technologies that accompany you from all tasks. Technology has become a reliable side kick of every human in facing their daily tasks.
Navigating our history, we can see how our technology evolved from their ancestors in the past up to this generation. Of course past technologies served as the background or the framework on what technologies should look like. These technologies from the past seemed to be the most difficult since there was no guide for them on how they model their work. Another is that due to limited resources and also how they will convince people to believe in their work. But despite all odds, these technologies emerged victorious. Technologies from the past has served human needs and caused human lives changed dramatically. Throughout the history, technologies were never perfected in whatever means; functionality, safety and many more. This imperfection has resulted technology to grow and allow people to explore more on capabilities of technologies, how far will these technologies aid people in their daily tasks. The major flaw of past technologies is that it bulky and is not portable. Computers in the early stages of its development were such a huge dumb machine. One simple computer that processes basic operations was such as large as a one room. That’s how huge technologies before. But size is not a problem anymore in the present. The transition from the 18th century to the 21st century proved to be a long but fruitful transition as technologies becoming faster and smaller though time, improving the quality of life for those who patronize it. Though technologies undergo changes but still it wasn’t perfected because human needs don’t stop changing and also human being will never be contented on what they are doing or what they have accomplished in life. These human traits however made technology continue to grow and improve.
The capabilities of technologies have extended human imagination. Technologies in the present era can perform what we think impossible to do by these machines. Technologies in the 21st century have already conquered human imagination. We are living in a century where human almost becoming useless in terms on manpower. Everything human being can do could be done by machines faster and more accurate. A century where technological change reached its peak when it comes to improving the quality of life of people using it. But come to think of it, what will these look like in the future? Take note that it is not yet the end of the world and technology will surely be changing once again. What’s next when it comes to technology? For the past, we have been shocked by the effects of technological development. In the future, how are we going to prepare for the good and bad effects of these changes? Since these technological changes are inevitable force in which human should face that’s why preparedness play an important role on this events for human.
What’s new in technology? Prominent sites over the internet have named several new inventions that are very promising and very futuristic in terms of the features these new technologies possess. Here are some of the remarkable inventions that has reached the market for the past 5 years.
Medicine
This field is one of the most concentrated fields of technological development. Curing diseases has been the priority of everybody that’s why developing technologies that will be very helpful in medical treatment were developed. Among of the latest trend in medicine is what we called nano medicine. This new trend in medical treatment is using nanotechnology to diagnose and cure different diseases. With the use of nanotechnology, microchips can now be implanted inside the human body to keep track of the conditions of our different body organs, our blood circulation and cell conditions. Nanotechnology in medicine could replace bulky machines used in operations and even doctors in the future. This trend has not yet turn into perfections by the developers but in the near future, this nanotechnology in the field of medicine will be perfected and will be very precise, accurate and inexpensive. Nano medicine could be of great help in medical treatment.
There is also a small device that can kill cancer cells in the human body. We know that cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in which no direct medications has already invented.
Another trend in medicine aside from the nanotechnology is the laser surgery, or using laser in surgery. This laser technology is the best replacement to the current needle and thread that surgeons are using.
Transportation
With the ongoing problems regarding the high price of gasoline and other petroleum products, I can see in the future that the trend will going to be developing new models of automobiles that will be using alternatives to fuel like renewable energy and those energy that are coming from other natural sources like bio fuels, windmill, electricity and other fuel sources. Among of the latest developments in automobiles is Hydrogen Powered Vehicle by the Filipino inventor Engr. Daniel Dingle. He invented a new model of automobile that is using water as fuel. This new technologies has been used by car companies like Honda and Chevrolet.
There are also vehicles that are using electricity in countries like United States (Miles ZX40S Electric Car). As of this moment, there are a lot of electric car models introduced in the market.
Not only cars have been converted to electricity fueled but also other means of transportation like trains.
With the world engaged in the serious fight against climate change, this automobiles powered by this renewable energies will surely hit the market.
Energy Sources
Environmentalists and the United Nation has identified the excessive use of fossil fuel is the primary cause of global warming and climate change. Several technologies are dependent with fossil fuels to power them like automobiles and in factories. With the world in a serious fight against climate change and global warming, world leaders and expert groups have been promoting alternatives to fossil fuels.
Among of the renewable energies endorsed by world leaders are the solar power, windmills, bio diesel, hydrogen and ethanol. These energies may not be as powerful as the petroleum, but these are far more environment friendly and economical.
Computing
Computers seemed to be the best invention of all. Computers served human a lot of purposes, from calculations to socialization. Computers has been the best tool on every field; medicine, mathematics, science and even in military. As we go along, computers are becoming smaller and faster. Current computers can actually process billions of instructions per second. With the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web, computers have become superior among all of the technologies existed.
May 26, 2008 marked another milestone in the field of computerization as the fastest computer of all finally introduced in the market. This supercomputer nicknamed “Road Runner” has the capability to process 1 quadrillion calculations per second. This technology was primarily developed to simulate the effects of aging on nuclear weapons.
One of the major disadvantage of continuous domination of computers and other electronic gadgets is that they are also the primary reasons of climate change and global warming. Because of these facts, Experts are now proposing what they called “Green Computing”. This advocacy has the primary goal of promoting measures that will limit the emission of greenhouse gases of these devices and also promotes on using energy star electronic gadgets.
Computerization in the future will be thinking of the environment first before the pleasure human can get from using technologies specially computers.
Astronomy
With the discovery that there is a possibility of human survival in Mars, astronomers developed robots that have the capability to navigate Mars and record some samples from the planet. More and more sophisticated space shuttles were developed to conquer the space and the universe.
Space shuttles in the future allows astronomers to inch closer to the sun to know its characteristics and can navigate away from the solar system to study if there are lives other than human being in the universe to prove the existence of aliens.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most controversial fields of technology. Making computers as intelligent as humans is the primary goal of Artificial Intelligence. There have been a lot of machines particularly robots that are invented that think and act like human. Among of the remarkable inventions was the “Deep Blue” by IBM that defeated chess master Gary Kasparov in a chess game. In the present, there have been numerous Intelligent Machines, some of them have the capability to do tasks what are very difficult by humans, can also do light tasks such as cleaning kitchen. If we have reached this far in developing such intelligent machines, then is it possible that robots can outplay human in the future?
The future of Artificial Intelligence for me is something to fear about. There has been some researches about robots will be developed to have emotions and also has the capability to mingle with humans just like humans do. We can foresee in the future that these Artificial Intelligent machines will dominate the world and maybe make human lazy and useless.
If we try to look at the future based on the current trends of technological development, the future will be a place where man and machines compete for survival. Even me I can’t imagine what will be the future looks like in terms of technological development. What are their features and how accurate they will work to serve human. Present technologies are small and fast but future technologies will be very small and very fast. Human has already learned their lessons on the bad sides of technologies. Human already witnessed how destructive technologies are if put into exploitation. I’m expecting environment friendly technologies in the future. Technologies that are pro nature. For sure, human will not allow machines to totally dominate them. We know our limitations and we also know what the limitations of these technologies are. Theirs no need to worry about human eradication because we are the one who made them. We know how to terminate them.
I am very excited on what will be the future looks like. I can’t wait to see and use these technologies and experience another milestone on human hard work. I am lucky enough to witness such marvelous innovations in technology. No one have ever imagine that from the simple industrial revolution in the 18th century, it turned to a complex and sophisticated moment in our history, not even those who worked hard and contribute ideas in the past. We must be very thankful to this remarkable transition in our history. Without this marvelous creation of technologies in the past, what we have right now and in the future will be all part of our imagination.
references:
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nanotechAndMedicine.html
http://www.infoniac.com/science/sympathetic-virtual-humans-could-be-part-of-daily-life.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22088/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_XS500
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/tp/2008.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/tp/topteninvention.htm
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854150,00.html
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/current.shtml
http://www.oilgae.com/energy/nn/b/2007/05/greener-computing-environment-friendly.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/artificial_intelligence/
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