Embracing Technology : by More by Luke Vorstermans
submitted Friday Apr 02nd, 2004
Computer Industry
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Embracing Technology
More Computer Industry Articles Embracing Technology
Author: Luke Vorstermans
Date Added: Friday Apr 02nd, 2004
Category: Computer Industry Embracing Technology
By Luke Vorstermans
Most of us identify with technology in a rather narrow context, probably focused in computer applications. But it is obviously exceedingly more encompassing. Technological innovation is an all-consuming force that's shaping our global culture. And in spite of attempts to establish ethical and moral boundaries to confine technology's growth, we are all swept in by its momentum. Is that a disconcerting thought?
Consumers are the beneficiaries of technological innovation. At times these benefits are questionable, if not downright exploitative. Most times we benefit appreciably. What we seldom recognize (or ponder) is that today's new gizmo is already irrelevant. What is new and shiny to us-the consumer-is a hasbeen to the industry behind it. We've labeled this 'invention-production-consumption' cycle as progress: forward motion in the evolution of the time frame we inhabit. Progress intensifies as the time lag between invention and consumption shrinks.
Technology companies parade out their all-new, faster products while next month's all-new and faster models are being produced in a similar fashion as the automotive industry churns out new models while 'newer' models are being crafted on the drawing board.
New is relative to where you position yourself in the cycle. To the inventor or programmer, 'new' is today's breakthrough which may take months or years to deliver into the marketplace. To the consumer, new is the tail end of the cycle; when that breakthrough product is available for purchase. However, the idea that a new product is the conclusion of the cycle is just a perception. Delivering consumer products into the marketplace is a small--all be it very significant-point in the cycle. Invention drives consumption which drives invention. Where does it start? And what most want to know is, "Where will it end?"
Consumers are at a disadvantage when it comes to comprehending the expanse of technology. As product users, we only see a tiny fraction of the technology spectrum. Just like most drivers are oblivious to the technical complexities at work under the hood and are content to use a car for navigation, the far-reaching changes that technology is bringing to our lives is unimaginable.
Take communication technology for example. Alexander Graham Bell's invention to move information by electrical means changed the way the world communicated. From cranking voice boxes to pulse dialing, we embraced this miracle of communication technology. What once took weeks to convey was now instantaneously possible through copper wires. And while we were using the phone for its original purpose, to transmit voice, innovation enhanced this tool with fax machines, satellites, and modems.
We take the telephone for granted but newer technology is once again changing the way information is transmitted. While we've been busy talking, a network of fiber optics is being laid across our globe. Already these hair-thin glass strands handle most of the long distance phone traffic. Freed from the limitations of wire technology, a single laser pulsing through these fibers can transmit thousands of voice conversations simultaneously, or millions of bits of information every second.
From a consumer's perspective in the cycle, you may ask, "Wow! Do we need all that capacity?" But to researchers elsewhere in the cycle, it's not enough. With the increasing global demand to deliver voice, video and data information-gobs of it-much greater capacity is needed. Just the demand for worldwide Internet capacity is expected to surge over 4,000 percent by 2002.
In anticipation of these demands, engineers are developing micro prisms that split infrared light into hues of color thus greatly multiplying the data capacity flowing through each fiber. Ultimately, each fiber will be able to transmit the entire contents of the Library of Congress every single second. That's not relevant to me, the consumer, at this point in time but who knows how the application of this technological invention will affect me and other consumers in the years to come?
The distress over technology is not over the emerging products but rather the shrinking time frame to absorb the changes they are bringing. The old analog phone had eighty years to be accommodated. Silicon chips and fiber optic technology will change the world in years. Switching to a higher gear is the only way to be prepared.
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