It is undeniable that the world would be a completely different place without the aid of technology, it is prominent everywhere in the very fabric of our modern society. From the ways we communicate, to the vehicles we commute in & even the life saving medical equipment used daily by healthcare professionals. In short the influence of technology has drastically altered society today; however it was not always this way.
50 years ago technology was very limited. In large commercial industries such as the army, navy, air and sea it was used for radar and simple mapping systems. However more domestically tech was only found in basic FM radios and picture tube terrestrial televisions.
However this all greatly changed from then onwards:
Since the 1970’s domestic technology and computing has progressed leaps and bounds. For instance, computers have shifted away from bulky overpriced unintuitive boxes that were just about powerful enough to process a document to feature filled machines that encompass artificial intelligence and come in a range of styles and varieties portable slim laptops or powerful servers capable of holding petabytes of data. In addition to this advancement in technology has led to the shrinking of components which have led to devices such as smartphones being created - the smartphone is arguably the most influential device on the planet, because a staggering 5.16 billion people own one & though it is only 14 years old it has become the most used smart device in the world.
Domestic technology has even progressed far enough to give the user app based control to their home, like fingerprint recognition door unlocking, smart lights and smart central heating and hot water.
In recent years technology has also been greatly used in sport and many adjudicators, athletes and fans alike agree that it has become a necessity to have. In addition to cameras which have been used over the past 80 years to broadcast sport, over the last 30 years many more advancements have been added such as : Crickets 3rd Umpire Tennis Hawkeye Footballs Var + many more. There are even prosthetic devices for disabled athletes & wearable microchip based computers to track an athletes fitness and health.
The motor industry has also seen a surge in technological advancements - Since the 1990’s the motor industry took advantage of basic microchip devices such as parking sensors, auto lights and automated wipers. However over the last 12 years since the creation of smartphones and tablets the motor industry has incorporated infotainment systems in cars , in addition to this due to new artificial intelligence systems, cars can now drive themselves autonomously to an extent, monitor blindspots and avoid collisions.
The medical and scientific industry has also benefited from technology because due to advancements in microscopy and lasers scientists can successfully clone an organ and perform drug tests to see how it reacts to new medicines or viruses, this avoids any deaths or harm to humans or animals, in addition to this science has also been able to create artificial limbs , genome sequencing and vital new research for treatments of existing diseases. Medical professionals can now train junior surgeons via virtual reality and do patient consultations over the internet. Technology can also provide cheaper, faster and more effective solutions for diseases and it could even lead humans to finding a cure to long term diseases like cancer or alzheimers.
Due to this rise in technology there must be a next step right - well that is correct and the resultant has been artificial intelligence and machine learning. So far artificially intelligent has been around for 20 years however only in the last 8 years have computers to become sophisticated enough to learn. This has been shown by sony’s robotic ai dog aibo as well as self driving systems being tested in cars. Just to name a few. - Ai has even become a part of most homes due to devices like amazon alexa and google home to name a couple, these devices have been touted people's personal ai. However due to the exponential progress that machine learning is having year on year, the harsh truth may become a reality; will we live in a world ruled by robots?
