New technology is helping people in new and interesting ways. When people think of technology, they often associate it with work because it’s hard to imagine the world of work without telephones and fax machines, hardware and software, wireless communication and video conferencing.
Technology has made work faster and more efficient, and it has reduced overheads while improving revenue. A powerful example of the incessant demand for technology is a look at how CISCO Systems, a retailer of networking solutions, has been able to earn $12.36 billion this year despite a difficult global economy that has not fully recovered since the financial crisis in 2007.
For millions of people across the world, work has become easier as many employees no longer have to commute to distant offices through heavy traffic and inclement weather. Employees can stay in touch with coworkers and clients from home, a distant office or across the world. Connectivity is even possible when traveling by air, sea, or land.
While technology has played a significant role in the world of work, it has also made an enormous contribution to humanity. Technological innovation has made sweeping changes across all industries and in almost all areas of human life.
Medical Procedures Less Frightening
Technology has made health-care much less impersonal as it has provided patients with new tools for registration, self-care data monitoring, and developed panoply of medical devices and machines to diagnose illness, mitigate suffering, and save lives.
Health care has become less difficult as people can monitor their own health. Through the use of mobile devices like smartphone and tablets, patients can get a full consultation from the privacy of their own homes as well as monitor their own health rather than rely on the conventional monitoring devices that required a visit to a hospital.
Technology has also been used to alleviate children’s fears over medical procedures. Medical visits can frighten pediatric patients, and Courage Gowns have been used to instill courage in children who have to face dental exams, X-Rays, or MRI scans.
Babies, too, have been assisted by technology. DeviceLab has designed a solution to get blood samples from the heels of newborns with a device that improves the trigger’s tactile feel while providing a more reliable trigger mechanism. This highly efficient process makes medical procedures much less traumatic for babies.
Improving the Human Experience
The famous British physicist, David Bohm, has aptly described how technology has made the world more accessible to people, and how people with different backgrounds and cultural heritage can now enjoy an open dialogue with each other and sort out differences. He said, “During the past few decades, modern technology, with radio, TV, air travel, and satellites, has woven a network of communication which puts each part of the world in to almost instant contact with all the other parts.”
People separated by continents and oceans can now reach each other in seconds. Now long-lost friends can find each other, immigrant families can stay in touch with relatives back home and people in far-off lands with common interests who discover each other on social media can become friends.
Man vs. the Machine
In many ways, technology has improved our chances of surviving and prospering. Over the past few decades, technological advances have revolutionized almost every aspect of life on planet earth.
However, in the past few decades, as advanced technology has slowly entered into our lives, media hype, scrutiny, and bias has also played upon the theme that technology is responsible for human suffering. They are quick to tout stories about relationships ending with a single voice mail message, the loss of conversational skills as people prefer to text rather than speak to each other, and the deterioration of relationships as face-to-face conversations have often been replaced by telecommunications.
Interestingly enough, this media-driven aversion to technology is nothing new. Technology has often been treated with suspicion. As far back as the 1850’s, telegraphy was viewed with concern. Even when the electric system was invented, despite its miraculous ability to turn night into day, people recalled how gaslight systems had caused fires and consequently viewed electric light with a hint of trepidation.
This bias against technology has always been with us through literature and movies. A popular theme in sci-fi movies is how machines turn against their human masters. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, mission pilot Dr. David Bowman wages war against Hal 9000, a computer, and decades later computer programmer Neo fights off machines that have transformed human beings into batteries.
While technology is a double-edged sword, like everything else in a world of dualism. It has made work much less oppressive than in previous generations — and one only has to think of the hardships faced by workers during the industrial revolution to appreciate this fact. It has also made it easier to get better (and more benevolent) medical help, and it has helped human beings the world over talk to each other in a way that was never possible before.