Short-Essay on Technology

[Atroxide]

a few years ago (when I was in middle school)I had an open-topic short (I mean real short, less then half a page) essay on anything. I just came across it now after clearing some space on my USB drives. I decided to post it because it could be a good topic of discussion

In the past 100 years technology has been a huge influence on how our society operates. It started off being simple tools that would help us finish our goals and ended up turning into something much bigger. It has replaced a lot of old technology and made tasks easier. Our society depends on technology; We use it for banks, restaurants, factories, offices, stores and even to hold databases of government information. However. with a great effect comes a negative effect.  Security has became more important than ever, with such important information being stored in online databases. With the current amount of information we store in databases hackers are the new thieves. They can do things such as clear out someone’s bank account to receiving top secret information on military plans. It is a tradeoff like most things in life. You receive something positive, but also a negative. Technology is also destroying and creating new jobs. With all the companies going online means that there is going to be a lower amount of actual workers. But there will be an increase in jobs such as programmers, web masters, graphic designers, and customer support.
   Technology has many great benefits but one of its drawbacks is that it increases laziness in the society. Without the need for kids to go over to their friend’s house to play video games and being able to play with their friend on a service like Xbox LIVE makes kids get less exercise and become more lazy. However they would probably say it’s not lazy, its just more efficient. The idea of laziness is being passed off as efficiency.
   Overall, technology is a wonderful thing but we have to make sure not to abuse or depend on it too much.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Nice tidbit, but....


Wow.

It's true!


We have an entire generation growing up thinking that "Technology" ONLY means 'electronic devices' such as computers!

Modern "Technology" goes FAR beyond electronics! (MOST of the Big Changes forthcoming for us all are in the fields of Biology and Genomics, NOT electronics....)

And let us not forget the Technologies of the PAST that got us here, either!

Does anyone here recall what was considered for - and finally granted the title of by scholars worldwide - the Greatest Technological Advancement of the 20th Century?

Hmmmm?

[VxT]

Does anyone here recall what was considered for - and finally granted the title of by scholars worldwide - the Greatest Technological Advancement of the 20th Century?

Hmmmm?

The Internet..?

[Forseti]

Being a renowned scholar ( ) I can say I was never asked or given a list to choose from 
However, were I asked, and I believe your open invitation included me, I would put a vote in for antibiotics as I would argue it is the one single thing that has extended the lives of people beyond anything to date. My guess as to what what was picked as the "Greatest Technological Advancement of the 20th Century" is that it was probably picked as something that is encountered more on a daily basis such as the refrigerator/freezer or the assembly line - because of my grade school history teachings I would probably guess the latter.

[zetlandpeat / {HM}Zet]

It's Technical, tis about everything, everything in the world can have a mathematical formulae, there are sums for everything, not just laps.
Even walking down the street involves technical innovations.
Technology is everything you get involved with.

Enough of my spurious vent, mmmm dont know bout that

MrMxy Reads books an stuff, he wise.

Greatest innovation

My IBM XT with cga adapter, 20MB HDD and 640k mem and wait for it, a 5 1/4" floppy drive.

Was the first pc I had way back in the 80's .

Computers have been around for 100's of years.

zet

ps I once did a project on the 1066 French invasion of Britain in a newspaper format, the newspaper was called "Chain Mail" and the headline was "One in the eye for Harold, now Britain gets the Bill (geddit?)"


MMM, we were invaded by a William.

oh, I also had a small part in a school play as a drunken pilot BUT I played #2 and #1 trumpet in the Boroughs Youth Orchestra then a week later the Irish tried to blow up the theatre I was in. NO I did not play a flat note........................

zet

[{HM}Santa]

While I won't claim to be smarter the Mxy or Forseti(I am better looking then Forseti  )
I would have to guess that communication has always been the forerunner in human advancement.
From simple grunts all the way to the many varied languages throughout the world today, communication has always been a key factor.
We went from word of mouth to carrier pigeons to mail to radio to television to internet and other types of wireless communications.
Along with that came written languages where we could "store" our thoughts and ideas for future use.
My best guess would be that our greatest technological advancement in the 20th or any century would be advancements in communications.

A close second would have to be the creation of "ME" ! 

[BFM_Kiwi]

already mentioned:
medical advances, esp antibiotics and immunizations
assembly line

also:
nuclear technology - power, weapons
television
computers
space exploration
those ab machines you see on infomercials

[Forseti]

Ya communication is up there as should be the internet and how that has brought everyone closer in one way or another. Usually though they pick something simple that has such a drastic impact on everything else that without it, the advancement of everything since then was affected by it. You could put the telephone in there I guess. My first thought was actually food canning, but I think that was invented in Napoleon's days, 19th century. That allowed for significant movement from one's home and drastically affected daily life. It was a big part of wars (Napoleon said a war marches on its stomach or something to that effect) and everyone knows war is one of the fastest ways to bring about technological advancements. If they were talking about the biggest leap, I would have to say flying or space flight though, but I guess it has to be explained what is meant by "the Greatest Technological Advancement of the 20th Century".

P.S. Oh, and if Santa lost the long beard, he would have nothing on me. Chicks dig ZZ-Top beards.

[MrMxyzptlk]

You're all going down the right path, just missed the actual technological innovation that (arguably, of course) caused the most substantial change in humankind in "past millennium:"



Johann Gutenberg's ... printing press.



As decreed by Time-Life magazine's countdown in 1997 ("1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men and Women Who Shaped The Millennium."(C) ), and echoed again in 1999 by the A&E channel, "The printing press had dramatic effects on European civilization."

I was sooooo happy that they didn't get "near-sightedness" and go for "The Internet" or "The Personal Computer," or the like!


I might've been okay with the plow blade, too, but, ... I don't think we have a clue as to who gave us that jump into agriculture!

Nope, I'm happy with the printing press, esp. knowing the tumultuous change it caused for "the masses," leveling the playing field and giving EVERY person a chance to "be informed" for the first time. (Of course, that eventually led to print ads, which led to ALL forms of "placement advertising," too....  )


Oh well, a little pain along with a great achievement is okay with me.

Oh yeah, and Johann says "Hi!" to you all!  ('Just came back from his new printshop!  Dirty place....  )

[zetlandpeat / {HM}Zet]

That crossed my mind, should have mentioned it, (could have won a shiney prize).
Much quicker than a scribe. I like books, I realy like old books. The best book I have is a typed journal of a county engineer dating back to the 1920's.
I also have a 1950's auto assessors hand book, gives details of all the cars on road in UK, how long it would take to repair and what the charge should be.

zet

[Forseti]

Oh, I thought you said the 20th century. I think I saw that show too. The way they explained it, I thought it was a reasonable pick for the millennium. And it is basically what Santa said about communication - it was the start of the dissemination of mass communication.

[zetlandpeat / {HM}Zet]

Does anyone here recall what was considered for - and finally granted the title of by scholars worldwide - the Greatest Technological Advancement of the 20th Century?

Hmmmm?

The Internet..?

MMMMM I can see clearly now,

it was my IBM

[{HM}Santa]

Oh, I thought you said the 20th century. I think I saw that show too. The way they explained it, I thought it was a reasonable pick for the millennium. And it is basically what Santa said about communication - it was the start of the dissemination of mass communication.

Oh, my!
Monitor is spinning...
Feeling light headed...
Up is down, black is white...
My world no longer makes any sense at all...
Forseti agreed with me???

[Forseti]

Oh, I thought you said the 20th century. I think I saw that show too. The way they explained it, I thought it was a reasonable pick for the millennium. And it is basically what Santa said about communication - it was the start of the dissemination of mass communication.

Oh, my!
Monitor is spinning...
Feeling light headed...
Up is down, black is white...
My world no longer makes any sense at all...
Forseti agreed with me???

LOL my head was spinning too, but not for that reason. I was just surprised Mr Mxy made such an error - millennium and century - First the guy is infallible and can answer any question with a useful answer no matter what minutia you throw at him, but more importantly it was an error on time that our 5th dimensional friend made lol.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Well CLEARLY if it was the greatest technological advancement of the millennium it'd also be the greatest of the century as well! 





"Misdirection?  What ME?!?" >POP!<  "Or ... ME?" >Poof!<