Harry Pears

Technology is a great thing and has got man a long way, however it never seems to work, especially electronics. It obviously takes a lot of work and effort to keep everything running smoothly, constantly, but there always seems to be something not working when you require it.

Yes, I am referring to the downtime of Freehostia’s crappy SQL databases, but ehre is also many other services nto working. But we can’t have everything.

The Dorling Kindersley Eye Witness book 100, Future first published in 1998 predicted that by the year 2001 we would have electronics newspapers and paintings. At the time I guess it sounded like a great idea, but is it something that would really improve our lives? No, not really. It is just another thing to go wrong. We do have plenty of news websites, but no actual electronic newspapers. It is possible now, with these e-Book readers, but not many people want to change from the conventional printed sheets.

Another prediction from the book was that by 2007 there would be a global electronic currency in use. Pfft, what a stupid idea. There would obviosuly be an awful lot of hacking and fraud with electronic devices such as ‘currency’. And with the current financial situation, I can’t see this coming any time soon.

Next year, we are to expect fire-fighting robots that can find and rescue people, according to ‘Future’. Somehow, I think we may have to wait a few more years at least. The worlds most advanced robot ASIMO is intelligent, I will give… it that. However, I see no mention of being able to find people, carry them to safety, or put out a raging fire.

Not to worry, though, maybe in 2025 they will develop a robot capable of putting out fires in the deep underground cities that will appear in Japan. Why, may I ask, will the Japanese need underground cities? They may be short of space, but an underground city is a stupid idea. It would cost a lot, it would be dark, it wouldn’t have fresh air and I don’t know anyone that would want to live uderground. But there may be a couple of Japanese families willing to spend their lives deep underground.

At any time, the following could possibly happen, so my book says:

• Major information distribution. Probably the only one that has been achieved out of the whole list; the World Wide Web.
• Human mutation. Well, if you live in Norfolk this has already started to happen. xP
• Oh, and halfway down the list is international financial collapse…

All of this technology is really quite fascinating, and it is very hard to predict what will happen to it all in the future, even within the next couple of years. I don’t think I know anyone who could say that they aren’t interested in at least one aspect of out modern technology. But what is it about that makes it so interesting? The sheer complexity of it all? The way that it just keeps growing and improving? Or is it just because it makes our lives so much more confortable and easier?

Technology has, unfortunately, damaged our lamguage with txt spk and various other modifications. Some may say that it has been for the better though, it speeds up note taking ( it slows it down for me, having to think how to shorten a word can be challenging), and for services with a word limit it enables the person to input more. It may also be said that it encourages people who would not usually communicate via writing to start doing so in the form of SMS.

Well, 600 words on technology isn’t bad, if I think of more a part two could be reaching your feeds shortly.