16 Things You Need To Know About Technology
Technology has always been at the forefront of change and has helped improve how we live. But in recent years it has intruded in more menacing ways that give cause for concern. Is it time to take stock?
1 The first Industrial Revolution took place around 1784 with developments in mechanical production, steam power and the spread of railroads.
2 The second Industrial Revolution happened around 1870 with an expansion in mass production, electrical power and the assembly line.
3 The third Industrial Revolution started around 1969 with growth in automated production, electronics and the computer.
4 The current Digital Revolution has just begun with advances in artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, and much more.
5 Today’s revolution will see developments in mobile computing, the spread of sensors to collect infinite amounts of data, the acceleration of machine learning, the advent of Virtual Reality and the realisation of the Internet of Things.
6 Technology in the future will increase opportunities for those with the right skills while simultaneously increasing inequality for those without such talents, as an ugly and unkind winner-takes-all economy becomes the norm.
7 Technology is evolving to become a living breathing seamless integrated part of life that can influence, shape and even dictate what we think and do.
8 Technology is developing a global network of internet-based connected systems that talk to each other and learn at a scarily fast pace.
9 Technology is for the first time collecting information and analysing data in a way that will foster a separate decision-making, mind-like consciousness of its own.
10 Technology has always served mankind but for the first time will have the capacity to transcend its intended function and create its own course.
11 Micro technologies will evolve to play a central role in our lives as they monitor our fitness and health on a moment-by-moment basis.
12 Technology and life are becoming synonymous and just as biological life evolves to fight and survive so too will technological life.
13 The march of technology is unstoppable and our reliance on it means the surrender of privacy and freedom, which comes at great cost.
14 Technology is advancing to the point where it will fuse with us, as intelligent limbs and organs and the dispersal of nanobots will repair and report our frailties.
15 Technology will help us to physically and cognitively function at higher levels even though it will change what it means to be human.
16 Technology already abounds and each iteration ensnares us a little more to the point where it will soon be too late to decouple from its grasp, even if we wished.
SO, technology has always been our servant but the next wave will evolve to a new level of sophistication and complexity that may or may not include us.
