State of the technology
Description:
Technology plays an very important role in almost everything. It is the enabler of modern lifestyle and indispensable in this world of convenience, comfort and luxury. But not just that, technology plays a more and more important role in almost every aspect (study, entertainment, work, eating, norms, values, culture, et cetera) of human lifes. From a "good to have" it became a "must" for the biggest part of the world.
Enablers:
- Need to grow
- Need to explore (also beyond)
- Drive for innovation
- Business
Inhibitors:
- World War 1 and 2
- Environmentalists
- Governmental regulations & laws
Paradigms:
On the one hand technology is a enabler for IPP (Intellectual property protection) whilst on the other hand it opposes the IPP. Because of the internet it is possible to make standards for IPP law and make it globally known. But technology works adverse aswell. Technology has provided software programs such as Napster that enables people to rip music, movies, et cetera, from the internet. This opposes the IPP laws an regulations that states that patented or copyrighted stuff should not be used without permission. Thus, technology is the knife that cuts both ways.
Experts:
- Technologists
- Research & development experts
- Academia
Timing:
- +/- 3,500 BC: Invention of the wheel. Probably there were a lot more technologies invented way before this period. But the more advanced technology as we know it today has started off in the 19th century and has evolved rapidly ever since.
- 19th century: Steam-powered transportation by railway, pioneered notably by Richard Trevithick. Instigation of the age of mass production. Machine tools used by enginers to manufacture other machines began in the first decade of the century. Steamships were eventually completely iron-clad, and played a role in the opening of Japan and China to trade with the West. Mechanical computing was envisioned by Charles Babbage but did not come to fruition.[1]
- 20th century: Radio, and possibilities in Radar. It is possible that electronic computing would have developed as rapidly without the wars of the twentieth century. Nuclear power, developed after the Manhattan project, is another important but controversial technology. Transport by rocketry: most work occurred in the U.S., Russia and Germany.[1]
- 21th century: the internet, GSM, GPS, WIFI, and many more to come...