Is The Technology Revolution Dead? No, But It’s In A Coma
Definition of a coma (from Wikipedia):
a coma (from the Greek word koma, meaning deep sleep) is a profound state of unconsciousness.
Technology is amazing. Those ’smart phones’ for example, wow, 25 years ago you’d need a computer the size of a building to do what these little monsters can do.Take the iPhone, an unbelievable piece of brilliant engineering, the games you could run their, crazy! (TapTap Revenge, a sort of Cartesian revolution). And the Internet, OMG, I can communicate with other people in ways I never imagined possible, I can buy windsurfing gear from a guy leaving half way around the world. I can even pay this couple with a webcam to do whatever I ask them to do. How could we lived without the Internet, I keep asking myself. And how about those electrical cars, they’ll really blow your mind. No more getting high on gas fumes, try that battery aciman,d, right into the vein! It’s a revolution!
But wait a minute, somethings wrong here. Is this the best we can do going into year 2010? Where were you during the 70’s and 80’s? Didn’t you watch the movies, read the books? Where are those flying cars? Why can’t I take a trip to the dark side of the moon? And why won’t you beam me up,Scottie? What’s that? Technology is not there yet? But they promised us all these cool things. Teleporting, when can I get my mobile teleporter, or an R2D2?? A Kindle 2? That’s what’s hot on Amazon? Aren’t we smarter than that?
Sorry guys, but we are at a complete technological halt. Deep Freeze. Hibernating. The elevator stopped, push the button please. A mechanic is on his way. Technology has become outrageous. Useless. A nice to have. Who relay needs an iPhone? I want a cure for cancer. I want to buy 2 solar panels at 100 bucks a pop, providing me with enough energy to power all my appliances.I want to watch the Matrix in real 3D, not the one with the stupid glasses that gives you a headache before Neo gets to realize that the world is not real.
Am I expecting too much from technology? If you think I am, then you agree, technology is dying.
Take a look around you - nothing changed for the past 50 years. Cars - same engine, same materials, running on fuel. Planes - most planes in service today are 30 years old. And what do the new ones have to offer? Internet access? I want a plane that can’t crash. I want to fly a plane that takes me to Thailand in 30 minutes max, no matter where I’m flying from.
Desktop computers are the best example. The computer I’m using now is identical to the first computer I ever bought, about 15 years ago, an i486 CPU, with 32 MB of memory and a 15 inch monitor. Both computers are identical. CPU, RAM, Hardrives, video card, monitor, mouse, keyboard. Sure, my newer computer works faster, resolution is better, but it’s fundamentally the same. It’s been the same since silicon chips replaced glass tubes to represent 0 and 1.
Ever since then, chip makers have been scamming us to buy faster and faster CPU’s, and when they realized that consumers are not that stupid anymore, they invented multi-core CPUs, making us upgrade-junkies. I’m wondering what’s next (let me guess - lower energy consuming CPUs, green sells good). I’m currently running an Ubuntu Linux operating system on a 2 years old computer (very old, one might argue), and it does everything I need it to do. I have a feeling that in 10 years times, I might be still using it. Nothing fundamentally will change in computer architecture, only nicer-to-have computers will sell.
To conclude my argument, name one living scientist you know,other than that man turning machine, Hawking. I mean someone like Einstein, Darwin, Thomas Edison, Freud, Tesla. We all know Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin. But hell no, no way. Google is cool, Microsoft isn’t, but these guys didn’t change our lives the way people did 100 years ago.
So why is technology in a coma? Because of the end of the cold war? Global Worming? George W. Bush? No, it’s because of the Internet, of all things. Register to our RSS feed, read the next posts, you might find some answers.
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