Week 12: Technology and Energy
All that glitters is not gold
Technology is as old as man himself. From stone axes and animal skins to laptops and refrigerators, man has armed himself with the necessary tools to survive and make his stay on earth comfortable. Should any tool be found wanting, it is quickly discarded and a better one invented. And it keeps getting better and better, and it comes faster and faster.
Technology comes in only one way: exponentially. Only with the basic technologies under the belt can the more advanced ones be realized. So, it is with no surprise that at a certain point in time will the ideas and inventions climax in such a way to bring civilization forward like never before. That is exactly what happened in the Renaissance period. Crazy ideas were conceived and crazy efforts to birth them were attempted. Not all succeeded of course, but those were crazy times, and enough succeeded for the period to be known as the “re-enlightened” times.
In more recent times, IT and communication technologies have been advancing rapidly. The personal computer, the Internet and the mobile phone were inconceivable a few decades ago. And now, it is impossible to think of a single day without any of them.
The Internet has been credited with the sharing of information across the world. The barriers of entry are almost negligible in most countries. Almost anyone can put up information on the Internet, and almost anyone can access and learn from the Internet. So much so that even in education in Singapore, the slogan now is “Teach less, learn more”. The emphasis of the information source has shifted from the teachers. They are no longer the guardians of the bastion of knowledge. They are more like tour guides now. They point you in the direction you need to go, and bring you there if need be, but they leave it to you to learn what you will and can. Such proliferation of information has caused learning and the spread of knowledge to be more widespread than ever.
But with every type of coin there is, there is always the flip side. Pornography spreads through the Internet too. When previously, you could safeguard the kids at home by restricting import of sleazy and unsavory magazines and videos, now the pornography enters the house directly via the Internet. It is almost impossible to even keep it out. Even with “Adult Filters” on, innocuous searches for “girls playing” results in content you might not expect to have. And with the electronic mail services, porn-adverts get into the inbox, sometimes with unsuspecting titles.
With the advent of the mobile phone, communication has never been easier and more convenient. We can stay in touch with friends through phone calls or SMSes. And it is so convenient. We all have our own mobile phones. There is no need to queue for public phones or to wait for the mailman to deliver our letters and to bring our replies. Our friends and relatives are literally at the touch of a few buttons. And the latest in communication technology is the video call, where you can actually see the person you are talking to. With such technology, you’ll be forgiven for thinking we would become more sociable and have more of a personal touch. But yet the contrary is true. Surveys have shown that people are becoming less sociable, finding face-to-face talks awkward, inconvenient and even time consuming. They prefer ‘talking’ over SMSes, and online chat programs. Studies have also shown that with the next generation who grew up with such technologies, they are actually unsociable, and find it extremely uncomfortable to talk face-to-face, finding confidence only when facing a screen.
Perhaps one that is more relevant to us is the usage of laptops during classes. Wireless networks have been set up covering the whole campus, and power points made readily available for the convenience of laptop wielders. But one can almost expect the student behind the laptop to be doing something entirely irrelevant to the class at hand. The advantages the laptop offers to students are sometimes more than a hindrance than anything else. So much so, that more students are actually swearing off bringing laptops to school, reverting to the old pen and paper way of taking notes.
Like coins, you can’t choose to have one side without the other. So it is with technology. Some times, advancements for the sake of advancement itself are not worth it. Some times, older, less advanced ways seem the better deal.
