In it I discuss how important technology had been to the evolution of humanity ever since we walked our first steps on the earth.
People of today find it hard to avoid the influence of technology. The sound of a digital alarm clock in the morning causes us to raise our heads from our pillow of artificial down in our bed of artificial fibers and metal. We then go downstairs and microwave some bacon for breakfast. Our day continues with the use of many more high tech devices. Technology has always affected human kind ever since we first appeared on this earth and will always affect us as long as we inhabit this universe. Some people say that our race would have been better of had technology not entered the picture. This opinion is simply wrong. Without the tools humans have developed--we would not be in the picture at all.
Back before humans were the dominant species on the earth, it was survival of the fittest. Without our human ingenuity, we would have died out long ago. Australopithecus was the first hominid--man-like creature--to make rudimentary tools. They created stone weapons by breaking a piece of a stone to give it a sharp edge. This was necessary to kill the animals they needed for food, which were much faster and stronger than they were. The tool was so useful that its design was not changed for thousands of years.
The simple weapons were the only innovation hominids made until the arrival of Homo Erectus. Upon their evolution into the world completely new tools were introduced. Not only did they make improved stone tools such as: axes, bows, and fire but there has been a recent discovery that Homo Erectus was even a shipbuilder. Dr. Mike Norwood from the University of England in New South Wales, has proof that they created boats to reach an island which most animals could not get to. In the time of Erectus, 800 000 years ago, the island of Java was connected to Asia though a land bridge, but they were also found on the island of Flores. Flores was never connected with a land bridge, the water is simply too deep for that to occur. Dr. Norwood suggests that the only way they could have reached the island is through the creation of boats. Crossing to the island allowed them to have access to food sources, which the other animals could not reach, giving them the advantage necessary for them to survive. The human body is actually much less suited to survival than that of most of the other animals alive at the time. Their superior brainpower allowed our ancestors to develop innovations giving them the edge necessary to survive with a limited food supply. The success of Homo Erectus allowed it to evolve eventually into modern day Homo Sapiens: if Erectus became extinct, we would not be alive today. The technology of our ancestors was what was necessary for them to survive.
Some fiction writers have even suggested that the technology of alien species gave humans their superior intelligence. In Arthur C. Clark's 2001 he shows that the mysterious monolith which appears to the apes gave them the idea to use tools and kill other animals both for food and to defend their food supply. Clark suggests that somehow the monolith is responsible for causing our brain to evolve in the way it did. Although this is not actually true, it does offer another argument for why technology is so important for humanity's survival.
Looking around the world us today, it is easy to see how much technology affects us. It is involved in every aspect of our life. It is impossible think about one thing in your life, which does not use technology in any way. The shoes on our feet, the clothes on our back, the road we walk on, they are all results of technology. Our economy almost completely runs itself around the action of high tech companies. With the sudden fall of the tech sectors stocks in 2000, the entire stock market was devastated. Add to that effect, the immense amount of attention that was given to the Microsoft antitrust trial in the same year. The whole world was watching to see how it would be affected by Microsoft's punishments.
An example we can see of the sour effects of no technology is found in the third world countries. The countries are so poor that they cannot afford to buy any if the technology that we take for granted in Canada. Those who suggest that the world would be better off without technology need only look towards those who are forced to live without it. The people of those countries all suffer from terrible disease, extreme malnutrition, poor shelter, and dirty water. These problems can all be solved with the introduction of technology into their country. The diseases could be cured with vaccines and antibiotics; the malnutrition though advanced agricultural techniques; the shelter with the erection of new buildings; and the water with the creation of a water treatment facility. It is sad to think of how these people are forced to live, but that is the way the world would be if we did not have any technology to rely on.
The recent completion of the map of the human genome opens a whole new world for technology to help humanity. With the knowledge gained from this research, we will be able to create new super drugs, able to defeat the world’s most deadly diseases. Soon we will no longer have to worry about such killer diseases as AIDS or diabetes. The mapping would not have been even conceivable without the use of entire office floors full of supercomputers. Technology not only improves our lives but makes them last longer as well.
Looking into the future it looks like technology will strongly be guiding us through the way. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, technology is used to create a world almost completely without problems. Children are born and raised in automated hatcheries. The hatcheries use advanced techniques to make sure the children are completely happy with their position in society. Everyone is happy to be where he or she is. The adults are kept happy through the distribution of the drug, soma. This utopia is all possible by the complete and total integration of technology into their lives.
Many people believe that eventually humanity will wear our planet out because of overpopulation, pollution, or war. If this terrible circumstance ever occurs it will become necessary to move off Earth and find a new place to live. Ringworld, by Larry Niven is an example of the use of technology to create an artificial world for humanity to live on. He proposes that we build an immense ring around the sun, one million miles across. This world would have a surface area three million times that of the earth. All that would be necessary is to take the materials from Jupiter and reform them into the desired shape. This may be necessary if we are to survive for many more years. Since interstellar travel is so slow, it may be easier to make ourselves somewhere else to live. While seemingly unreasonable, this is an example of how technology could be our savior again.
The role of savior is not an uncommon one for technology in science fiction literature. Isaac Asimov, the author of hundreds of best-selling novels often gives it just that role. In The Foundation Trilogy, Hari Seldon uses a new technology, psychohistory, to prevent humanity from falling into a galactic war, which would end the lives of billions of people. Psychohistory gives man to predict the future and prevent possible terrible consequences. Again, we see technology coming to the rescue of our race.
Clearly, technology is a thing that we cannot live without. It allowed us evolve past our earliest years. It guides and helps us through our everyday lives. It saves lives and improves the lives of the ill. It will allow us to achieve remarkable heights and will help us to prevent Armageddon. Technology exists for the betterment of mankind; we rely on it to live our lives. For those who feel that we do not need it or would be better off without it, they should try to live a day without it.
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. The Foundation Trilogy. Avon Publishers. New York, 1974.
Bronowski, Jacob. The Ascent of Man. Little, Brown and Company. Toronto, 1973.
Clark, Arthur C. 2001. Ballantine Books. Toronto, 1964.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Penguin Books. Boston, 1932
Kunzig, Robert. Erectus Afloat. http://www.findarticles.com/m1511/1_20/53501818/p1/ article.jhtml. December 10, 2000.
Niven, Larry. Ringworld. Ballantine Books. Toronto, 1970.