My first experiences with Technology

Before I started to build my blog, I sat down and considered, what the core them of my blog should be. I looked to where my major interests in life lie, I have always been fascinated by video games, computers, space exploration, and countless other technologies, since I was a child. So, I concluded that, my theme should be technology and innovation, and its impact on society. My first recollection of technology was as a child, when I viewed one of the final Apollo missions to the moon. I was struck by the realization that, humans were actually stepping foot on the moon I looked up at every night. At that young age, I even contemplated the possibility of humans stepping foot on other planets. Around this time, I discovered Star Trek in syndication, and have marveled over time, as technologies from the show have become fact. The show presented everything from solid state memory media, to flat screen monitors and personal computers.

As the space program continued to progress after the Apollo mission, its focus was for a short time on Sky Lab, the orbital space station. Then the shuttle program started, and it was Star Trek fans who staged a national campaign, to have the first shuttle named Enterprise. Thankfully so, as it was only used for landing tests, to insure the heat shield wouldn't fail upon entry. So, now it sits in the Smithsonian Institute, for generations to see and learn from. Along with the shuttle, is a model of the Star Ship Enterprise, so too is its influence on society. After a long break, and a few movies, we would see new Star Trek series hit the air waves.

While in early high school, I became aware new technologies, which were called video arcade games, home video game systems, and personal computers. The arcade games from back then, were no more than mono-color blocks and or lines of light on the video screen. Eventually, the graphics got better, but nothing like even the first Nintendo, let alone the beautiful graphics we see today on the X-box 360, Sony Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. The home computers from my late teens had hard drives that held a mere 20 megabytes, which were 0.000019 the size of today's 1 terabyte drives. There are even USB thumb drives, which hold 256 gigabytes.

After high school, I have continued to watch the advancement of technology, have marveled at how much we have learned about the cosmos, about our own biology, and have marveled about how much we have learned about history and technology's place in it. I watched the launching of the Hubble Telescope, have watched probes and more recently Rovers land on Mars. I knew genetic engineering would be the future, but I had no clue as to how a controversial a subject it would be, or in the possibilities of how such technologies could be misused. The thought of discriminating against someone because, a DNA test revealed they may be predisposed to a disease or disorder, seemed outlandish, and still does. The best movie I have seen on the subject is Gattaca from 1997, it shows how those with a poorer genome could be subjugated to menial jobs and prevented from pursuing their goals in life. 

Of course, there have been more Star Trek movies, including the latest which is sort of a retelling of how the Enterprise crew got together. It would be cool to watch that movie converted to 3D. I look forward to watching more movies in 3D and eventually experiencing it at home. There is even work in progress using ultrasound to create touchable holograms, so the holodeck of Star Trek the Next Generation could some day go from science fiction to science fact. I could write a page on Star Trek alone, and vary well may. However, for now I think I’ve covered all my bases, and shall begin my blog.


Thanks for view, and enjoy reading.