Technology Today

Today, there are new technologies being developed, and new achievements being pursued. The International Space Station is 90% complete, and the space shuttle will soon retire, only to be replaced with a new reusable vehicle. Computer chips will continue to get faster, smaller, and cheaper. Cell phones are about as powerful now, as desktop computers were in 2000, and those PCs could do virtually everything we do today. For example, my Droid cell phone by Motorola has a program for viewing and editing office documents, including PDF files. So, in addition to being a phone, a digital photo camera, a video camera, a multi-media PC, my phone is also a mobile office. Photos and video can even be streamed to social networking sites, such as facebook, myspace, etc. As soon as technology allows, I expect to see, phones with roll out screens as seen in the movie Red Planet, to provide a much bigger viewing area for multi-media content. These flexible OLED screens are already in development, and may even provide 3D video.
There are countless ways the technologies I have described have affected society, and will continue to effect society for the better. There will always be those who fear technological and scientific advancement, but hopefully that group will always be at the fringe, and will not able to influence society as a whole. This doesn’t mean we should not maintain a healthy dose of skepticism, when a new technology or discovery is placed before us. It must be tested, scrutinized, and evaluated, to insure its validity and soundness. We must also remember that, for every dollar spent on military or scientific research, we get seven dollars back towards the consumer sector. For example, high powered electro- magnets designed for scientific research, lead to the development of the MRI. The money spent on the shuttle program has already paid for itself in countless technological developments, just look at what we are learning from Hubble. With its much greater size and room for experimentation, I am sure the knowledge and in site gained from Space Station Freedom, will be even greater than from all prior shuttle missions. Space Station Freedom will be a jumping off point, for any manned mission to the Moon or Mars, not to mention countless zero gravity experiments. The results will undoubtedly affect countless fields of research, and effect humanity in ways we can’t even imagine.

That is unless humanity is dumb enough to wage more war, continue to destroy the environment, and run ourselves into extinction. It would be a sad fate if, humanity reached the brink of being a space traveling species, only to crumble into self destruction. There are technologies that turn the tide in our favor, but hard choices need to be made, and many people unfortunately are not willing to make such choices. Even with polar ice receding more and more every year, and the likely hood of no summer ice on the pole in the near future, politicians still argue over weather or not there is a problem, over what actions to take etc. This is even in light of the fact, all environmental scientists agree that, global warming is a fact, and it getting worse. The only area of disagreement is, to what extent the atmosphere is warming, and how far reaching the effects will be. It is the politicians with their agendas and special interest groups, who are manipulating the media, the public, and attempting to the scientific field itself. Big business also has been known to manipulate the media, politics, and science. The public needs to insist, weather its exaggerated product claims or toxic byproducts of industry, that industry uses good business practices. Likewise, we must insist that, our politician’s religious views and or business interests will not get in the way of good science or good policy making.