Technology : The double-edged sword

Monday, 31 January 2011 00:52 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Mankind would not have progressed if not for innovation, from the Stone Age to where we are today. Thanks to technology, the pace of innovation has accelerated, which has certainly improved productivity and efficiency in many facets of life. However, I see some downsides.

We have built a world where the survival of businesses (large ones at that) are dependent on rapidly outdating old technology with new ones – irrespective of whether there is a real value added by the new technology or not. An interesting exercise would be to simply map the major technologies we use today and extrapolate for the next several years and decades. It would mean faster broadband (although people find less time), faster and cheaper cars (with greater traffic blocks), explore new planets; and the list goes on. Sometimes it helps to sit back and ask some simple questions – like how an old lady responded to a survey question on space travel: “Why on earth would you want to go to another planet when you can’t resolve the problems on this one!?” Have we got addicted to quantum innovation for the sake of it?