“we are in the midst of enormous technological and cultural change, technology-related decisions are being made every day with enormous implications for the nature and quality of life on earth.”
True, according to the quote, we are in a form of progress that make our daily life better. This quote also reminds me of the invention of mobile phone over 30 years ago. Back then, the mobile phones do only 2 tasks: dial number and remember number. The purpose of a traditional phone is to virtually shorten the distance of the 2 locations in terms of the method of contact. Over the time, we have PDA, and then now we have iPhone. These phone now can multitasking from taking notes and sending email, to browsing websites and listening to music. But, to me, these additional functionality only let us do what we do everyday faster. We would use less paper and go online with our phone, but that only cut off some extra steps for us. We get information faster, but I don't think we really started something different.
“When technology is seen as the driving force of progress, and this concept is linked to the position that technology shapes culture, the outcome is a moral imperative on behalf of the technology. Technology, and only technology.”
Out of 10 people on the street, about 4 of them carry an ipod or an iphone for listening to music or making calls. I think the iphone from Apple is the gathering of almost everything we do. This little pod allows us to go on facebook, watch youtube, and even make calls on skype. It seems these pods are taking over our life, but if we think further, it is us that got so relied on these devices and we can't do anything well without them for couple days. Apple shaped the device, and the device shaped us.
“It is an interesting situation to be in, isn't it: to be committed to conveniences that aren't always convenient, and always striving for what is perpetually out of reach? Why, we have to.......behind the cultural commitment to technological development.”
This is what make us human: always want more; always want something better. I think there is a term called “greed”. But this is good greed, for it is what driving us to reach for whatever is perpetually out of reach, for it is what formed the Moore's Law, the law that evolve the big and heavy mobile device to iphone. Here is one example that I expect to be invented in the next 10 years: a Hi-Def camcorder with built-in 1TB memory in the size of a casio watch. The Moore's Law will continue to work for as long as human have this urge to get better.
