'Anything Is Possible' Times
"The time of dreaming is not over. It’s only just beginning!"
January 1, 2021
Technology has always evolved throughout history, but no piece of technology has allowed so much to be possible from a single device like the personal computer. It’s powerful. In fact, it’s so powerful that it could some day soon make things like ordinary chores completely obsolete. Smart home technology is gradually growing by interconnecting the computers in nearly all devices to allow for the automation of life as much as possible, and this technology is just getting started. This is the floor, not the ceiling. Take for example how the computer has already evolved in its short lifespan. The first personal computer was created by a now unknown company called MITS back in 1974. All the computer could perform was very basic computing tasks compared to today’s standards. Since then, there have been innumerable devices created to connect to the computer to enhance it — printers, mice (not the fury ones), Wi-Fi, etc. Now, the device that intrigues me most that has been added to that list is the 3-D printer.
A 3-D printer can create literal copies of human organs that can be placed into human bodies and function just like a naturally created organ — insanely cool! Only 50 years ago that would have seemed like a science fiction movie instead of reality. How could such a device exist? Seriously, how does something like that get created? Anyway, it’s changing the art of life and the rules to how it works as we know it, which is both scary and exciting at the same time. 3-D printers can create homes, food — seemingly anything. It just prints it out. It could make so much of what we do obsolete, and if it’s not controlled by greed or hacked to perform malicious deeds, it could evolve in such a way that it makes life more affordable, healthy, and automated.
One can only imagine what kind of world we’ll be living in 50 years from now when technologies like a 3-D printer begin maturing. Homelessness may be eradicated because a home could be printed for the cost of a McDonald’s hamburger. Who knows?! That might be a bit of an exaggeration when you take human greed and actual legit needs for creating business profits into account, but the spirit of what I’m saying holds true. 3-D printing, when matured and made more affordable and accessible like personal computers are today, could make life much more affordable because there could be more supply to mass produce the ingredients 3-D printers need to “print”.
We live in a world of infinite possibilities that no generation has ever had available to them literally at their fingertips. What we need is simply to understand what we have and what we can do with this technology to properly enhance society in the mocking words of the TV show ‘Silicon Valley’: “To make the world a better place.”
Personally, I use technology for writing, filmmaking, photography, social media, news gathering, and learning. For that alone it’s an amazing device, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That’s just what my natural affinities are drawn to. I wonder what your’s are and others’ affinities are. Those affinities will lead people to create amazing new and useful applications for these imagination freeing technologies.
I’ve run into various people who are very annoyed by technology. They remember simpler times before it was there, and they see memes of us “lazy, good for nothing Millennials” (totally false accusations) walking around nature trails with our heads stuck in our cellular phones. There is something to be said about people’s heads being stuck in their phones amidst nature and community gatherings, but I’ve found that fear of technology doesn’t help us because technology is not going anywhere anytime soon. Even if much of it were to be destroyed by an EMP (electromagnetic pulse), people have the designs written down in books to recreate the technologies all over again. So, until the world itself ends or every book is burned, it’s not going away anytime soon. Sure, there are people “addicted” to technology, but that’s a different subject. This ARTicle is about how technology can be used for good. If you want negative articles, go read some hater spewing hate. That ain’t me. I want to find hope for the future, and amidst that search I’ll try my best to steer clear of the traps of technology, just like I’m sure plenty of others will try to do as well.
So, we know technology is here to stay and future jobs are going to use it more and more, so it’s better to simply embrace technology and master it rather than letting it master you. COVID-19 times have shown us this picture very clearly with millions of people being forced to work from home for the first time. Technology was used more than ever in 2020 to get work done. We have to learn it and learn it well. Technology is your tool, not the other way around. Don’t let it own you.
A song I like to listen to that embodies all of this is “Even Better Than The Real Thing” by U2 — a band that fully embraced technology and put entire music tours to thinking about it in fun and entertaining ways (namely the ZooTV Tour). Discover new ways to make your dreams into reality. We live in such amazing times for it. We don’t have to let life overcome us. We can overcome the great struggles in life together. Thank God we have new tools to help us get there and solve problems quicker than any other generation has had at their fingertips!