Technology is the constant race for speed. Faster, smaller are the key words in today’s society. Where we once bred biology to carry out the necessary functions of life, now technology has surpassed everything in its ability to provide for the human race. Where once we had horses, now we have cars. But how far can technology go; will it soon eclipse us?
A man once said, that if he asked people what they want, they would say faster horses. Ironically, this is true today, albeit as a metaphor for the technology race. Instead of pitting biology to breed the fastest and strongest of the elite, we have invented a super-body of technology that can carry out all the functions we need faster, better and for longer. They also run for nothing. Once you have factored in the costs to create or buy, maintain and run, the technology begins to render profit. It also doesn’t complain. It doesn’t ask for labor rights. It doesn’t need maternity leave. It doesn’t have a bad day.
As life moves into the future, technology is taking over in all areas, especially business. But the reason is not just cost efficiency – technology can, simply put, do it better. They make fewer mistakes and are more consistent in general when it comes to quality control on the individual as well as the aggregate level. They have a faster output generating more in less time in collective terms. They don’t whine and they don’t need coffee. A machine works from the moment you turn it on at the beginning of the day until the moment you turn it off at the end of the day. No feat of biology can claim the same.
Interestingly enough, technology is even more intelligent than the average person (if you don’t factor in that technology was created by human minds and the information also was written by humans). True, technology cannot generate humor, poetry or prose; but it can translate what already exists, it can spread the written word across the globe (whether you think of books or the more modern computer and Internet) and it can aid in the creation of things though these things must first be designed by the human hand and mind. In many ways, technology is the vehicle but not the gas. But still, it is the faster horse.
As far as using technology goes, people can differ greatly – even the millennials who have grown up surrounded by modern technology can have a hard time depending on people. Some are predisposed risk takers while others tread lightly, afraid of the unknown represented within. However, as technology is fast becoming part of the way of life, this fear of the unknown is increasingly less ingrained in society. People have become braver as trial and error continue to prove that machines are not so fragile or easily broken as one might assume.
The Information Age has made people curious. Or it has abused their curiosity. They want to know what is out there. If the only way to know is to learn how to use a computer and the Internet then so be it. As the Internet progresses and advances, it has created means of spreading information from the initial web sites and search engines to going viral, to the extent that we now have vlogs and Apps. The possibilities are endless – it only takes one person to imagine another to create and a multitude of people to use. In that respect, technology far surpasses the original uses of horses or human labor. Technologies like the Internet can be used by billions of people at once, a bus can transport thirty-something people and a computer can have many users. In contrast, a horse can only be accessed by a few people at once during its entire lifetime and it can only transport an individual or a carriage. Technology is leaps and bounds ahead of us as regards capacity and ability – and even though it is humans that have invented it, one day it may reinvent us. Whether this is scary or exciting is for you to decide, but technology is without a doubt our fastest horse.