Monday, June 20, 2011

Technology: Savior or Catalyst to Apocalypse?

Technology: Savior or Catalyst to Apocalypse?
By: Rene Velez   06/19/2011

I am a technology person and an extensive user. Ever since I started programming in Junior college in Basic and Cobol, loading programs at Miami Dade Community College using key punch cards, I was sold. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t wait overnight in the rain for a chance to get the first IPhone 4 or IPad 2, but I would proclaim the very many benefits of technology and the use of IT in business and in your personal life. After I earned a degree in finance, I somehow wound up getting a lot of work setting up computerized accounting systems. Everything from the small IBM XT computers to the state of the art scalable IBM AS400, I was setting up computers and doing system conversions for small mom pop companies to large corporate clients like AAA. I have even done some system design work helping programmers make user friendly screen interfaces and organizing programs to mirror operating work flows in accounting. Software. Hardware and programming have come a long way since then.



Thanks to technology we can order things on line 24/7, we can download music or a movie and be watching it in minutes. And not just on TV, we can see it on our IPod, phone or tablet. We can track our packages almost in real time. When the Mavericks won the NBA, text messages rang all over the neighborhood way in advance of the evening or morning news. If we have an ailment we now have CT scans and MRI’s to compliment the old fashioned X-ray. In short technology moves us and propels us forward. The benefits are staggering. And it will get faster, better, smaller and cheaper in time. Further it will be even more pervasive.



But, fundamentally, is it a good thing to have this instant gratification? Do we or should we as a race learn to be more disciplined about technology? It seems cultural lag, or the lapse of time before a new technology is adopted by the masses due to being able to understand, trust and accept technology almost doesn’t exist anymore.

We generally do not think having a family is a good idea at the age of say, 15 simply because our body can do it. You don’t give the keys to the family car to our 13 year old even though she may actually be going on 18 physically. We do not accept men and women into the military until age 18. In Florida, you can’t even have a drink if your married and in the military until your 21. Let’s face it we develop and learn slowly. Wisdom comes to us  in its own time schedule. Unfortunately, as for the human race, it could be centuries before we fully understand the consequences of our mistakes.

Many of the stresses at the global level are in fact being magnified because of the speed at which all events in our lives are now possible. Certainly not having social media like Facebook may not have changed events in the Middle East. But there are strong arguments that advanced communications and social networks have propelled human action and interaction. Likewise, the structural economic changes in this country due to the globalization of economies and the disparity between the underdeveloped countries and developed countries are having a significant impact on us. The middle class is taking a beating and technology may be in part to blame for rapid changes. Is it possible the speed technology gives us to interact and to conduct business and make substantive changes to the world we live in is outpacing the human ability of societies all over the world to adapt? Is this a potential catalyst for world instability?

Are we ready for all that may come our way? Do we all really understand the consequences of having instant gratification? I find it fascinating few people are talking about this.

As for myself, I learn everyday! I love the speed of light but patience is a virtue. I wish I knew when I was younger what I know today. Yet the journey, it makes me human. It balances the struggle and somehow, everything should be in it’s time and place.