Free Essay Sample on Technological Inventions and Innovations

Introduction

Like the generations that came before, the current digital generation is getting overwhelmed by the scale, pattern, and pace of change in the various technological innovations that confront it every day. Technological advancements are increasing exponentially in the current world. The entire human history has never seen so many inventions and innovations emerge simultaneously and combine to have such an impact as it is witnessed today. It now takes an extremely short time to advance technology from a seemingly impossible idea to functional development. The entire process sometimes takes just weeks or even days.

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It is possible to predict some exponential advancements that will emerge soon based on the efforts and investments being channeled into scientific research. For example, computing power is likely to grow much faster as companies continue to put in the expected innovations in their products. Likewise, it is fairly expectable that the world will soon adopt 5G internet. As a result, wireless communication will be at least ten times faster, and the capability of deep learning will advance further in the near future. Also, the cost of highly advanced procedures such as full genome sequencing has significantly reduced. Today it can be done for hundreds of dollars, unlike a decade ago when it cost millions of dollars.

Education in Managing New Technologies/Extensions

Although the current generation has the best literacy levels in the entire history of mankind, it seems we could never prepare enough to exploit all the new technologies, information, and gadgets that flood our worlds. This challenge comes to the fore in debates around technologies the legality of destructive usage of otherwise useful tools like guns, the internet, vehicles, etc. For example, man designed these tools for his security, efficiency, and comfort but lack of preparation to manage it, has led to their rampant misuse.

The supporters of gun rights, for example, claim that people and not guns are to blame for the high number of gun violence incidences. In both law and ethics, guns are considered inanimate objects that can only work as human extensions (Jones and Stone, 2015). It cannot be active unless someone uses it. Mass murders are frighteningly common in the United States because federal and state governments legalized gun ownership without giving the people the necessary preparation and education to uphold a culture of cohesion and peaceful coexistence (Blocher 2014). Gun ownership in itself is not to blame because countries including Canada and the UK also allow citizens to hold guns yet they have much fewer cases of gun violence.

On the same note, the explosion of online pornography, cyberbullying, online theft and other cybercrime are indications of man's lack of preparation to manage the web as well as his internet-enabled devices as beneficial tools. This is the challenge that informs the debate on legal medical abortion, early intersex surgery, and other controversial practices that are important but prone to misuse.

Technology is Outpacing Us

McLuhan (1964) argued that humans develop new technology out of inspiration from the already existing technology. It means that the tools previously designed by earlier generations shape the behavior and tools designed by subsequent generations. This position can be interpreted to mean that technological development can hardly outpace human sophistication at any time. Besides, since innovators develop new tools to solve human problems, they always design them to fit the usability of the target group. Sometimes it may be necessary to train people on how to operate newly designed tools but is often just a matter of time before the most novel ideas become common knowledge.

According to McLuhan’s theory, all technology is primarily extensions of humans (Bobbitt, 2020). For example, the designer of the computer did not just want to develop a mental aid, but a technique of enhancing how humans think. A computer is capable of correcting grammar and spelling but someone has to upload written work for it to edit. Any technology is thus as good as the ability of its user to leverage its output. This dependence on human operation explains why no one gives credit to their computers for their intellectual products despite using such tools in production.

While technology may not necessarily outpace our ability to use artificial human extensions, such as mobile phone applications, social media, and artificial intelligence, it has overtaken many of our modern human systems and controls. For example, a “pacing gap” is emerging in the responsiveness of ethical and legal policy that governs the use of new technology (Combi 2016). The reason for this gap is that technological development has grown at an exponential pace while the corresponding policy change takes time to make. Electronic cigarettes and social media are examples of tools using advanced technology in highly dynamic and innovative environments. Such inventions do not remain the same for long enough to enable the application of long regulatory processes. Some services or products change even before the regulations targeting them are finally approved.

Technologies Making Us Feel ‘Out Of Place’

Digital technology continues to catch humans unaware. Innovations coming up every day are fast outpacing the speed of development in various societies in the world. Today’s technological inventions and innovations modify methods of communication, relationships, time, and space in new ways. The more people become aware of their world as a global village, the more difficult it becomes to defend their local cultures (Combi 2016). At the same time, it is ironic that with all the connectivity around us today, humans have become even more diverse than ever before. Digital technology is developing so fast that cultural models as well as their characteristic values cannot keep up the pace.

Similarly, increased social media and technology usage is making people feel even lonelier today than ever before (Katz, 2020). While internet-based media are good at making people believe they are connected, the truth is that the many connections on social media take much of the time and energy that could otherwise be directed at building close, deeply rooted, and truly supportive relationships. Maxims such as "your network are net worth" have made people believe that they should keep an enormous network of friends to be successful (Katz, 2020). These high expectations make it loneliness even harder experience.

Conclusion

Our grandparents knew fewer people but they enjoyed better friendships with real people. Besides, unlike us, they were not bombarded with lots of well-curated Instagram photos of a dream vacation and cute children. Research has consistently associated social media with feelings of isolation, inadequacy, and depression because users compare their lives with the false reality projected by everyone else.